Ezra Chapter 9

Ezra’s Prayer About Intermarriage

¹ When these things had been completed, the officials approached me,

“The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites haven’t separated from the foreigners and the disgusting things of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites. ² They’ve taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons. The holy race has intermingled with foreigners. The officials and rulers have been the most prominent in this unfaithfulness.”

³ When I heard that, I tore my cloak and my shirt, pulled some hair from my head and beard, and sat down appalled. ⁴ Everybody gathered around me that trembled at God’s message about the exiles’ unfaithfulness. I sat appalled till the evening offering.           

Ezra 9:1-4

⁵ Then I got up from my humbled condition with my cloak and shirt torn. I fell on my knees and held out my hands to Yahveh:

⁶ “I’m ashamed to look at you. Our sins have piled up higher than our heads. Our guilt has grown as high as the sky. ⁷ Since the time of our ancestors, we’ve had serious guilt. Because of our sins, you’ve delivered us, our kings, and our priests to the kings of nations, to the sword, to captivity, plunder, and open disgrace like today. ⁸ But now for a little while, you’ve shown grace and left us a remnant and given us a stake in your holy place to enlighten us and grant us a little reviving in our bondage. ⁹ We’re slaves; yet in our bondage, you haven’t left us. You’ve extended enduring love to us in the presence of the kings of Persia, to revive us for building your Temple, restoring its ruins, and giving us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. ¹⁰ What can we say now, God? We’ve abandoned what you’ve commanded ¹¹ through your prophets, ‘The land you’re going in to possess is ceremonially unclean because of its unclean people and disgusting things that fill it end to end. ¹² Don’t intermarry with them. Never search for their peace or prosperity so you can be strong, eat the good things of the land, and leave it as a permanent inheritance to your descendants.’ ¹³ After everything that’s happened to us because of our sinful deeds and great guilt—you’ve paid us back less than our sins deserve and have given us a remnant like this— ¹⁴ will we again break your commandments and intermarry with people that commit those disgusting things? Wouldn’t you be angry with us to the point of destroying us till there was no remnant to escape? ¹⁵ Yahveh God of Israel, you’re good, because you left us a remnant. We’re guilty in your presence because nobody can withstand you on that account.”                                                                                          

Ezra 9:5-15