Ezra 9:1

ISRAEL’S SIN OF HEATHEN INTERMARRIAGE MADE KNOWN TO EZRA, Ezra 9:1-2.

1. When these things were done Namely, the treasures delivered, the burnt offerings offered, and the king’s commissions handed to the satraps and governors, as stated Ezra 8:33-36.

The princes Certain distinguished and godly men among the chiefs of the new community at Jerusalem. Not all the princes came, for some were implicated in the trespass here confessed. Ezra 9:2.

People… priests… Levites All classes were involved, even the ministers of the temple, who, above all, should have kept themselves pure. Nor were the rulers and princes clear, as the next verse shows.

Not separated themselves from the people of the lands The people of the lands are the idolatrous nations in and about Palestine, named in this verse. With these nations, which were not extinct, but abode still in large numbers in various parts of the country, the returned exiles had largely mixed themselves. At the passover, held immediately after the feast of dedication, (Ezra 6:19-22,) a number joined the new community from “such as had separated themselves from the filthiness of the heathen of the land,” (Ezra 6:21,) apparently Israelites who had not gone into exile, but, being left in the land, had intermarried with their heathen neighbours, and being without temple, priests, or worship, had gradually lost the knowledge and worship of Jehovah. These seem to have corrupted many of the Jews who had returned from exile, and during the half century or more from that time until Ezra’s arrival, this evil leaven had been spreading through the whole community. Not all the people were guilty, but the evil had affected all classes, and the commandments of the law forbidding intermarriage with these heathen nations (Exodus 34:12-16; Deuteronomy 7:1-3) seem to have been forgotten, or else utterly ignored by even the leaders of the people.

Their abominations Their idolatrous practices. On the strictly Canaanitish nations here mentioned, see note on Joshua 3:10. The Ammonites and Moabites, whose country was east of the Jordan, had at different times long before this corrupted Israel with their abominations. Numbers 25:1; Judges 10:6. The wars between Persia and Egypt had, doubtless, brought many Egyptians into contact with the Jews, and from the time of Solomon’s marriage with Pharaoh’s daughter (1 Kings 3:1) the Egyptians had mingled more or less with the Israelites.