Ezra 9 · a question people ask
Ezra's prayer never asks to be forgiven. Why not?
The chapter doesn't say why, and these notes don't guess. What the prayer does is in its words. It confesses: "our iniquities have increased over our head" (9:6), "we have forsaken your commandments" (9:10). It remembers what God has done: "grace has been shown from the LORD our God" (9:8), "our God has not forsaken us in our bondage" (9:9), "you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve" (9:13). It asks questions: "what shall we say after this?" (9:10), "shall we again break your commandments…?" (9:14). And it ends with no request at all: "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). Other prayers of confession in the Bible do ask; Daniel's, in its last verse, asks, "Lord, hear. Lord, forgive. Lord, listen and do" (Daniel 9:19). Ezra's stops at "we are before you" (9:15). The next chapter calls what he did prayer and confession: "while Ezra prayed and made confession" (Ezra 10:1).
The verses
““After all that has come on us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, since you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such a remnant, shall we again break your commandments, and join ourselves with the peoples that do these abominations? Wouldn’t you be angry with us until you had consumed us, so that there would be no remnant, nor any to escape? 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.””
“Lord, hear. Lord, forgive. Lord, listen and do. Don’t defer, for your own sake, my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.””
“Now while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before God’s house, there was gathered together to him out of Israel a very great assembly of men and women and children; for the people wept very bitterly.”