For we are slaves. Yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem.
Ezra prays this after learning that the returned exiles had married into the surrounding nations. Instead of pleading their good record, he says plainly where they stand: still slaves because of sin, yet still receiving God's mercy.
Slaves in the present tense
The force of the verse turns on one small word. Some older English versions read "we were bondmen." Commentators say the sense is present: Ezra describes the day he lives in, not a chapter he has closed.
The Bible Treasury"For," he said, "we are slaves" (verse 9). The context, and even the verse itself, requires this — not "were," as some versions have it. People are quick to read it that way, forgetting God's ways and His people's sin. Not for a moment did he think the Jews of that day could do all that Moses or Joshua, David or Solomon, did in their days. He sought to do all that God's word authorised them to do in their actual circumstances. The all-important condition is a right sense of where God's people are, and a heart humbly set on obedience. It is not our own ideas and self-confidence trying to put everything right.
Why the slavery stayed
Persia's rule over them was not an accident of politics. Their own sin had put them there, and they were meant to keep that fact in view.
H. L. RossierThey were subjected to the nations because of their sins. They were to stay aware of their state until the glorious restoration of the people through the promised Messiah. … This is what irritated the proud spirit of the people in the days of Jesus. It made them dare to say to Him: "we have never been enslaved to anyone!" (John 8:33). The consciousness of our ruin should mark us today, as it marked the people in the days of Ezra. We cannot and should not deny it or shrug the burden off our shoulders.
Mercy under a foreign throne
God did not first remove the foreign empire that ruled them and then bless. He blessed them under it — and that, one writer says, is the thing to hold on to in the whole scene.
J. N. DarbyStill, God blessed the remnant of His people when they were faithful. The most prominent thing, the thing that should stay on our hearts, is His grace. In the middle of such ruin, and with the Gentile throne set up through Israel's sin, that grace could still bless His people — even though they acknowledged that throne, which God had established in judgment on them. Their position is clearly and touchingly stated in Ezra 9:8-9.
What the reviving was for
The mercy has two aims in the verse: the house of God repaired, and protection for Judah and Jerusalem. Older versions read that protection as "a wall." One writer takes both the house and the wall as pictures of what God still gives a small, limited people.
Leslie M. GrantVerse 9 is rightly translated, "we are slaves." Despite this, God had not forsaken them in their bondage. He had extended mercy in the sight of the kings of Persia, so that He might at least lift them in spirit above their circumstances, to have the temple of God repaired and the wall of Jerusalem rebuilt. Does this not show us that even in a sadly confined state, God can give grace to worship Him rightly? That is what the temple speaks of. He can also give grace to be separate from the world in some true measure. That is what the wall pictures.
Grace that exposes sin
Ezra is not comforting himself here. The next verse shows why he brought up the mercy at all.
Edward DennettBut why does he recite this proof of the Lord's grace and mercy? It was to show the character of His people's sin. He goes on, "And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments." Then he confesses that they had sinned against both light and grace. He conceals nothing and excuses nothing.
The wall left unbuilt
The wall in the verse was a gift and a job at once. The years after Ezra show what became of it.
H. L. RossierEzra had foreseen that rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem had to be the next step after building the temple, if the people were to continue in the spirit of the revival (Ezra 9:9). But this had not been the case. Long years passed with no sign of activity or energy. There was nothing except growing affliction and reproach.
Summary
- Slaves. The verb is present: they are still in bondage, and Ezra refuses to pretend the past is past.
- Yet. Bondage is not desertion. God's mercy reaches them under the very Persian throne He set over them in judgment.
- Reviving. The gift is not full restoration. It is breathing space — enough to lift their spirits above their circumstances.
- House and wall. The reviving has two aims: worship restored, and a real measure of separation from the world.
- Then what? Ezra recites the mercy to expose sin, not to excuse it. The unbuilt wall shows how fast a reviving can stall.