Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Ezra, by tearing his garments and pulling out his hair, laments the transgression of the people (that they had married pagan wives): and he beseeches God to turn away His wrath from the people.
Vulgate Text: 1 Esdrae 9:1-15
1. Now when these things were completed, the princes came to me, saying: The people of Israel, and the priests and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands and their abominations, namely of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and of the Ammonites, and of the Moabites, and of the Egyptians, and of the Amorites: 2. for they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, and have mingled the holy seed with the peoples of the lands: and the hand of the princes and magistrates has been first in this transgression. 3. And when I heard this, I tore my cloak and my tunic, and I pulled out the hair of my head and of my beard, and I sat down mourning. 4. And all who feared the word of the God of Israel gathered around me, because of the transgression of those who had come from captivity; and I sat grieving until the evening sacrifice: 5. and at the evening sacrifice I rose from my affliction, and with my cloak and tunic torn, I bowed my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God, 6. and I said: My God, I am confounded and ashamed to lift up my face to You: for our iniquities are multiplied over our heads, and our sins have grown up to heaven, 7. from the days of our fathers: and we ourselves have sinned grievously even to this day, and for our iniquities we have been delivered, we and our kings and our priests, into the hand of the kings of the lands, and to the sword, and to captivity, and to plunder, and to the shame of our faces, as it is this day. 8. And now for a little while and for a moment our prayer has been made before the Lord our God, that a remnant might be left to us, that a peg might be given us in His holy place, and that our God might enlighten our eyes, and give us a little life in our servitude, 9. for we are slaves, and in our servitude our God has not forsaken us, but has inclined mercy toward us before the king of the Persians, to give us life and to raise up the house of our God, and to rebuild its ruins, and to give us a hedge in Judah and Jerusalem. 10. And now what shall we say, our God, after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments, 11. which You commanded by the hand of Your servants the prophets, saying: The land which you are entering to possess is an unclean land, according to the uncleanness of the peoples and of other lands, by the abominations of those who have filled it from one end to the other with their uncleanness. 12. Now therefore give not your daughters to their sons, and take not their daughters for your sons, and seek not their peace, nor their prosperity forever: that you may be strengthened, and eat the good things of the land, and have your children as heirs forever. 13. And after all that has come upon us for our most wicked deeds, and for our great sin, because You, our God, have delivered us from our iniquity, and have given us salvation as it is today, 14. lest we should turn back and make void Your commandments, and join in marriages with the peoples of these abominations. Would You be angry with us even to our utter destruction, so as to leave us no remnant for salvation? 15. O Lord God of Israel, You are just: for we are left who may be saved, as it is this day. Behold, we are before You in our sin, for no one can stand before You in this matter.
Verse 2: They Had Taken of Their Daughters
2. For they had taken of their daughters for themselves — as wives. Note: God, in Exodus 34 and Deuteronomy 7:3, had commanded the Jews not to take Canaanite wives who inhabited the holy land to be occupied by the Jews, and this on account of the danger of perversion: lest, namely, they be enticed by idolatrous wives to worship idols, as Nehemiah intimates, last chapter, verses 24 and 26. The same judgment applied to the Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, etc.: understand this to mean unless the wives first abandoned their idols and converted to the true God and Judaism; for then it was lawful to marry them, as Salmon married Rahab, and Boaz married Ruth.
Lyranus and the Gloss assign this as the cause of the sin: that the Jews, coming to Jerusalem and seeing their wives emaciated, wrinkled, and disfigured from the labor and hardships of the journey, despised them, and therefore married young, healthy, and beautiful women from the neighboring nations.
The hand of the princes and magistrates was first in this transgression — as if to say: In this deed of marrying pagan wives, the princes were the first, they who should have turned others away from this crime and restrained them. For the hand is applied to a work in order to do it; and by hand joined to hand, the mutual pledge of husband and wife is customarily given.
Verse 7: As It Is This Day
7. As it is this day — we see, experience, and feel the plagues already mentioned, with which God continually strikes our backs and scourges our sins.
Verse 8: Our Prayer Has Been Made Before the Lord
8. And now for a little while and for a moment our prayer has been made (acceptably and heard) before the Lord — that is, we have obtained from God a small thing and one lasting, as is to be feared, only a short time through our prayer, namely, that we might be allowed to return from Babylon to our homeland. Whence the Septuagint translates: And now for a little while the Lord has been appeased toward us. For Ezra feared that because of these marriages contracted with the Gentiles, God would again be angry and revoke the return to Jerusalem, hinder it, and involve them in other calamities.
And that a peg might be given us in His holy place (so read with the Hebrew, Septuagint, and the Roman editions, not "His peace"); that is, "and that a peg might be given us," meaning a modest stability (for with pegs and nails they fastened tents, beams, and timbers, so that they would stand firm) of our habitation in Jerusalem.
Whence the Septuagint translates "peg" as support. So Cajetan, Vatablus, and others. Symbolically, the "peg" signifies the princes and magistrates from the Jewish nation: for the people depended on them, just as a vessel or beam hangs from a peg, as I said on Isaiah 22:23, at those words of God concerning Eliakim the Pontiff: "And I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place, and he shall be for a throne of glory to the house of his father." Ezra therefore counts it as a great benefit that Artaxerxes gave the Jews princes and magistrates from their own nation, who would govern them according to their ancestral laws and institutions, and promote them in the true worship of God; for if he had given them Persians, those would have cared little about preserving the worship of God. And by this benefit) He might enlighten (that is, refresh, make joyful (for just as darkness is the symbol and cause of sadness, so light is of joy)) our eyes, our God: and give us a little life in our servitude. — "Life" understand as pleasant, free, and joyful; for to live in sorrow and servitude is death rather than life. Add what Xenophon reports, book 7 of the Cyropaedia, that Cyrus, when the Persians were raging against the citizens after the capture of Babylon, commanded them to spare and give life to those who spoke the Syriac language, that is, Hebrew: for God had put this thought in his mind for the sake of the Jews.
Verse 9: Rebuild Its Ruins and Give Us a Hedge
9. And might rebuild its ruins (so he calls the ruins and desolate houses in Jerusalem, which were now being restored): And might give us a hedge — (so read with the Roman editions, not "hope," as others read), that is, a protection, defense, and security from the Samaritans, and other enemies who now under Cambyses had hindered the building of the city and the temple; and this was accomplished through the favor of Artaxerxes, so benevolent and so powerful a monarch.
Verse 11: Filled the Land with Their Uncleanness
11. Who have filled it from one end to the other with their uncleanness — that is, they filled it on every side, just as a vessel is filled from rim to rim, that is, from one extremity to the other with vinegar or some other liquid. Sanchez adds: "The 'mouth' denotes a measure, because every measure, especially of liquids, has an opening, which is at the top of the vessel, and when there is a great abundance of some liquid, it is poured from one vessel already full into another through a channel, and from that again into another, until all vessels are filled to the brim." By which manner of speaking, many provinces are signified as full of pagan abomination.
Verse 12: Now Therefore
12. Now therefore — these are the words of God forbidding anyone to take a pagan wife.
And do not seek their peace or their prosperity — that is, do not care about, love, or seek the prosperity of the neighboring Gentiles, who, enjoying peace, abound in riches and pleasures, so that on that account you desire to enter into alliances and marriages with them; but rather serve your God in your own land, and from Him seek and expect all good things. Secondly, that is, do not be anxious about the peace and prosperity of the neighboring Gentiles, so as to rejoice in it; or if it is taken from them, to grieve; for I do not wish you to enter into friendship with them and contract marriages, but rather I desire you to be averse and hostile to them, that you may trample, overthrow, and destroy them, as God commanded, Exodus 23:32.
Verse 13: After All That Has Come upon Us
13. And after all that has come upon us for our deeds (that is, because of our deeds: for the Hebrew letter is that of price or merit) most wicked, and for our sin (the great sin of idolatry, by which under Solomon, Manasseh, Jeconiah, etc., having abandoned God, we worshiped the idols of the nations;) because You, our God, have delivered us (from the Babylonian captivity, into which we had fallen because of our sins,) and given us salvation (freedom, that we might safely return to Jerusalem) as it is today — that is, as we see today to have been accomplished, we rejoice and give thanks; and You, O Lord, did this to this end, that, drawn by so great a benefit of Yours,
Verse 14: We Would Not Turn Back
14. We would not turn back — to our former idols and vices. Note: The word ki, that is "because," is not here taken properly as signifying a cause, but improperly, and in two ways: first, as a particle signifying nothing, but added redundantly by pleonasm and merely for ornament: for the Hebrews frequently use ki in this way, especially when they wish to signify something weighty or excellent, or greatly desired or pleasing, as in John 4, where Christ says to the Samaritan woman: "You have well said, 'because' I have no husband;" that is, that I have no husband. And Hosea, chapter 10, verse 5: "Because the people mourned over it." And in the same chapter, verse 3: "Because now they will say: We have no king." And in Psalm 17 (18), the particle ki in Hebrew is placed four times for ornament, and the Latin "quoniam," which corresponds to it and means the same as "quia," in verses 31, 32, 33, 35. Therefore the sense would be: After all these things which we endured because of our wicked deeds, You, our God, delivered us. So Sanchez.
Secondly, more forcefully, Vatablus translates "because" as "yet." For in Hebrew ki, that is "because," is often adversative and is taken for "but," "yet," "nevertheless," as in Isaiah 36: "Shall the earth bring forth in one day? Because Zion has travailed and brought forth;" that is, the earth will not be able to bring forth in one day; nevertheless Zion will. Psalm 36 (37), when David had said of the just: "They shall not be confounded in the evil time;" he adds of the wicked: "Because sinners shall perish;" that is, nevertheless sinners shall perish. And Psalm 13 (14), when he had said of sinners: "They trembled with fear where there was no fear;" of the just he immediately adds: "Because the Lord is in the just generation," that is, nevertheless God will be with the just and therefore they will not fear.
So also here: whence Vatablus translates: But after all these things came upon us because of our evil deeds and because of our great sins; You, nevertheless, O our God, spared us, lest You should crush us for our iniquities. For Ezra marvels at the immense clemency of God toward the Jews, that He did not abandon them in Babylon for such great crimes, nor utterly destroy them, but spared them; indeed, He even increased them with new and great gifts, namely freedom, return to their homeland, and the restoration of the city and temple; so that He seems to have competed with their ingratitude and offenses by His benefits. This is divine clemency surpassing all human clemency, and proper to God alone. Would You be angry with us to the point of utter destruction (that You would utterly destroy and consume us) and leave us no remnant for salvation? — that is, that from so many thousands of Jews You would save only a few, as mere remnants of the people? As if to say: By no means: for although You could have justly done this to us because of our sins, You nevertheless did not wish to. For Your clemency conquered Your justice, so that You saved not merely a few remnants, but many thousands of Jews both in Judea and in Babylon, and preserved them alive, who would revive the former glory and splendor of Israel and of Your commonwealth and Church, as if from the dead, and display it alive again and glorious.
Verse 15: O Lord God of Israel, You Are Just
15. O Lord God of Israel, You are just: for we are left who may be saved, as it is this day — it is apparent and seen by all, that is, many of us indeed perished for our sins, because by Your just judgment You condemned them; yet not a few were left alive to be saved: in which matter You exercised a certain excess of justice, that You might be and be called most just, because You did not destroy all, as You justly could have; but You saved many, tempering Your justice with great clemency; indeed, Your justice allowed itself to be conquered by Your clemency, or rather it converted itself into clemency, and caused clemency to take the place of justice. For this is the excess of justice, when justice yields its place to clemency, and indeed is changed and transformed into it.
Behold, we are before You in our sin — that is, we present ourselves as guilty before You of the most grievous sin, namely that we married pagan wives.
For no one can stand before You in this matter — that is, this cannot by any reasoning be denied, excused, concealed, or defended; the Hebrew reads: For there is no standing before You in this; without our falling in judgment and being judged sinners, ungrateful, and guilty of offending the divine majesty. Therefore, for shame we cover our faces, indeed we cast them to the ground, begging Your grace and mercy. Such should be the disposition and prayer, the shame and contrition of penitents.