Ezra 10:6 - Exposition

EZRA 'S FAST ( Ezra 10:6 ). Matters having reached this point, the covenant having been made, and the only question remaining for consideration being how the decision come to should be carried out, Ezra "rose up," and withdrew himself for a time from the people, entering into one of the side chambers of the temple, and secluding himself there. The guilt of his brethren still pressed heavily on his spirit, and he continued the mourning which he had commenced as soon as it came to his ears. To this mourning he now joined a fast of the strictest kind, an entire abstinence both from eating and drinking, like that of Moses on Mount Sinai ( Exodus 34:28 ). Natural piety seems to have taught men generally ( Jonah 3:5-7 ), and the Jews among them, that such abstinence was a fitting accompaniment of penitential prayer, and might be counted on to lend it additional force with Almighty God. Compare the private and personal fasts of David ( 2 Samuel 12:16 ), Ahab ( 1 Kings 21:27 ), Daniel ( Daniel 9:3 ), and Nehemiah ( Nehemiah 1:4 ).

The chamber of Johanan. On the temple chambers see comment on Ezra 8:29 . Johanan appears by Nehemiah 12:22 , Nehemiah 12:23 , compared with Nehemiah 12:10-11 , to have been really the grandson of Eliashib, who, as high priest, would have the right of assigning him a chamber in the temple (compare Nehemiah 13:4 , Nehemiah 13:5 ). I did eat no bread nor drink water . Strict fasts of this kind had been observed by Moses twice ( Exodus 34:28 , and Deuteronomy 9:18 ), and by the Ninevites ( Jonah 3:7 ), but they were very uncommon. Usually it was considered enough to abstain from eating ( 1 Samuel 1:7 ; 1 Samuel 20:34 ; 2 Samuel 3:35 ). Sometimes the person who fasted merely abstained from "meat and wine, and pleasant bread ( Daniel 10:3 ). Ezra's great earnestness appears in the severity of his fast, which (it is to be remembered) was not for his own sins, but for those of his brethren.