Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Ezra · About this commentary
Ezra Tore His Garment
Ezra 9:1-6
1 Now when these things were done, the princes came near to me, saying, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, following their abominations, even those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. · WEB
The report that reaches Ezra is about practice rather than descent, and his response is silence for most of a day.
Now when these things were done, the princes came near to me.
The timing matters. The treasure has been delivered, the offerings made, the commissions filed. The mission the king authorized is complete, and the crisis arrives after it.
The report is precise about what is wrong: the people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, following their abominations.
Two things in that sentence set the terms for everything that follows. The fault is stated as a failure to separate, and the thing not separated from is named as abominations — practices rather than bloodlines. And the list of nations that follows includes Egyptians and Ammonites and Moabites, peoples whose distinguishing feature in the law was their worship.
Verse 2 states the consequence in the language of holy things: the holy offspring have mixed themselves with the peoples of the lands. And it names who led: the hand of the princes and rulers has been chief in this trespass — the book's hand image, this time for the leaders' own part in it.
What Ezra does is described physically and at length. I tore my garment and my robe, and pulled the hair out of my head and of my beard, and sat down confounded.
Four actions, and none of them is a decision. He does not convene anything, rule on anything, or propose anything. Tearing clothing was a recognized sign of grief; pulling out hair was not a ritual gesture but an extremity, and the last verb means to be stunned into stillness.
And he stays there. Others gather to him — everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel — and he remains sitting until the evening offering. Most of a day, in silence, in front of a growing crowd.
Only then does he move, and even then not to legislate: at the evening offering I rose up from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn; and I fell on my knees, and spread out my hands to Yahweh.
The first words he speaks are a confession, and the first thing in it is shame at facing God at all: my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you.
settled What this mark means