Ezra 9:1-2 - Exposition

COMPLAINT OF THE PRINCES TO EZRA ( Ezra 9:1 , Ezra 9:2 ). It is remarkable that complaint on a matter of religious transgression should have come from the secular, and not from the ecclesiastical, authorities of the city. But there clearly appears about this time some remissness and connivance at evil, if not even participation in it, on the part of the chief ecclesiastics. On this particular occasion, actual sons and nephews of Jeshua the high priest were among those who had married idolatrous wives ( Ezra 10:18 ), and afterwards, in Nehemiah's time, not only did the high priest's family indulge in similar alliances in Nehemiah 13:4 , Nehemiah 13:28 ), but Eliashib actually assigned to one of the heathen, and one who was a bitter opponent of Nehemiah, a chamber in the temple itself ( ibid. verses 5, 9). When the heads of the sacerdotal order were themselves implicated in the abuses prevalent, it was perhaps not unnatural, though highly reprehensible, that the inferior clergy should be silent and stand aloof. By God's good providence, however, it often happens that when things have come to this pass, and the priestly order is hopelessly corrupt, godly princes are raised up to take in hand religious reforms and carry them to a successful issue.