Ezra and Nehemiah (TOTC) by Derek Kidner

Author:Derek Kidner [Kidner, Derek]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783592371
Publisher: Inter-Varsity Press
Published: 2009-02-19T16:00:00+00:00

9:6–15. The Creator and Saviour

Verse 5b may well be the first sentence of this prayer, since the words And Ezra said (6a, RSV) are not in the Hebrew text. They are borrowed from LXX, and while they could be original, there is no compelling reason to accept them as such.60

The prayer is, like some of the Psalms (e.g. 78; 105; 106), an example of confession in both senses of the word: i.e. a confessing of God’s glory and grace as well as man’s ingratitude. So it is worship, not mere wallowing in self-reproach. It shows, too, the influence of the scripture reading of the recent weeks, for it begins, like Genesis, at the creation (note the expression, with all their host, as in Gen. 2:1, Heb.), pauses on the re-naming and the faith of Abram (7f.) which no other Old Testament passage after Genesis picks out for mention, and notes not only God’s covenant with him but the characteristic pentateuchal list of nations to be dispossessed, from Canaanites to Girgashites (8). Note too the unmistakable echo of the song at the Red Sea in the phrase as a stone into mighty waters (11; Exod. 15:5, 10).

So the theme of promise and fulfilment, stated in 8b, unfolds in the familiar events of the Exodus (9–15); and throughout verses 6–15 God is the subject of every sentence.

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