Ezra 9:8

And now, for a little space, grace hath been showed from the Lord our God,.... It was but a small time since the Lord first began to show favour to them, so that they soon after began to revolt from

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.

Now for a little space: it is but a little while since God hath delivered and restored us, and yet we are already returned to our former sin and folly. Or thus, We have enjoyed this favour but a little while, and now we are sinning it away, and shortening our own happiness. To leave us a remnant to escape; that by his favour many of us should escape out of captivity; whom he calls but a remnant, because the far greatest part of the Israelitish nation were yet in captivity. To give us a nail, i.e. either, 1. A just and merciful prince of our own nation and religion; such being compared to nails or pins, as . Or rather, 2. Some kind of settlement; whereas before we were tossed and removed from place to place as our masters pleased. It is a metaphor from tents, which are fastened by cords and nails, or pins. In his holy place, i.e. in this holy land, as the land of Judah is called, . Or, in Jerusalem, which is called the holy city, ,18 Daniel 9:24; which is peculiarly mentioned, because of the temple, which was the nail which fastened their tents, and gave them some ground of hopes to continue in their land. That our God may lighten our eyes, i.e. that he might revive and comfort our hearts. For as darkness is oft put for a state of sorrow and affliction, so light is put for joy and comfort. Give us a little reviving in our bondage; for we are not quite delivered, but still wear our fetters upon us, being even here in subjection to our former lords.

Ezra 9:8 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.Ver. 8. And now for a little space] Heb. point, or moment of time. God let loose his hand for a while, and gave them some little liberty, to make them instances of his mercy who had been objects of his wrath; but nothing would mend them and make them better. And to give us a nail] That is, some settlement, some subject of hope, and support of faith. He seemeth to allude to such nails as wherewith they fastened their tents to the ground (Jael drove one of those tent nails through Sisera’ s temples, and laid him safe enough), or else to those nails that, driven into pales, do fasten them to their rails. That our God may lighten our eyes] i.e. cheer up our hearts, and so clear up our eyesight; which, when the spirit is dejected, grows dim, for want of spirits. Profecto oculis animus inhabitat, saith Pliny (lib. ii. cap. 32); truly so it is, that the heart dwelleth in the eye; there it sitteth and showeth itself pleased or displeased with whatsoever occurrences. And as a looking-glass is the eye of art; so is the eye the looking-glass of nature. And give us a little reviving in our bondage] Not light only, but heat also, by the beams of his pleased countenance, which is better than life. The life of some kind of creatures is merely in the sun; in winter they lie for dead; in summer they revive. So it is with the saints; all their comfort consists in God’ s grace and favour. They look unto him and are lightened, Psalms 34:5; he hideth his face, and they are troubled; their breath is taken away, they die and return to their dust, Psalms 104:29. These captives in Babylon lay for that time as dead and buried, Isaiah 26:19. God opened their graves, and caused them to come up out of their graves, and brought them to the land of Israel, Ezekiel 37:13. For his favour is no empty favour; it is not like the winter sun, that casts a goodly countenance when it shineth, but gives little comfort and heat. He is the Father of lights, and the God of all grace and consolation, &c., he gives all things needful to life and godliness, so that to have sinned against so good a God, to kick against such tender bowels, was a further aggravation of their sin; and so it is here used and urged.

(5-15) Ezra’s prayer of confession and deprecation. (5) And at the evening sacrifice I arose up.—Until the afternoon Ezra had sat silent and in grief before the Temple, and in presence of the people. Then, amidst the solemnities of the sacrifice, he uttered the prayer which he had been meditating. (6) And said, O my God.—The confession begins with “O my God;” but Ezra is the representative of the people, and it proceeds “O our God” (Ezra 9:10), without once returning to the first person. (7) Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass.—In these Common Prayers of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel, the race of Israel is regarded as one, and national sins as one “great trespass.” The repetition of “this day” at the beginning and at the end of the verse is to be observed: in the former place in reference to the sin; in the latter in reference to the punishment. (8) A little space.—The “little” here and at the close of the sentence are emphatic. All the present tokens of mercy are said at the conclusion of the prayer (Ezra 9:14) to be conditional in their continuance. The little space from the time of Cyrus was nearly two generations; but it was a moment only in relation to the past and the possible future. The idea is inverted in Isaiah 54:7 : “For a small moment have I forsaken thee.” Nail in his holy place.—The Temple was itself the sure nail on which all their hopes hung. A little reviving.—Literally, make us a little life. The present revival was but the beginning, and still by manifold tokens precarious. (9) We were bondmen.—Better, we are bondmen. In this lies the emphasis of the appeal. A wall.—Like “the nail,” a figurative expression for security. The literal wall was not yet rebuilt. This completes the description of Divine mercy: first, the people were a delivered remnant; the Temple was a sure nail for the future of religion; and their civil estate was made secure. (10) After this.—But all was a mercy for which there had been no adequate return. (11) Saying.—In the later Old Testament Scriptures the quotation of the earlier is often of this character, giving the substance of many passages. The same style is observable in the New Testament. (12) Give not your daughters.—See Deuteronomy 7:3, the only place where the interdict includes both daughters and sons. It is observable that the giving of daughters in marriage to heathens is not mentioned either in Ezra or in Nehemiah. Nor seek their peace.—An evident echo of that most stern injunction in Deuteronomy 23:6. (15) O Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous.—The solemn invocation shows that this is a summary of the whole prayer: God’s righteousness is magnified, as accompanied by the grace which had preserved them, although as only a remnant; and as such covered with their trespasses; and especially with “this” the present trespass, the guilt of which underlies all.

Verse 8. And now for a little space] This interval in which they were returning from servitude to their own land. Grace hath been showed] God has disposed the hearts of the Persian kings to publish edicts in our favour. To leave us a remnant to escape] The ten tribes are gone irrecoverably into captivity; a great part even of Judah and Benjamin had continued beyond the Euphrates: so that Ezra might well say, there was but a remnant which had escaped. A nail in his holy place] Even so much ground as to fix our tent-poles in. May lighten our eyes] To give us a thorough knowledge of ourselves and of our highest interest, and to enable us to re-establish his worship, is the reason why God has brought us back to this place. A little reviving] We were perishing, and our hopes were almost dead; and, because of our sins, we were sentenced to death: but God in his great mercy has given us a new trial; and he begins with little, to see if we will make a wise and faithful use of it.

8. The period since the decree of Cyrus a divinely appointed respite of probation. And now for a little space] R.V. And now for a little moment. ‘For a little moment’, as in Isaiah 26:20 ‘Hide thyself for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast’. Ezra means that as compared with the long periods of Israel’s disobedience (Ezra 9:7), and Israel’s punishment, the interval of eighty years since Zerubbabel’s return was but a short chapter in the people’s history. grace] The word in the Hebrew is practically always elsewhere in the O.T. rendered ‘supplication’ (e.g. 1 Kings 8:30; 1 Kings 8:38; 1 Kings 8:52; 1 Kings 9:3; Psalms 6:9; Psalms 55:1; Psalms 119:170; Jeremiah 36:7; Jeremiah 37:20; Jeremiah 38:26; Jeremiah 42:9; Daniel 9:20; 2 Chronicles 6:19; 2 Chronicles 6:29; 2 Chronicles 6:35; 2 Chronicles 6:39; 2 Chronicles 33:13). The only possible exception is Joshua 11:20 ‘That they might utterly destroy them, that they might have no favour’ (marg. Or, might not sue for favour). Here the word clearly means the favour or grace, for which the supplication is made. to leave us a remnant to escape] A remnant to escape (p‘lêtah) (1) from the destruction of Jerusalem, as in Ezekiel 14:22 ‘Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be carried forth’, (2) from the evils and degenerating influences of the captivity, as in Nehemiah 1:3 ‘I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem’. and to give us a nail in his holy place] R.V. marg. ‘See Isaiah 22:23’, ‘And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place’, referring to Eliakim. The writer makes use of a metaphor, which to us is a little obscure. The passage from Isaiah gives us the image of a nail or peg firmly fastened into a wall so that vessels could be hung from it securely. Others have derived the metaphor from camp life: upon the peg being driven into a firm soil depended the security of the tent. Cf. Isaiah 54:2 ‘lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes’ (or nails). In either case the nail is that which holds up or supports. Its power to do so, however strong the nail may be itself, depends upon the firmness of that into which it is driven.—‘The nail’ here is neither the Temple, as some have supposed, nor the princes and priests, but the community returned from Babylon established at Jerusalem. Upon this community depended the whole hopes of Israel. Ezra acknowledges the mercy which has permitted ‘the nail’ of the new Israel to be fixed once more in the place which God had chosen. in his holy place] i.e. in Jerusalem, and at his Temple. The phrase occurs again in Psalms 24:3 ‘Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? and who shall stand in his holy place’? cf. Isaiah 60:13. That ‘holy place’ was the centre of the nation’s life, the witness to the Divine Presence.

The “little space” was above 60 years, counting from the second year of Darius Ezra 4:24, or about 80 years, counting from the first year of Cyrus Ezra 1:1. This does not seem to Ezra much in the “lifetime” of a nation.

8. Now for a little space — From the time of Cyrus. Yet in that short time not a few sorrows had befallen them.