They tell Ezra about the men who are married to Gentile women
1Later the Jewish_leaders came to me and said: ‘The Israelites, the priests and Levites have not lived holy lives like the laws of God say. They have done the same bad things as the other nations who live in the land, the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. Those people do bad things which the Lord hates. 2Some Israelites and their sons have married daughters of those Gentiles. The special people of God are not holy anymore. They are living with the Gentiles in the land and the leaders were the first to do this.’
3When I heard what they said, I tore my clothes and my cloak. I pulled hair out of my head and beard and I sat down on the ground. I was very sad and upset. 4Then some people came to me. They were afraid because of what the God of Israel had said would happen if the slaves who came back from Babylon were unfaithful. I was upset and I sat there until it was time for the evening-offering.
Ezra prays
5When it was time for the evening-offering, I got up. I was sad and upset. My clothes and cloak were torn. I went down on my knees and I put out my hand to my God, the Lord 6and I said: ‘My God, I am ashamed. I feel very bad, and I can not look up to You because our sins have become more and more. They are as high as the heaven. 7We have been guilty, from the time of our forefathers to this day. That is why You gave us, our kings and our priests to the kings of other lands. They killed our people. They caught us and took us away. They took everything we had and they humiliated us. It is the same today.
8But You, Lord our God, started to feel sorry for us. You have been good to us and made us happy when You set some of us free and when You gave us a home to live in, in your holy land. Our God, our eyes shine because we are happy. We were slaves, but You gave us hope again. 9Yes, we were slaves, but our God did not leave us alone. You love us and because of You the kings of Persia helped us. You gave us new life so that we could build the temple of God again, and so that we could build walls so we can live safely in Judah and Jerusalem.
10But our God, what must we do now? What can we say to You? We have not done what You told us to do. 11You have sent the prophets to tell us: “You will come into a land that you will take for yourselves, but it is an impure land. The people in the land have made it impure. They have done bad things everywhere in the land, things that I hate. They have made the land impure. 12That is why you may not let your daughters marry their sons and your sons may not marry their daughters. You may never help those people or make peace with them. If you do what I say, you will be strong and you will enjoy the good things in the land. You will give this land to your children so that it will be their land forever.”
13You have punished us because of all our sins and the things that we have done wrong. Yes, we have sinned a lot, but You did not punish us as much as we deserved to be punished. You let some of us stay alive. 14But again we have not done what You said. We have married Gentile people who do things that You hate. You are very angry with us now and You should have killed us all. Not one of us should have been alive or should have been saved. 15But, Lord, God of Israel, You are good to us and You still let some of us live. Yes, we are guilty and not one of us has the right to stand in front of You.’
