Ezra 9:3

When I heard about this, I tore my clothes, pulled out some hair from my head and beard, and sat down, absolutely appalled.

Free Bible Version

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

2Some Israelites have even married women from these people, both themselves and their sons, mixing the holy race with these people of the land. Our leaders and officials are at the forefront of this sinful behavior.”

4Everyone who respected the instructions of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this sin on the part of the exiles. I sat there shocked and appalled until the evening sacrifice.

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Cross References

Leviticus 21:5Priests are not to shave bald spots on their heads, trim the sides of their beards, or cut their bodies.

2 Kings 18:37Then Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, the palace manager, Shebna the scribe, and Joah, son of Asaph, the record-keeper, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and they told him what the Assyrian army general had said.

Nehemiah 13:25So I confronted them and told them they were cursed. I beat some of them and pulled out their hair. Then I made them take an oath before God, saying, “You must not allow your daughters to marry their sons, or allow your sons—or yourselves— to marry their daughters.

Job 2:12When they saw Job from a distance they hardly recognized him. They broke out into loud wailing, tore their robes, and threw dust into the air over their heads.

Psalms 143:4I sense myself fading away inside; I am overwhelmed by a sense of desolation.

Jeremiah 7:29Cut off your hair and throw it away. Sing a song of mourning on the bare hills, for the Lord has rejected and abandoned the generation who made him angry.”

Matthew Henry on Ezra 9:2-5

Ezra's Reformation. ( b. c. 456.) 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… Read the whole commentary →

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