Ezra 9 Bible study: A remnant that has escaped

Chapter 8 ended with Ezra's company in Jerusalem and the king's orders delivered (Ezra 8:32-36). Then: "Now when these things were done, the princes came near to me" (9:1). Their report: "The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, following their abominations" (9:1) (tap separated, abominations). "For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy offspring have mixed themselves with the peoples of the lands" (9:2). And they name who went first: "Yes, the hand of the princes and rulers has been chief in this trespass" (9:2) (tap trespass). The report's own word for what the peoples of the lands do is "abominations" (9:1), and the chapter doesn't list them. The Law had said of the nations of the land, "You shall not make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son" (Deuteronomy 7:3), and gave its reason: "For that would turn away your sons from following me, that they may serve other gods" (Deuteronomy 7:4). The Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Amorites of 9:1 are among the nations Deuteronomy 7:1 names; the Ammonites, the Moabites and the Egyptians are not in that list. The verses are set side by side for what they say.

Ezra 9:15→leads to1 John 1:9

Ezra confesses sin as "our" sin: "our iniquities have increased over our head, and our guiltiness has grown up to the heavens" (9:6), "we have forsaken your commandments" (9:10). He ends, "LORD, the God of Israel, you are righteous; for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guiltiness; for no one can stand before you because of this" (9:15), and asks for nothing. John tells his readers, "our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3), and a few verses on he writes, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). 1 John doesn't cite Ezra 9, and Ezra is written in Hebrew and 1 John in Greek, so no link between their words is claimed; setting the two side by side is a reading, resting on a shared subject: "our" sins confessed before a righteous God. Some set John's words, written to those who follow Jesus, beside a confession like Ezra's, which ends at "we are before you" (9:15), and read in 1 John what such a confession is met with. Others read Ezra 9 in its own setting, a prayer for the people who had come back from the captivity, and draw no line to 1 John, since no New Testament verse names this chapter.

פְּלֵיטָהpeletahsay pe-lay-TAH

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "escape, deliverance", and in other places probably always "escaped remnant". Strong's: "an escaped portion". Ezra uses it four times, all in this prayer. "To leave us a remnant to escape" (9:8); "have given us such a remnant" (9:13); "so that there would be no remnant, nor any to escape" (9:14), where the WEB's remnant is she'erit and any to escape is peletah (tap remnant there); and "for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today" (9:15). In 9:8 and 9:15, leave and left are the verb sha'ar, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "remain, be left over"; Strong's derives she'erit from it ("from 7604"). The prayer first names the remnant as grace "from the LORD our God" (9:8), and at the end sets it beside "you are righteous" (9:15). In 2 Chronicles the LORD said, "I will grant them some deliverance" (2 Chronicles 12:7), with this word.