Ezra 9:3

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."[9] As the chief 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)."[10] 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.