Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Ezra 9:3

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Ezra 9:3. I rent my garment and my mantle — The outer and inner garment, in sign of great grief. This significant act is frequently mentioned in the sacred writings, and was common among all ancient nations.

Plucked off the hair — Shaving the head and beard were signs of excessive grief; much more so the plucking off the hair, which must produce exquisite pain. All this testified his abhorrence, not merely of the act of having taken strange wives, but their having also joined them in their idolatrous abominations.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

9:1-10:44 THE PROBLEM OF MIXED MARRIAGES

Ezra’s grief (9:1-15)

One of the first problems that Ezra dealt with was that of mixed marriages. Israelite men had married non-Israelite wives and had families by them. The practice was widespread and involved even the leaders of the community. If allowed to continue, it could destroy Israel’s religion and even Israel’s identity as a distinct race (9:1-2).
When told of the matter, Ezra was overcome with grief and shame. He turned to God to confess the sin on behalf of the nation (3-5). He acknowledged that God had frequently and justly punished his people for their rebellion by allowing them to fall captive to their enemies; but in his grace God always left some to carry on the nation. The present liberty and protection that Persia gave them were further evidences of God’s grace (6-9). Ezra’s fear was that because of this latest rebellion against his law, God would act in judgment again, but this time leave no remnant at all (10-15).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

THE ASTONISHMENT AND HORROR OF EZRA

"And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my robe, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down confounded. Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the trespass of them of the captivity; and I sat confounded until the evening sacrifice."

Ezra's reaction to the bad news was extreme. There is hardly anything more painful than pulling out the hairs of one's beard. Similar actions were customary among Oriental peoples as an expression of grief, dismay, or consternation (Job 1:20; Ezekiel 7:18). "Notice that Ezra's appeal was moral and religious… reformation can never be achieved by force."The New Bible Commentary, Revised, p. 403. As the chief civil authority, Ezra could have ordered the needed reforms and enforced them even with the death penalty; but he chose the better way.

Oesterley commented that, in Ezra's strict enforcement of the prohibition of mixed marriages, "His zeal in this matter resulted in his going beyond the requirements of the law (Deuteronomy 23:7)."Arthur S. Peake's Commentary, p. 329. That passage states that, "Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite… or an Egyptian… The children of the third generation of them that are born unto them shall enter into the assembly of Jehovah"; but there is nothing in that passage that justifies Oesterley's conclusion.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Plucking out the hair with the hands, so common among the Classical nations, is, comparatively speaking, rarely mentioned as practiced by Asiatics.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 9

Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass ( Ezra 9:1-2 ).

Now they came to Ezra and they gave to him this awesome report. For God said to them when they had come in to the land that they weren't to take any of the daughters for their own sons or give their daughters to their sons to be married. That they were to be a separate people, a holy people unto God. And they weren't to have any intermarriages with the other tribe. The reason being that God was preserving the holy seed for the coming of His Son. Also, they were, there was the danger that they would begin to worship the gods of the Canaanites and the Perizzites and all. So God forbid inter-racial marriages only for the Jews. And I think that it's important we point this out.

God did not make a general prohibition of inter-racial marriages. There are those who try to make out that inter-racial marriages are against the Scriptures. That is not so. It was only for the Jews that God commanded them not to marry inter-racially with those inhabitants of the land. But even Boaz, the great grandfather of David, married a Moabitess. And from that, of course, Christ was in that line. But the prohibition was not to marry the people of the land, lest you turn to their gods and turn away from the living God.

So they bring the report to Ezra now, "Since they've returned, these guys haven't been keeping the law of God. They've been marrying these gals and actually the priests and the chief leaders are some of the worst offenders." Now the effect that this had on Ezra was just overwhelming. You see, Ezra had come back to teach them the law of God. He was a teacher and a ready scribe, and his whole purpose in returning was to teach the people the law of God. And here they had been for seventy years in captivity in Babylon because of their idolatry, because of their disobedience to God, and now they've been in the land again for just about eighty years, but they're right back in their old idolatry. And it's just more than Ezra can believe. He's just astonished.

When I heard this thing, I tore my clothes and my mantle, I pulled my hair out of my head and off my beard, and I sat down astonished ( Ezra 9:3 ).

"I can't believe this!" And so he pulls out his hair, beard, tears his clothes and just sits down there astonished.

And then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those that had been carried away; and I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice. And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having torn my garment and my mantle, I fell on my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God, and I said, O my God, I am ashamed and I blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. For since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day. And now for a little space grace hath been showed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God might lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage. For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments, which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness. Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever: that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever. And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this; should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping? O LORD God of Israel, thou art righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this ( Ezra 9:4-15 ).

So Ezra's tremendous prayer unto God. Shows that he does have a good knowledge of the law of God which he came to teach the people. Shows that he does have a good concept of the will of God and of the purpose of God for the people, and offers his prayer before God, acknowledging that the judgments of God really were merciful. He did not judge them as much as they deserved. And here they're going right back and doing the same thing. "God, what can I say? We are lucky that you haven't wiped out us completely. We're fortunate that we still exist." And so he calls out unto God for the people. And so they come to him, the leaders and the people and they said, "We've done a terrible thing." And so this was the remedy.

Those who had married wives from the land were to put them away and the children. It seems like a very harsh measure indeed. But they were to divorce all of those wives that were not Israelites. And all of the children that were born of them were to be put out. They said, "Hey, give us a little time to do it because there's quite a few of us that have trespassed in this thing." And so they took this very stringent measure in putting them out.

Now I did mention that inter-racial marriages were only forbidden to the Jews, but there is for we, Christians, the injunction: "Be not unequally yoked together with an unbeliever." So you should never go into a marriage with an unbeliever. You're just violating the law of God. "What fellowship hath light with darkness? What communion, concord hath Christ with Belial?" ( 2 Corinthians 6:14 , 2 Corinthians 6:15 ) "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The news of apostasy 9:1-4

The Mosaic Law strictly forbade intermarriage with the native Canaanites (Exodus 34:11-16; Deuteronomy 7:1-5). Furthermore, intermarriage with other non-Israelites had resulted in tragic consequences in Israel’s earlier history (cf. 1 Kings 11:1-8).

"Thus the action in Ezra 10 is not directed against inter-Israelite marriages between the returnees and the ’peoples of the land’ but specifically against Israel’s old wilderness and early conquest enemies, namely, the Canaanite, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Amorites, Egyptians and Moabites (Ezra 9:1). It is upon this note of the ’conquest re-established’ that the Book of Ezra ends." [Note: Dumbrell, p. 69.]

"Under these circumstances the spirit of the law demanded an application broader than its original application. Hence Ezra was justified in applying a law limited to Canaanites to all pagan foreigners, even the Egyptians who were originally explicitly excluded." [Note: Joe M. Sprinkle, "Old Testament Perspectives on Divorce and Remarriage," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 40:4 (December 1997):537.]

Pulling out one’s hair (Ezra 9:3) was and is an expression of extreme grief, violent wrath, or intense moral indignation (cf. Isaiah 50:6). Ezra was not alone in his distress (Ezra 9:4). Ezra pulled out his own hair, but Nehemiah later pulled out the hair of his enemies (Nehemiah 13:25).

"A man’s attitude toward God’s Word is one of the ultimate criteria of his spirituality." [Note: Whitcomb, p. 431.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle,.... Both inward and outward garments, that which was close to his body, and that which was thrown loose over it; and this he did in token of sorrow and mourning, as if something very dreadful and distressing, see Job 1:20

and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard; did not shave them, and so transgressed not the law in Leviticus 19:27 but plucked off the hair of them, to show his extreme sorrow for what was told him: which has frequently been done by mourners on sorrowful occasions in various nations, see Isaiah 15:2. So in the apocryphal "addition" to Esther,

"And laid away her glorious apparel, and put on the garments of anguish and mourning: and instead of precious ointments, she covered her head with ashes and dung, and she humbled her body greatly, and all the places of her joy she filled with her torn hair.'' (Esther 14:2)

she is said to fill every place of joy with the tearing of her hair; and Lavinia in Virgil k; several passages from Homer l, and other writers, both Greek and Latin, are mentioned by Bochart m as instances of it:

and sat down astonished; quite amazed at the ingratitude of the people, that after such favours shown them, in returning them from captivity unto their own land, and settling them there, they should give into practices so contrary to the will of God.

k Aeneid. 12. prope finem. Vid. Ciceron. Tusc. Quaest. l. 3. l Vid. Iliad. 10. ver. 15. & Iliad. 22. ver. 77, 78, 406. & Iliad. 24. ver. 711. m Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 2. c. 45. col. 481.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      1 Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.   2 For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass.   3 And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down astonied.   4 Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those that had been carried away; and I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice.

      Ezra, like Barnabas when he came to Jerusalem and saw the grace of God to his brethren there, no doubt was glad, and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave to the Lord,Acts 11:23. He saw nothing amiss (many corruptions lurk out of the view of the most vigilant rulers); but here is a damp upon his joys: information is brought him that many of the people, yea, and some of the rulers, had married wives out of heathen families, and joined themselves in affinity with strangers. Observe,

      I. What the sin was that they were guilty of: it was mingling with the people of those lands (Ezra 9:2; Ezra 9:2), associating with them both in trade and in conversation, making themselves familiar with them, and, to complete the affinity, taking their daughters in marriages to their sons. We are willing to hope that they did not worship their gods, but that their captivity had cured them of their idolatry: it is said indeed that they did according to their abominations; but that (says bishop Patrick) signifies here only the imitation of the heathen in promiscuous marriages with any nation whatsoever, which by degrees would lead them to idolatry. Herein, 1. They disobeyed the express command of God, which forbade all intimacy with the heathen, and particularly in matrimonial contracts, Deuteronomy 7:3. 2. They profaned the crown of their peculiarity, and set themselves upon a level with those above whom God had by singular marks of his favour, of late as well as formerly, dignified them. 3. They distrusted the power of God to protect and advance them, and were led by carnal policy, hoping to strengthen themselves and make an interest among their neighbours by these alliances. A practical disbelief of God's all-sufficiency is at the bottom of all the sorry shifts we make to help ourselves. 4. They exposed themselves, and much more their children, to the peril of idolatry, the very sin, and introduced by this very way, that had cone been the ruin of their church and nation.

      II. Who were the persons that were guilty of this sin, not only some of the unthinking people of Israel, that knew no better, but many of the priests and Levites, whose office it was to teach the law, and this law among the rest, and in whom, by reason of their elevation above common Israelites, it was a greater crime. It was a diminution to the sons of that tribe to match into any other tribe, and they seldom did except into the royal tribe; but for them to match with heathen, with Canaanites, and Hittites, and I know not whom, was such a disparagement as, if they had had any sense, though not of duty, yet of honour, one would think, they would never have been guilty of. Yet this was not the worst: The hand of the princes and rulers, who by their power should have prevented or reformed this high misdemeanour, was chief in this trespass. If princes be in a trespass, they will be charged as chief in it, because of the influence their examples will have upon others. Many will follow their pernicious ways. But miserable is the case of that people whose leaders debauch them and cause them to err.

      III. The information that was given of this to Ezra. It was given by the persons that were most proper to complain, the princes, those of them that had kept their integrity and with it their dignity; they could not have accused others if they themselves had not been free from blame. It was given to the person who had power to mend the matter, who, as a ready scribe in the law of God, could argue with them, and, as king's commissioner, could awe them. It is probable that these princes had often endeavoured to redress this grievance and could not; but now they applied to Ezra, hoping that his wisdom, authority, and interest, would prevail to do it. Those that cannot of themselves reform public abuses may yet do good service by giving information to those that can.

      IV. The impression this made upon Ezra (Ezra 9:3; Ezra 9:3): He rent his clothes, plucked off his hair, and sat down astonished. Thus he expressed the deep sense he had, 1. Of the dishonour hereby done to God. It grieved him to the heart to think that a people called by his name should so grossly violate his law, should be so little benefited by his correction, and make such bad returns for his favours. 2. Of the mischief the people had hereby done to themselves and the danger they were in of the wrath of God breaking out against them. Note, (1.) The sins of others should be our sorrow, and the injury done by them to God's honour and the souls of men is what we should lay to heart. (2.) Sorrow for sin must be great sorrow; such Ezra's was, as for an only son or a first-born. (3.) The scandalous sins of professors are what we have reason to be astonished at. We may stand amazed to see men contradict, disparage, prejudice, ruin, themselves. Strange that men should act so inconsiderately and so inconsistently with themselves! Upright men are astonished at it.

      V. The influence which Ezra's grief for this had upon others. We may suppose that he went up to the house of the Lord, there to humble himself, because he had an eye to God in his grief and that was the proper place for deprecating his displeasure. Public notice was soon taken of it, and all the devout serious people that were at hand assembled themselves to him, it should seem of their own accord, for nothing is said of their being sent, to, Ezra 9:4; Ezra 9:4. Note, 1. It is the character of good people that they tremble at God's word; they stand in awe of the authority of its precepts and the severity and justice of its threatenings, and to those that do so will God look,Isaiah 66:2. 2. Those that tremble at the word of God cannot but tremble at the sins of men, by which the law of God is broken and his wrath and curse are incurred. 3. The pious zeal of one against sin may perhaps provoke very many to the like, as the apostle speaks in another case, 2 Corinthians 9:2. Many will follow who have not consideration, talent, and courage, enough to lead in a good work. 4. All good people ought to own those that appear and act in the cause of God against vice and profaneness, to stand by them, and do what they can to strengthen their hands.