Ezra 9:15 - Exposition

Thou art righteous: for we remain yet escaped. Righteousness, in its widest sense, includes mercy; and so the meaning here may be, "Thou art good and gracious; of which thy having spared us is a proof;" or tsaddik may have its more usual sense of "just," and Ezra may mean to say, "Thou art just, and therefore hast brought us to the low estate in which we are to-day, and made us a mere remnant." We are before thee in our trespasses. We are here, in thy presence; here, before thy holy place ( Acts 10:1 ); sinners, with all our sins upon us, confessing our guilt; for we cannot stand before thee— we cannot boldly stand up and face thee ("Who shall, stand in thy sight when Thou art angry? Psalms 76:7 ), because of this our heinous transgression, for which there is no excuse.