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Ezr_10:1 Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept very sore.
Ver. 1. Now when Ezra had prayed] Had presented himself as a suppliant (Hithpallel), and opened his cause to God the Judge, appealing to him, that he might determine.
And when he had confessed] And begged pardon; deprecating the Divine displeasure, as the word signifieth.
Weeping] Of this we read not in the former chapter, but of other effects of his passion, as rending his garments, tearing off the hair of his head and beard, &c. His sorrow at first might be above tears, which afterwards came gushing out amain, as the blood doth out of a wound, but not till it hath first run back to the heart, to bear the news to it, as I may so say. It is said of Athanasius, that, by his tears, as by the bleeding of a chaste vine, he cured the leprosy of that tainted age. May we not say the same of this good man?
And casting himself down before the house of God] Where all might see him, that their eyes might affect their hearts, and contribute some tears of compunction and compassion towards the filling of God’s bottle, as they had done sins toward the filling of his bag.
Of men, women, and children] Anashim, Venashim, &c. A woman is a man, cut short by the head, 1Co_11:3. Here was a general meeting of all sexes and sizes joined together, to cut sin’s cart ropes.
For the people wept very sore] They could not wash their hands in innocency, they, therefore, washed them in tears; they knew that as the sins of the old world, so of this little world, needeth a deluge. Their sins, therefore, are as so many Hazaels to them; their hearts as so many Hadadrimmons, the place they made to become a very Bochim; they wept with a great weeping, and so vented their sins at their eyes, as sick people do their ill-humours at the pores of their bodies.