King James Version › Ezra › 9

Ezra

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1 Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, say­ing, The peo­ple of Is­rael, and the priests, and the Levites, have not sep­a­rat­ed them­selves from the peo­ple of the lands, doing ac­cord­ing to their abom­i­na­tions, even of the Canaan­ites, the Hit­tites, the Per­izzites, the Je­busites, the Am­monites, the Moabites, the Egyp­tians, and the Amor­ites. 2 For they have tak­en of their daugh­ters for them­selves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have min­gled them­selves with the peo­ple of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this tres­pass. 3 And when I heard this thing, I rent my gar­ment and my man­tle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down as­tonied. 4 Then were as­sem­bled unto me ev­ery one that trem­bled at the words of the God of Is­rael, be­cause of the trans­gres­sion of those that had been car­ried away; and I sat as­tonied un­til the evening sac­ri­fice. 5 And at the evening sac­ri­fice I arose up from my heav­i­ness; and hav­ing rent my gar­ment and my man­tle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God, 6 And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our in­iq­ui­ties are in­creased over our head, and our tres­pass is grown up unto the heav­ens. 7 Since the days of our fa­thers have we been in a great tres­pass unto this day; and for our in­iq­ui­ties have we, our kings, and our priests, been de­liv­ered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to cap­tiv­i­ty, and to a spoil, and to con­fu­sion of face, as it is this day. 8 And now for a lit­tle space grace hath been shewed from the LORD our God, to leave us a rem­nant to es­cape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may light­en our eyes, and give us a lit­tle re­viv­ing in our bondage. 9 For we were bond­men; yet our God hath not for­sak­en us in our bondage, but hath ex­tend­ed mer­cy unto us in the sight of the kings of Per­sia, to give us a re­viv­ing, to set up the house of our God, and to re­pair the des­o­la­tions there­of, and to give us a wall in Ju­dah and in Jerusalem. 10 And now, O our God, what shall we say af­ter this? for we have for­sak­en thy com­mand­ments, 11 Which thou hast com­mand­ed by thy ser­vants the prophets, say­ing, The land, unto which ye go to pos­sess it, is an un­clean land with the filth­i­ness of the peo­ple of the lands, with their abom­i­na­tions, which have filled it from one end to an­oth­er with their un­clean­ness. 12 Now there­fore give not your daugh­ters unto their sons, nei­ther take their daugh­ters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ev­er: that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an in­her­i­tance to your chil­dren for ev­er. 13 And af­ter all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great tres­pass, see­ing that thou our God hast pun­ished us less than our in­iq­ui­ties deserve, and hast giv­en us such de­liv­er­ance as this; 14 Should we again break thy com­mand­ments, and join in affin­i­ty with the peo­ple of these abom­i­na­tions? wouldest not thou be an­gry with us till thou hadst con­sumed us, so that there should be no rem­nant nor es­cap­ing? 15 O LORD God of Is­rael, thou art righ­teous: for we re­main yet es­caped, as it is this day: be­hold, we are be­fore thee in our tres­pass­es: for we can­not stand be­fore thee be­cause of this.