Ezra — Chapter 9

And when I had heard this word, I rent my mantle and my coat, and I plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and I sat down mourning. Ezra tears his garments and plucks his hair — not for his own sin, but for the sin of the people, whose cause and guilt he takes upon himself. Lapide: as Christ (whose type Ezra is here) confessed and wept for sins not His own, so Ezra instituted a public prayer with groaning and weeping, prostrate on the ground before the Temple, deeming himself unworthy to enter.

O my God, I am confounded and ashamed to lift up my face to thee, for our iniquities are multiplied over our head, and our sins are grown up even unto heaven. Ezra's great prayer of public penance: he confesses not \"my sins\" but \"our sins,\" taking the guilt of all the people upon himself. This is the model of priestly intercession.

And now for a little while grace hath been shown by the Lord our God, that a remnant might be saved, and a nail might be given us in his holy place. Lapide: Ezra feared that because of the mixed marriages, God might revoke the mercy He had shown and bring fresh calamities. The \"nail\" (paxillus) signifies the princes and magistrates God gave to rule the people, on whom the people depend as a vessel or beam hangs upon a nail (citing Isaias 22:23 on Eliacim the priest).

And after all that is come upon us for our most wicked doings, and our great sin, seeing that thou, our God, hast saved us from our iniquity. Lapide marvels at God's immense clemency toward Israel: though they sinned so grievously through idolatry under Solomon, Manasses, Jechonias, and others, God did not abandon them in Babylon, did not utterly destroy them, but spared them; indeed He heaped new and great gifts upon them — liberty, return to their homeland, restoration of the city and Temple. God's mercy seemed to compete with their ingratitude by surpassing it with new benefits. This divine clemency exceeds all human clemency and belongs to God alone.

O Lord God of Israel, thou art just, for we remain yet to escape, as it is this day: behold we are before thee in our sin, for there is no standing before thee in this matter. Ezra's prayer concludes with complete prostration before God's justice. Lapide: the sinner must acknowledge his guilt openly, without excuse or evasion. No one can stand justified before God on account of sin. Such must be the disposition and prayer of every penitent.