Ezra had separated them from their strange wives some years before, but they had relapsed into the same sin, and had either made marriages or at least made friendships with them, and contracted such an intimacy as was a snare to them. The seed of Israel, because they were a holy seed, appropriated to God and more excellent than their neighbours, separated themselves from all strangers with whom they had mingled and joined in affinity. Without this, spreading sackcloth and ashes under us is but a jest. It was a day to loose the bands of wickedness, and that is the fast that God has chosen. The joy of our holy feasts must give way to the sorrow of our solemn fasts when they come. They were restrained from weeping,, but now they were directed to weep. By these outward expressions of sorrow and humiliation they gave glory to God, took shame to themselves, and stirred up one another to repentance. Probably they assembled in the courts of the temple, and they there appeared in sackcloth and in the posture of mourners, with earth on their heads. It was a fast that men appointed, but such a fast as God had chosen for, 1. We have here a general account of a public fast which the children of Israel kept, probably by order from Nehemiah, by and with the advice and consent of the chief of the fathers. 3 And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the L ORD their God one fourth part of the day and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the L ORD their God.
2 And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. 1 Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them. Neh 9:2 | MHC | STEP | The Repentance of the People.
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