Verse 8
And now for a little space - This interval in which they were returning from servitude to their own land.
Grace hath been showed - God has disposed the hearts of the Persian kings to publish edicts in our favor.
To leave us a remnant to escape - The ten tribes are gone irrecoverably into captivity; a great part even of Judah and Benjamin had continued beyond the Euphrates: so that Ezra might well say, there was but a remnant which had escaped.
A nail in his holy place - Even so much ground as to fix our tent-poles in.
May lighten our eyes - To give us a thorough knowledge of ourselves and of our highest interest, and to enable us to re-establish his worship, is the reason why God has brought us back to this place.
A little reviving - We were perishing, and our hopes were almost dead; and, because of our sins, we were sentenced to death: but God in his great mercy has given us a new trial; and he begins with little, to see if we will make a wise and faithful use of it.
Verse 10
What shall we say after this? - Even in the midst of these beginnings of respite and mercy we have begun to provoke thee anew!
Verse 11
Have filled it from one end to another - The abominations have been like a sweeping mighty torrent, that has increased till it filled the whole land, and carried every thing before it.
Verse 13
Hast punished us less than our iniquities - Great, numerous, and oppressive as our calamities have been, yet merely as temporal punishments, they have been much less than our provocations have deserved.
Verse 15
Thou art righteous - Thou art merciful; this is one of the many meanings of the word צדק tsedek; and to this meaning St. Paul refers, when he says, God declares his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, [Rom 3:25] (note). See the note there.
We remain yet escaped - Because of this righteousness or mercy.
In our trespasses - We have no righteousness; we are clothed and covered with our trespasses.
We cannot stand before thee because of this - The parallel place, as noted in the margin, is [Psa 130:3] : If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Every man must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ: but who shall stand there with joy? No man against whom the Lord marks iniquities. There is a reference here to the temple service: the priests and Levites stood and ministered before the Lord, but they were not permitted to do so unless pure from all legal pollution; so no man shall stand before the judgment-seat of Christ who is not washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. Reader, how dost thou expect to stand there?
Introduction
The people are greatly afflicted by Ezra's prayer, [Ezr 10:1]. Shechaniah proposes that all who have taken strange wives should put them away, and the children they had by them; and make a covenant to serve God, [Ezr 10:2-4]. Ezra is encouraged; and make a proclamation to collect the people, to find who had transgressed, [Ezr 10:5-8]. They come together on the twentieth day of the ninth month, [Ezr 10:9]. Ezra exhorts them to put away their strange wives, [Ezr 10:10]. The people agree to it, and require time, [Ezr 10:11-14]. This being granted, the business is completed by the first of the first month, [Ezr 10:15-17]. Some of the priests had taken strange wives; their names, and the names of all who were in the same trespass, vv. 18-44.
Verse 1
The people wept very sore - They were deeply affected at the thought of God's displeasure, which they justly feared was about to light upon them, because of their transgressions.
Verse 2
Shechaniah the son of Jehiel - He speaks here in the name of the people, not acknowledging himself culpable, for he is not in the following list. It is in the same form of speech with that in James, [Jam 3:9]. With the tongue curse we men. He seems to have been a chief man among the people; and Ezra, at present, stood in need of his influence and support.
Yet now there is hope in Israel - מקוה mikveh, expectation, of pardon; for the people were convinced of the evil, and were deeply penitent: hence it is said, [Ezr 10:1], that they wept sore.
Verse 3
Let us make a covenant - נכרת ברית nichrath berith, let us cut or divide the covenant sacrifice. See the notes on [Gen 15:10].
Verse 4
Arise; for this matter belongeth unto thee - By the decree of Artaxerxes, he was authorized to do everything that the law of God required: see [Ezr 7:23-28]. And all officers were commanded to be aiding and assisting; hence Shechaniah says, We are with you.
Verse 5
And they sware - The thing was evidently contrary to the law of God; and now he bound them by an oath to rectify the abuse.
Verse 6
Johanan the son of Eliashib - Eliashib was high priest, and was succeeded in that office by his son Joiada, [Neh 12:10]. Probably Johanan here is the same as Jonathan in Nehemiah, who was the son of Joiada, and grandson of Eliashib. Some suppose that Johanan and Joiada were two names for the same person.
Verse 8
All his substance should be forfeited - To the use of the temple.
So the Septuagint understood the place: Αναθεματισθησεται πασα ἡ ὑπαρξις αυτου, "All his substance shall be devoted to a holy use."
Himself separated - Excommunicated from the Church of God, and exiled from Israel.
Verse 9
Ninth month - Answering to a part of our December.
Trembling because of - the great rain - Απο του χειμωνος, Because of the winter, Septuagint; it was now December, the coldest and most rainy part of the year in Palestine.
Verse 11
Make confession - Acknowledge your sins before God, with deep compunction of heart, and the fullest resolution to forsake them.
Verse 12
As thou hast said, so must we do - They all resolved to do what Ezra then commanded, they did put away their wives, even those by whom they had children; [Ezr 10:44] : this was a great hardship on the women and children. Though by the Jewish laws such marriages were null and void, yet as the women they had taken did not know these laws, their case was deplorable. However, we may take it for granted that each of them received a portion according to the circumstances of their husbands, and that they and their children were not turned away desolate, but had such a provision as their necessities required. Humanity must have dictated this, and no law of God is contrary to humanity. After all, there is some room to doubt whether they did put them finally away, for several years after Nehemiah found Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab; [Neh 13:23]. And if these were not the same women, we find that the same offense was continued.