Ezra 9

1. Ezra 9:1After these things had been accomplished, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the surrounding peoples whose abominations are like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites.

2. Ezra 9:2Indeed, the Israelites have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed has been mixed with the people of the land. And the leaders and officials have taken the lead in this unfaithfulness!”

3. Ezra 9:3When I heard this report, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled out some hair from my head and beard, and sat down in horror.

4. Ezra 9:4Then 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 in horror until the evening offering.

5. Ezra 9:5At the evening offering, I got up from my humiliation with my tunic and cloak torn, and I fell on my knees, spread out my hands to the LORD my God,

6. Ezra 9:6and said: “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached the heavens.

7. Ezra 9:7From the days of our fathers to this day, our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities, we and our kings and priests have been delivered into the hands of the kings of the earth and subjected to the sword and to captivity, to pillage and humiliation, as we are this day.

8. Ezra 9:8But now, for a brief moment, grace has come from the LORD our God to preserve for us a remnant and to give us a stake in His holy place. Even in our bondage, our God has given us new life and light to our eyes.

9. Ezra 9:9Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage, but He has extended to us grace in the sight of the kings of Persia, giving us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and giving us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.

10. Ezra 9:10And now, our God, what can we say after this? For we have forsaken the commandments

11. Ezra 9:11that You gave through Your servants the prophets, saying: ‘The land that you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the impurity of its peoples and the abominations with which they have filled it from end to end.

12. Ezra 9:12Now, therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Never seek their peace or prosperity, so that you may be strong and may eat the good things of the land, leaving it as an inheritance to your sons forever.’

13. Ezra 9:13After all that has come upon us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt (though You, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such a remnant as this),

14. Ezra 9:14shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not become so angry with us as to wipe us out, leaving no remnant or survivor?

15. Ezra 9:15O LORD, God of Israel, You are righteous! For we remain this day as a remnant. Here we are before You in our guilt, though because of it no one can stand before You.”

Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

• Ammonplace
• Canaanplace
• Egyptplace
• Hethperson
• Judeaplace
• Leviperson
• Moabplace

Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

• Ezraperson
• Israelperson

• 12Deuteronomy 7:3Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,
• 12Deuteronomy 23:6You are not to seek peace or prosperity from them as long as you live.
• 13Psalms 103:10He has not dealt with us according to our sins or repaid us according to our iniquities.
• 8Psalms 13:3Consider me and respond, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death,
• 12Joshua 23:12–13For if you turn away and cling to the rest of these nations that remain among you, and if you intermarry and associate with them,
• 2Nehemiah 13:23–24In those days I also saw Jews who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
• 6Revelation 18:5For her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
• 6Psalms 38:4For my iniquities have overwhelmed me; they are a burden too heavy to bear.
• 15Psalms 130:3If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?
• 1Leviticus 18:24–30Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves.
• 4Ezra 10:3So now let us make a covenant before our God to send away all the foreign wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the command of our God. Let it be done according to the Law.
• 8Romans 11:5–6In the same way, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.
• 12Proverbs 13:22A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is passed to the righteous.
• 1Nehemiah 9:2Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all the foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
• 2Ezra 10:18–44Among the descendants of the priests who had married foreign women were found these descendants of Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah.
• 2Exodus 34:16And when you take some of their daughters as brides for your sons, their daughters will prostitute themselves to their gods and cause your sons to do the same.