shame they felt in the presence of their BabyloniBh lords (see Dan. ix. 7, 8). AIBo before their Persian masters. (2) Their calamities were sweeping. The people were involved in them. Bo were their "kings." What a contrast between the con- dition of David and Solomon and that of Jehoiachin and Zedekiah (2 Kings xxv. 7) I Bo were their "priests;" and in the ruin of the priests the ruin-of the temple also was involved. (3) They. were also of long continuance. There were the initial sufferings from the time of the first invasion of the Babylonians. Then the interval of seventy years from the date of the captivity to the first year of Cyrus, when Zerubbabel led back the larger body of the restoration. Another period of seventy or eighty years had elapsed before this second contingent was led back by Ezra. What excuse then, after all these sufferings, could be pleaded for their sin? 2. The mercy of God should have been better requited (vers. 8, 9). That mercy was shown -(1) In bis "leaving a remnant to escape." That was mercy not only to the indi- viduals spared, but also to the world, for the holy Seed was among them, through whom the blessings of an everlasting salvation were to come. (2) In "giving them a nail in his holy place." The margin explains this to be " a constant and sure abode," and refers to Isaiah xxii. 23 in support of this interpretation. The pas1mge in Isaiah points to Christ; so may this point to him. (3) In this view there is the greater force in what follows, "that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage." And how the mercy of God in all this becomes increased when the spiritual blessings of the gospel are seen in it. (4) Even in their bondage God had not forsaken them. For he gave them favour in the sight of the kings of Persia. This favour enabled them to return, "gave them a reviving," and to repair the desolations of the temple, of the holy city, and the wall. Such mercy claimed gratitude, but was requited with rebellion. Ezra is without apology (ver. 10). III. THE SUBMISSION TO THE JUDGMENT OF MERCY (vers. 6 and 15). 1. Here he awaits thejudgment of tlte Lord. (1) He is ashamed to look up. Who can bear to look into the face of an injured friend when we have nothing to plead in apology? That will be the position of the sinner in the great day of judgment. (2) He i~ oppressed by the growing weight of accumulating rebellion and ingratitude. He is terrified by the cloud upon the face of God. (3) He confesses that wrath to the uttermost is deserved. 2. Here is no formal plea for mercy. (1) There is the silent cry of misery and distress and blushing shame. But who can trust in this? It is only the consciousness of sin. (2) There is eloquence in the evening sacrifice. The victim slain is a vicarious sufferer. It is the shadow of a better sacrifice.- J. A. M.
EXPOSITION. Ezra seemed to him to have had in his mind CHAPTER X. and to have tacitly reco=ended. This step REPENTANCE OF THE PEOPLE, AND COVE· was that all present should at once enter NANT SWORN TO, ON THE REOOMMENDATION into a special covenant with God that they OF SHECHANIAJI (eh. x. 1-5). While Ezra woulcl do their utmost to have the mixed was uttering his prayer aloud, upon his marriages dissolved, and the idolatrous knees, in front of the temple, where tho wives, with their children, sent out of the evening sacrifice was being offered upon the country. The idea of such a special cove- great brazen altar (eh. iii. 2), the people nant was no new thing. One such had been gathered about him, heard what he said, made under Asa (2 Chron. xv. 12) against and had their feelings so stirred that numbers idolatry; another, more general, under of them burst into tears and " wept very Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 3); a third, nearly sore" (eh. x. 1). When he had ended, parallel with this, since it touched a single Shechaniah, the son of J ehiel (one of those point of the lnw only, under Zedek.iah (Jer. who had married an idolatrous wifo-ver. xxxiv. 8). The proposition of Shechaniah 26), took the word, and suggested all imme- approved itself to Ezra, who " arose, and diatu step towards that reformntion whi~h made the chief priests and Levites" present. 162 THE BOOK OF EZRA. Len. x. 1-44.