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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezra 10:1 - 10:1
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The separation of the strange wives from the congregation. - Ezr 10:1-5. While Ezra was making this confession before God, a numerous assemblage gathered around him, and wept aloud. From this point onwards Ezra relates the further course of events in such wise as to cast his own person in the background, and speaks of himself in the third person. The matter of his prayer is more definitely declared by וּכְהִתְוַדֹּתֹו, and his posture in prayer by וּמִתְנַפֵּל בֹּכֶה, weeping and casting himself down (lying on his knees, Ezr 9:5). “Before the house of God,” i.e., in the court of the temple. The confirmatory clause: for the people wept much (בֶכֶה הַרְבֵּה, a weeping in mass), furnishes the motive of so great a number of men, women, and children gathering around Ezra. Very many were as distressed as he was at the marriages with strange wives, and regarded them as a grievous trespass; hence they assembled weeping around him.