Commentaria in I Esdrae
Chapter 9. Synopsis of the Chapter
Esdras laments the offence of the people (that they had taken wives from the Gentiles), rending his garments and plucking out his hair, and beseeches God to turn away his wrath from the people.
1. Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying: The people of Israel, and the priests and the Levites are not separated from the people of the lands, and from their abominations, and of the Egyptians, and of the Amorrhites: 2. for they have taken of their daughters wives for themselves and for their sons, and have mingled the holy seed with the people of the lands: and the hand of the princes and magistrates hath been first in this transgression. 3. And when I had heard this word, I rent my cloak and my coat, and pulled off the hairs of my head and beard, and sat down mourning. 4. And there assembled to me all that feared the word of the God of Israel, for the transgression of them that were come out of the captivity: and I sat sorrowful until the evening sacrifice. 5. And at the evening sacrifice I rose up from my affliction: and having rent my cloak and my coat, I fell upon my knees, and spread my hands to the Lord my God, 6. and I said: O my God, I am confounded and ashamed to lift up my face to thee: for our iniquities are multiplied over our heads, and our sins are grown up even unto heaven, 7. from the days of our fathers: and we ourselves also have sinned grievously unto this day: and for our iniquities we, and our kings, and our priests, have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, and to the sword, and to captivity, and to plunder, and to confusion of face, as it is this day. 8. And now as it were for a little and for a moment, our prayer is come before the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant, and give us a pin in his holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes, and give us a little life in our servitude. 9. For we are bondmen, and in our bondage our God hath not forsaken us, but hath inclined his mercy towards us before the king of the Persians: that he would give us life, and would exalt the house of our God, and would rebuild the ruins thereof, and give us a fence in Juda and Jerusalem. 10. And now what shall we say, O our God, after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments, 11. which thou hast commanded by the hand of thy servants the prophets, saying: The land, which you go to possess, is an unclean land, according to the uncleanness of the people, and of other lands, of their abominations, who have filled it from one end to the other with their filthiness. 12. Now therefore give not your daughters to their sons: and take not their daughters for your sons: and seek not peace with them, nor prosperity for them for ever: that you may be strengthened, and eat the good things of the land, and may leave an inheritance to your sons for ever. 13. And after all that is fallen upon us for our wicked works, and for our great sin: seeing that thou, our God, hast delivered us from our iniquity, and hast given us salvation, as it is this day: 14. that we should not turn back, and make void thy commandments, nor join in marriage with the people of these abominations. Art thou angry with us even unto utter destruction, so as to leave us no remnant to be saved? 15. O Lord God of Israel, thou art just: for we have been left a remnant to be saved, as it is this day. Behold we are before thee in our sin: for there is no standing before thee upon this account.
2. For they have taken of their daughters wives for themselves. Note: God, Exodus 34 and Deuteronomy 7:3, had commanded the Jews not to take as wives the Chanaanite women who inhabited the holy land to be occupied by the Jews, and this on account of the danger of perversion; lest, namely, they should be enticed by idolatrous wives to worship idols, as Nehemias hints, last chapter, verses 24 and 26. The same judgment held of the Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, etc.: understand, unless the wives had first cast away their idols and been converted to the true God and to Judaism; for then it was lawful to take them, as Solomon took Rahab, and Booz took Ruth.
The cause of the sin Lyranus and the Gloss assign to be this, that the Jews, coming into Jerusalem and seeing their wives lean, wrinkled and misshapen from the toil and hardships of the journey, despised them, and therefore took from the neighbouring nations young women, vigorous and beautiful.
And the hand of the princes and magistrates hath been first in this transgression—as if to say: In this work of taking Gentile wives the first were the princes, who ought to have turned others away from this crime and restrained them. For the hand is applied to a work that we may work it; and by hand joined to hand the mutual pledge of husband and wife is wont to be given.
7. As it is this day—we see, experience and feel the afflictions just mentioned, with which God continually scourges our backs and chastises our sins.
8. And now as it were for a little and for a moment our prayer is come (acceptable and heard) before …by our prayer we have obtained from God, namely that it should be lawful for us to return from Babylon to our country. Hence the Septuagint render: And now the Lord has been, as it were for a little, made gentle to us. For Esdras feared lest, on account of these marriages contracted with the Gentiles, God, angry again, would recall, hinder, and involve in other hardships the return to Jerusalem.
And give us a pin in his holy place (so read with the Hebrew, the Septuagint, the Roman text, not “peace of him”; as if to say, “and a pin should be given us,” that is, a modest firmness (for with pins and nails they fixed tabernacles, beams and timbers, that they might stand firm) of our dwelling in Jerusalem.
Hence the Septuagint for “pin” render firmament. So Cajetan, Vatablus and others. Symbolically, the “pin” signifies the princes and magistrates of the Jewish nation: for the people hung from these, as a vessel or beam hangs from a pin, as I said on Isaias 22: “And I will fasten him as a pin in a sure place, and he shall be for a throne of glory to the house of his father.” Esdras therefore reckons it a great benefit that Artaxerxes gave the Jews princes and magistrates from their own nation, to govern them according to their country’s laws and institutions, and to further them in the true worship of God; for if he had given Persians, they would have cared little to preserve the worship of God. And by this benefit) that our God may enlighten (that is, recreate, gladden (for as darkness is the symbol and cause of sadness, so light is of joy)) our eyes: and give us a little life in our servitude.—“Life,” understand pleasant, free and joyful; for to live in grief and servitude is death rather than life. Add what Xenophon hands down, book 7 of the Cyropaedia, that Cyrus, when after the capture of Babylon the Persians were raging against the citizens, commanded that they should spare and give life to those who spoke the Syriac tongue, that is, the Jewish: for God put this mind in him for the sake of the Jews.
9. And would rebuild the ruins (so he calls the desolate houses in Jerusalem, which were now being restored:) and give us a fence (so read with the Roman text, not “hope,” as others read), that is, a bulwark, protection and security from the Samaritans and other enemies who now under Cambyses hindered the building of the city and the temple; and this was done through the favour of Artaxerxes, so kindly and so powerful a monarch.
11. Who have filled it from one end to the other with their filthiness— that is, have filled it on every side, as a vessel is filled from mouth to mouth, that is, from one extremity to the other, with vinegar or some other liquid. Sanchez adds: “‘Mouth,’ he says, denotes measure, because every measure of liquids especially has an orifice, which is the top in the vessel, and where there is great abundance of some liquid, it is poured through a channel from one vessel now full into another, and thence again into another, until all the vessels are filled to the top.” In which manner of speaking many provinces are signified as full of Gentile abomination.
12. Now therefore—these are the words of God forbidding anyone to take a Gentile wife.
And seek not peace with them nor their prosperity—namely, the prosperity of the neighbouring Gentiles, who enjoying peace abound in wealth and delights, so that on that account you might desire to enter into alliance and marriages with them; but rather serve your God in your own land, and from him ask and expect all prosperity. Secondly, as if to say: Be not anxious about the peace of the neighbouring Gentiles, nor grieve if it be taken away; for I do not wish you to enter into friendship with them, and to join in marriage, but rather desire that you be turned away from them and be their enemies, that you may trample on, overthrow and cut them off, as God commanded, Exodus 23:32.
13. And after all that is fallen upon us for our wicked works (that is, on account of our works: for the preposition has the sense of price or merit), and for our great sin (of idolatry, by which under Solomon, Manasses, Jechonias, etc., having forsaken God, we worshipped the idols of the Gentiles); seeing that thou, our God, hast delivered us (from the Babylonian captivity, into which we had fallen on account of our sins), and hast given us salvation (liberty, that we might return safe to Jerusalem) as it is this day—that is, as we see done today, rejoice at, and give thanks for; and this, O Lord, thou didst to this end, that, enticed by so great a benefit of thine,
14. we should not turn back—to our former idols and vices. Note: The word ki, that is “because,” is here not taken properly to signify a cause, but improperly, and in 2 ways; first as a particle signifying nothing, but redundant by pleonasm and added merely for ornament: for so the Hebrews often use ki, especially when they wish to signify a grave or exceptional matter, or one greatly desired or welcome, as in John 4, where Christ says to the Samaritan woman: “Thou hast said well, because I have no husband”; that is, that I have no husband. And Osee 10:5: “Because the people thereof hath mourned over it.” And in the same chapter, verse 3: “Because now they shall say: We have no king.” And in Psalm 16 the particle ki is four times put for ornament, and “quoniam” in Latin, which answers to it, and is equivalent to quia, verse …which on account of our wicked works we have endured, thou, our God, hast delivered us. So Sanchez.
Secondly, more vigorously, Vatablus renders for “because” nevertheless. For in Hebrew ki, that is “because,” is often adversative and is taken for but, yet, nevertheless, as Isaias 66: “Shall the earth bring forth in one day? because Sion hath been in labour and hath brought forth”; that is, the earth will not be able to bring forth in one day; nevertheless Sion will be able. Psalm 36, when David had said of the just: “They shall not be confounded in the evil time,” he adds of the wicked: “Because the wicked shall perish”; that is, nevertheless the wicked shall perish. And Psalm 13, when he had said of sinners: “They have trembled for fear, where there was no fear,” he at once adds of the just: “Because the Lord is in the just generation,” that is, nevertheless God will be with the just, and therefore they shall not fear.
So also here: hence Vatablus renders: After all these things came upon us for our evil works, and for our enormous sins; thou nevertheless, O our God, hast spared, so as not to depress us as our iniquities deserved. For Esdras marvels at the immense clemency of God towards the Jews, that on account of such crimes he did not forsake them in Babylon, nor wholly destroy them, but spared them; nay, that he increased them with new and great gifts, namely liberty, return to their country, restoration of the city and temple; so that by his benefits he seems to have contended with their ingratitude and misdeeds. This is divine clemency surpassing all human, and proper to God alone.
Art thou angry with us even unto utter destruction (so as wholly to scatter and consume us) so as to leave us no remnant to be saved?—that is, that out of so many thousands of Jews thou shouldst save only a few, as the remnants of the people? As if to say: By no means: for although thou mightest most justly have done this to us on account of our crimes, yet thou wouldst not. For thy clemency overcame thy justice, so that thou hast saved and preserved in life not only a few remnants, but many thousands of the Jews, both in Judea and in Babylon, who shall raise up, as it were from death, the former glory and splendour of Israel, and of thy Commonwealth and Church, and shall show it living again and glorious.
15. O Lord God of Israel, thou art just: for we have been left a remnant to be saved as it is this day—it appears and is seen by all; as if to say: Many indeed of us have perished for our sins, because by thy just judgment thou didst condemn them; yet not a few are left surviving in life to be saved: in which thing thou hast made a certain excess of justice, so that thou art and art called most just, in that thou hast not destroyed all, as thou justly mightest, but hast saved many, tempering thy justice with great clemency; indeed, that thy justice suffered itself to be overcome by thy clemency, or rather turned itself into clemency, and brought it about that clemency took the place of justice. For this is the excess of justice, when justice yields its place to clemency, nay, changes and transforms itself into it.
Behold we are before thee in our sin—as if to say: We present ourselves to thee as guilty of a most grave fault, namely that we have taken Gentile wives.
For there is no standing before thee upon this account—as if to say: This cannot by any reasoning be denied, excused, veiled or defended; the Hebrew: For there is no standing before thee on this account; but we fall in the cause at judgment, and are judged sinners, ungrateful, and guilty of treason against the divine majesty. Wherefore for shame we veil our face, nay, cast it to the ground, begging thy grace and mercy. Such ought to be the feeling and prayer of penitents, shame and contrition.