Ezra 9

The Foreign Marriages Reported

1When all this was done, the officials came to me and said, “The people of Israel, and the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves apart from the peoples of the surrounding lands and their abominations — the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites. 2For they have taken daughters of theirs as wives for themselves and for their sons, and the holy seed has been mixed with the peoples of these lands. And the hand of the officials and the rulers has been foremost in this unfaithfulness.” 3When I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak, pulled hair from my head and my beard, and sat down appalled. 4Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of the unfaithfulness of the exiles, while I sat there appalled until the evening offering.

The Prayer of Ezra

5At the evening offering I rose from my self-abasement, my garment and my cloak torn, and I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to Yahweh my God. 6I said: “My God, I am ashamed — too ashamed, my God, to lift my face to you, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens. 7From the days of our fathers to this day we have been deep in guilt, and for our iniquities we, our kings and our priests, have been handed over to the kings of other lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder and to open shame, as we are today. 8And now, for a brief moment, favour has come to us from Yahweh our God: he has left us a remnant and given us a stake in his holy place, so that our God may light up our eyes and grant us a little life in our slavery. 9For we are slaves; yet in our slavery our God has not abandoned us. He has reached out his love to us before the kings of Persia, giving us life to raise up the house of our God and repair its ruins, and giving us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. 10And now, our God, what can we say after this? For we have forsaken your commands, 11which you gave through your servants the prophets when you said: ‘The land you are entering to possess is a land defiled by the impurity of the peoples of those lands, by the abominations with which they have filled it from end to end with their uncleanness. 12So now, do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or their good, so that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it to your children as a possession for ever.’ 13And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and our great guilt — and yet you, our God, have held back punishment far below what our iniquities deserved and have given us a remnant such as this — 14shall we turn again and break your commands and intermarry with the peoples of these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you had made an end of us, leaving no remnant and no survivor? 15Yahweh, God of Israel, you are righteous, for we are left today as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt — and because of it no one can stand in your presence.”