Ezra 9:10 Commentary and Bible Study

Ezra rehearses the commandments: showing the blatant nature of Israel’s sin, and how inexcusable it is. He feels this so deeply. No one could say that they did not know what God required; he had made it so plain. No one could tell themselves that what they were doing was a small departure from God’s law; this was what he had stressed to Israel – that there was to be no mixing with those who had corrupted themselves. Israel understood that the reason God was punishing those nations was because of their filthiness. How then could Israel have failed to separate themselves from them? It is disobedience in the full light of day. He brings it before the Lord in prayer. ‘I acknowledge, Lord my God’, he effectively says, ‘all that you have commanded.’ Israel’s blessings are compared to the condemnation of the lost.‘Their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another.’ The Hebrew says, ‘from mouth-to-mouth.’ Our translators feel that this is the sense, and they are no doubt right: ‘from one end to the other.’ All the talk in this land, all the information, has been sinful and in favour of sin.The specifics are spelled out: ‘Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons neither take their daughters unto your sons.’ There is to be no intermarriage – the closest possible union on earth, and one which is bound to break down the distinctions between God’s people and the nations round about. ‘Nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever.’ That is spelled out in Deuteronomy 23. They are to be won; they are to be influenced; they are to be helped, but their peace in their godlessness is not to be pursued; their wealth is not to be envied. ‘That ye may be strong’ – blessing is conditional – ‘and eat the good of the land.’ It's expressed entirely in agricultural terms, but it encompasses all the blessings of the people of God.