John Gill Commentary Ezra 9

Now when these things were done
When the captives with Ezra had refreshed themselves, and weighed the money and vessels they brought, and put them into the hands of proper persons, and offered sacrifices, and delivered the king's commissions to his lieutenants and governors, and shown his own:

the princes came to me ;
some of the nobles of Israel, the most religious of them, who were concerned at the corruptions that were among them, though not a sufficient number to reform them:

saying the people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not
separated themselves from the people of the land :
but joined with them, though not in idolatrous practices, yet by marrying with them, which might lead them into them:

doing according to their abominations ;
not serving idols as they did, but imitating them in their marriages: even

of the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the
Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites ;
affinity with many of these was forbidden by an express law, (Deuteronomy 7:1Deuteronomy 7:3) all but the Moabites, Ammonites, and Egyptians, and from these for the same reason they were to abstain; namely, lest they should be drawn into idolatry; that the priests and Levites should do this, who ought to have known the law, and instructed the people better, was very sad and shocking.

For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sorts Some that were widowers not only took wives to themselves of the above nations, either when they were of Babylon, where many of these nations also were, or rather since their return; but they took for their sons also; yea, some that had wives took Heathenish ones to them, see (Malachi 2:13–15),

so that the holy seed ; such as the Lord had separated from other nations, chosen them to be an holy people above all others, and devoted them to his service and worship:

have mingled themselves with the people of those lands ; before mentioned, by marrying with them:

yea, the hand of the princes and rulers has been chief in this trespass ; they were the first that went into it, were ringleaders of it, who should by their authority and example have restrained others; or they were in this first trespass^F9; which was the first gross and capital one the people fell into after their return from the captivity.

FOOTNOTES:

• F9: (hnavr hzh lemb) "in praevaricatione ista prima", Pagninus, Montanus.

And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle ,
&c.] Both inward and outward garments, that which was close to his body, and that which was thrown loose over it; and this he did in token of sorrow and mourning, as if something very dreadful and distressing, see (Job 1:20)

and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard ;
did not shave them, and so transgressed not the law in (Leviticus 19:27) but plucked off the hair of them, to show his extreme sorrow for what was told him: which has frequently been done by mourners on sorrowful occasions in various nations, see (Isaiah 15:2) .

So in the apocryphal "addition" to Esther, "And laid away her glorious apparel, and put on the garments of anguish and mourning: and instead of precious ointments, she covered her head with ashes and dung, and she humbled her body greatly, and all the places of her joy she filled with her torn hair." (Esther 14:2)

she is said to fill every place of joy with the tearing of her hair; and Lavinia in Virgil ^F11 ; several passages from Homer ^F12 , and other writers, both Greek and Latin, are mentioned by Bochart ^F13 as instances of it:

and sat down astonished ;
quite amazed at the ingratitude of the people, that after such favours shown them, in returning them from captivity unto their own land, and settling them there, they should give into practices so contrary to the will of God.

FOOTNOTES:

• F11: Aeneid. 12. prope finem. Vid. Ciceron. Tusc. Quaest. l. 3.
• F12: Vid. Iliad. 10. ver. 15. & Iliad. 22. ver. 77, 78, 406. & Iliad. 24. ver. 711.
• F13: Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 2. c. 45. col. 481.

There were assembled to me everyone that trembled at the
words of the God of Israel
That had a reverence for the word of God, and the things contained in it; feared to break the laws of God, and trembled at his judgments, which they might apprehend would come upon transgressors, see (Isaiah 46:2),

because of the transgression of those that had been carried away ;
into Babylon, and were now returned, and which was an aggravation of their transgression:

and I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice :
or until the ninth hour, as the Syriac version, which was about our three o'clock in the afternoon, at which
time the evening sacrifice was offered; perhaps it was in the morning when Ezra first received his
information from the princes.

And at the evening sacrifice I rose up from my heaviness
The signs and tokens of it, particularly sitting on the ground; or "from my fasting" ^F14, having eaten nothing that day, it being early in the morning when he was told the above case:

and having rent my garment and my mantle ;
which he had done before, and still kept them on him in the same case:

fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God ;
in the posture and with the gesture of an humble supplicant.

FOOTNOTES:

• F14: (ytynetm) "jejunio meo", Michaelis; so Jarchi.