Ezra 10:9

Ezr 10:9 Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem within three days. It [was] the ninth month, on the twentieth [day] of the month; and all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of [this] matter, and for the great rain.

Ver. 9. Within three days] They durst not outstand their time, because their estates were at stake. Why is there not the like care taken and speed used to make peace with God, since for aught we know it is now or never, today or not at all? Is it nothing to lose an immortal soul? why, then, cry we, Cras, Domine? Tomorrow, Lord? why stand we trifling and baffling from day to day, till it be all too late? Remember the foolish virgins, and be wiser.

It was the ninth month] Which was the month of May, saith Diodati; counting September for the first, after the manner of the Persians, Est 2:16; and this great rain, being out of the accustomed season, was somewhat prodigious, and seemed to portend God’s wrath, as 1Sa 12:17. Others make it to be in December, the deep of winter; which, though it be an ordinary time of rain (whence in Greek also it hath its name χειμα, and in Latin hyems), yet these showers were extraordinary, more like spouts than showers; and thence the people’s fear much increased by their guilt; for as no body is without its shadow, so is no sin without its fear, quia nec sine conscientia sui, because it cannot shake off conscience (Tertul.).

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ezr_10:9

Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin.

A great and troubled assembly

The text teaches--

I. That it is the tendency of sin to produce sorrow and consternation of soul. There is a scorpion sin in remembered guilt when outward troubles and inward fears meet together (Gen_42:21).

II. That God mares with peculiar interest the time if which repentance unto life begins in the sow. Iii. That repentance when it is real will bring forth its appropriate fruits.

IV. That the names and persons of genuine penitents are for ever precious to God and recorded in his book. (Samuel Thodey.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ezr 10:9. Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin, &c. — Not only of these two tribes, as appears from the following catalogue, in which there are priests and Levites; but all the Israelites, (Ezr 10:25,) who are thus described, because the greatest part of them were of these tribes, though others were mixed with them: and because they all now dwelt in that land, which formerly was appropriated to those tribes. All the people sat in the street — Hebrew, ברחוב, birchob, LXX., εν πλατεια, in a broad, open place, of the house of God. Houbigant renders it, the court, namely, that in which the people stood when they worshipped. This, lying open, and not being yet enclosed by a wall, as may be conjectured from Neh 2:8, is called in the original an open place, or street, and not חצר, chatser, the name usually given to the court. Here the people were not only within view of the temple, but in a place adjoining to it, that so they might be as in God’s presence, and be thereby awed to a more faithful and vigorous prosecution of their work. Trembling because of this matter — The offence they had committed against God, and the consequences thereof; and for the great rain — Hebrew, םiהגשׁמי, haggeshamim, the rains, or showers. It was now the depth of winter, when the rains in Judea are extremely cold; and the people seem to have taken the heavy rains on this occasion as a token of God’s displeasure.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10:9 on December 19 . . . it was raining: The cold and wet weather made an outdoor meeting uncomfortable.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

For the season was given to rain and so the weather was more sharp and cold, and also their conscience touched them.

Which contained part of November and part of December.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin--The returned captives belonged chiefly to these tribes; but other Israelites are also included under these names, as they all were then occupying the territory formerly assigned to those two tribes.

It was the ninth month--that is, between the end of December and the beginning of January, which is the coldest and most rainy season of the year in Palestine.

all the people sat in the street--that is, the court.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. all the men of Judah and Benjamin] All the male population capable of attending. ‘Men of Judah and Benjamin’, cf. Ezr_1:5, Ezr_4:1.

It was the ninth month] R.V. it was the ninth month—not a fresh sentence. The ‘ninth month’ was Chislev, corresponding nearly to our December. The Assyrian month Ki-shilivu is the same name. The month is mentioned in Neh_1:1; Zec_7:1. On the 15th of this month 168 b.c. the Temple was profaned and the altar polluted by Antiochus Epiphanes; on the 25th of this month, three years later, 165 b.c., Judas the Maccabee and his companions celebrated ‘the Dedication’ or Purification of the Temple, which was afterwards observed as an annual festival (cf. Joh_10:22). See 1Ma_1:54; 1Ma_4:59. The general assembly was therefore summoned only four months after Ezra’s arrival (see Ezr_7:8).

sat in the street of the house of God] R.V. sat in the broad place before the house of God. Literally ‘in the broad place of the house of God’. Cf. Neh_8:1 ‘And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the broad place (A.V. street) that was before the water gate’, and 3. An area belonging to ‘the house of God’ in which the whole assembly could collect, must have been a large open court. See the same word in Deu_13:16 and 2Sa_21:12, where an open place or square in the middle of a town gives a truer sense than the word ‘street’. The idea of the word in the original is width, not narrowness.

trembling because of this matter] The popular apprehension was aroused to the utmost, partly by the penalty for non-attendance at the assembly (Ezr_10:8), partly by the rumours of the action proposed by Shecaniah and approved by the princes, partly by dread of Divine wrath at the national transgression. The verb used here for ‘trembling’ occurs elsewhere in the O. T. only in Dan_10:11 and Psa_104:32.

and for the great rain] R.V. marg. Heb. the rains. We must suppose that the rains, which prevail during December in Palestine, were on this occasion exceptionally ‘heavy’ and seemed to the people to denote the Divine displeasure (cf. 1Sa_12:18), besides adding to the discomfort of gathering to Jerusalem. This was ‘the early rain’ following after seed-time (cf. Deu_11:14; Jer_5:24; Joe_2:23) as distinguished from ‘the latter rain’ of spring-time.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin,.... And such of the ten tribes that returned and dwelt among them:

gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem within three days; the time fixed: which they were the more careful to observe, since it was enjoined by the authority of princes and elders, and the punishment in case of disobedience very severe:

it was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; the month Chisleu, which answers to part of November and part of December, so that the twentieth day must be in the beginning of December; this was almost five months after Ezra came to Jerusalem:

and all the people sat in the street of the house of God: the street which led to the temple, the east street, Ch2 29:4 though some think this was the court of the people, called a street, because it lay open, not yet walled in; and, according to Josephus (q), it was in an upper room of the temple in which Ezra was, perhaps the same with the chamber of Johanan, Ezr 10:6,

trembling because of this matter; they were met about; some that were guilty, not knowing what punishment would be inflicted on them, and others that were not, yet dreaded the wrath of God, lest that should break out upon the whole congregation for it:

and for the great rain; which now fell, and which they interpreted as a token of the divine displeasure: for though it was in winter time, yet not with them a time of rain, for the former rain had fallen a month before; so that this being unusual and unexpected, they understood it as betokening evil to them.

(q) Antiqu. l. 11. c. 5. sect. 4.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

It was the ninth month - Or, our December, a time when rain fails heavily in Palestine: four months, therefore, after Ezra’s arrival in Jerusalem (compare Ezr 7:9).

The street - Rather, “the court,” the “broad,” “spacious, place” (compare the 2Ch 29:4 note).

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ninth. Casleu, (Zacharias vii. 1.) which corresponds with our November and December. (Menochius) --- Street. Court, which afforded as yet no shelter from the rain. (Calmet) --- This would tend to punish them for their sin, and to make them more sensible to it. (Worthington)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

All the men of Judah and Benjamin not only of these two tribes, as appears from the following catalogue, where there are priests and Levites; but all the Israelites, Ezr 10:25, who are thus described, partly because the greatest part of them were of these tribes, though others were mixed with them; and partly because they all now dwelt in that land which formerly was appropriated to those tribes.

In the street of the house of God; in that street of the city which was next to the temple, and within the view of it, that so they might be as in God’s presence, whereby they might be awed to a more faithful and vigorous prosecution of their work. And this place they might choose rather than the court of the people, because they thought it might be polluted by the delinquents, who were all to come thither.

For the great rain, which they took for a token of God’s displeasure against them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. The ninth month — Chisleu, corresponding with December, the rainy season of Palestine, and hence the great rain mentioned in this verse.

In the street of the house of God — In the open broad place before the temple; in the court.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

All the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem. This is of course to be understood with certain necessary or natural exceptions, as of the sick, the aged and infirm, and the youths under full age. Still it would be a vast gathering, doubling probably for the time the population of the city. It was the ninth month. The month Chisleu, corresponding nearly to our December. All the people sat in the street of the house of God. The word translated "street" means any broad open space, and is probably used here to designate the great court of the temple (Patrick). By "all the people" we must understand as many as the court would conveniently hold. If the court had the dimensions given it by Hecataeus of Abdera, it may have accommodated the whole body of the country Jews. The great rain. December is a rainy month in Palestine; and the incidental mention of "the great rain" is one of those small touches which stamp the writer as an eyewitness.

HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 9-44.

Sin and repentance.

A very memorable scene was witnessed that day, the twentieth of the ninth month, in the year of Ezra"s return. All the Israelites of Judah and Benjamin assembled together in the courts of the temple, shaken, troubled, trembling for fear of the anger of an offended God, ready to yield to the demands of his faithful servant who spoke in his name, even to the breaking up of their domestic ties; it was an hour when sin was coming out into the light, and was to be sternly cast out from the midst of them. We look at

I THE CHARACTER OF THEIR SIN, AND OF ALL SIN. It was

(a) widespread (vers. 18, 23, 24), not touching the top only, or only sinking to the bottom of their society. It went quite through the whole mass. Among them that had taken strange wives were "sons of the priests "(ver. 18); "also of the Levites" (ver. 23); "of the singers also, and of the porters" (vers. 23, 24). No class or grade was free from its infection. It was something

(b) that struck home; it was not a mere political offence; it invaded their family life; it was under their roof; it concerned their dearest affections, their tenderest ties, their brightest hopes; it was a matter with which their own wives and their children had closely to do. Moreover, it was

(c) a radical fault. They existed, as a nation, on purpose that, being separated from the surrounding people by very distinct lines drawn by the hand of the Supreme, they might bear witness to certain great truths in the preservation of which lay the one hope of the race. But by this step they were becoming mixed up with the heathen world; their one characteristic was being lost; their virtue was being assailed; their very life was at stake. Their separateness gone, everything for which they existed would be gone too; they might perish, for they answered no end. The salt would have lost its savour; let it be cast out and trodden underfoot of men. This is the character of all sin.

(a) It is widespread. As the leprosy, which was the chosen picture and type of it, spreads over the whole body, so sin spreads over all the nature, poisoning every faculty and instinct of the soul; communicating itself from one member of society to another, till the whole social body is covered with its loathsome and deathful malady.

(b) It is something that strikes home; it works discord in the family circle; it introduces strife and contest into the sanctuary of a man"s spirit, making it the arena on which conscience and passion, heavenly wisdom and worldly ambition, voices of good and voices of evil, continually and fiercely battle. Moreover,

(c) it is a radical fault. It is the soul turning away from the purpose for which it was created, failing to be and to do that for which its Creator brought it into being.

II THE CHARACTER OF THEIR REPENTANCE, AND OF ALL REPENTANCE. It included (a) contrition are many that have transgressed" (ver. 13); and (b) amendment gave their hands that they would put away their wives" (ver 19). The Jews who had offended saw that they were guilty; they freely acknowledged their fault, and, what was the best sign and proof of their shame, they resolved to put away the evil; they set about it vigorously and methodically, as men that seriously meant to do that to which they "gave their hands," to which they solemnly pledged themselves (vers. 13, 14, 19). All repentance is of this character. Its essentials are

(a) Contrition. There must be a real recognition by the soul of the evil of sin. Something" more than mere catching up and repeating the formulae of repentance; the falling into the ruts of expression made by those who have gone before us. Not, necessarily, the violent, pungent, overwhelming feelings which have shaken some souls, and found vent in agonising utterances; but a genuine and deep regret and shame, more or less agitating, under a sense of wrong-doing in the past life and of sin within the soul.

(b) Confession and amendment. There must be a solid and living determination to "put away the evil thing," whatever it may be; to surrender the long-cherished and perhaps much-loved habit which is hurtful and injurious; to turn from selfishness and from worldliness and from pride; to separate the soul from all that offends God, that corrupts the nature, that works mischief; and to walk in purity of heart and blamelessness of life before God, the heavenly Father; unto Christ, the Divine Redeemer; by help of the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier. C.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Of Judah - Not only of these two tribes, as appears from the following catalogue, where there are priests and Levites; but all the Israelites, ver. 25, who are thus described, because the greatest part of them were of these tribes, though others were mixed with them: and because they all now dwelt in that land, which formerly was appropriated to those tribes. The street - In that street of the city, which was next the temple, and within the view of it, that so they might be as in God's presence, whereby they might be awed to a more faithful and vigourous prosecution of their work. And this place they might chuse rather than the court of the people, because they thought it might be polluted by the delinquents, who were all to come thither. Great rain - Which they took for a token of God's displeasure against them.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

After three days all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled at Jerusalem. This took place on the twentieth day of the ninth month. On this statement of time, see the remark in Ezr 9:1. The assembled multitude sat there on the open space of the house of God, i.e., probably the open space (הרחוב) in front of the water-gate, Neh 8:1, Neh 8:3, Neh 8:16, at the eastern or south-eastern side, before the temple court; see remarks on Neh 8:1. "Trembling" because of this matter, the seriousness of which they might perceive from the heavy penalty attached to their non-appearance within three days, and "because of the rain." The ninth month, corresponding with our December, is in the cold rainy time of the year (comp. Ezr 10:13), "when the rain usually falls in torrents" (Robinson, Phys. Geog. p. 287).

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

ninth month

i.e. December.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

in three days

"three days later"

ninth month and the twentieth day of the month

This is the ninth month of the Hebrew calendar. The twentieth day is near the middle of December on Western calendars. (See: Hebrew Months and Ordinal Numbers)

in the square

a large open courtyard in front of the temple

committed treason

The abstract noun "treason" can be translated as a verb. AT: "helped the enemies of your people" (See: Abstract Nouns)

so as to increase Israel's guilt

"and now God considers us guilty of worse sin than before"

translationWords

Judah

Benjamin

day

people group

Ezra

priest

alien

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

the ninth month That is the month of Kislev.

quaking over the matter They were afraid over the matter. They were afraid of the stumbling block of this transgression.

and because of the rains And because of the rains that were falling upon them there, they were shivering and miserable.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.