Ezra 8:21

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Summary

Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.

I proclaimed

Afflict ourselves

Jeremiah 50:4

To seek

For our little ones

General references

Jeremiah 42:3

Bible References

I proclaimed

Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up to Beth-el, weeping and waiting there before the Lord, going without food all day till evening, and offering burned offerings and peace-offerings before the Lord.

So they came together to Mizpah, and got water, draining it out before the Lord, and they took no food that day, and they said, We have done evil against the Lord. And Samuel was judge of the children of Israel in Mizpah.

Then Jehoshaphat, in his fear, went to the Lord for directions, and gave orders all through Judah for the people to go without food.

Let a time be fixed for going without food, have a holy meeting, let the old men, even all the people of the land, come together to the house of the Lord your God, crying out to the Lord.

But even now, says the Lord, come back to me with all your heart, keeping from food, with weeping and with sorrow:

And the people of Nineveh had belief in God; and a time was fixed for going without food, and they put on haircloth, from the greatest to the least.

Afflict ourselves

And let this be an order to you for ever: in the seventh month, on the tenth day, you are to keep yourselves from pleasure and do no sort of work, those who are Israelites by birth and those from other lands who are living among you:

For any person, whoever he may be, who takes his pleasure on that day will be cut off from his people.

They say, Why have we kept ourselves from food, and you do not see it? why have we kept ourselves from pleasure, and you take no note of it? If, in the days when you keep from food, you take the chance to do your business, and get in your debts;

See, I will take them from the north country, and get them from the inmost parts of the earth, and with them the blind and the feeble-footed, the woman with child and her who is in birth-pains together: a very great army, they will come back here.

In those days and in that time, says the Lord, the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together; they will go on their way weeping and making prayer to the Lord their God.

To seek

Be my guide, O Lord, in the ways of your righteousness, because of those who are against me; make your way straight before my face.

Let those whose cause the Lord has taken up say so, his people whom he has taken out of the hands of their haters;

In all your ways give ear to him, and he will make straight your footsteps.

And at your back, when you are turning to the right hand or to the left, a voice will be sounding in your ears, saying, This is the way in which you are to go.

And a highway will be there; its name will be, The Holy Way; the unclean and the sinner may not go over it, and those who go on it will not be turned out of the way by the foolish.

And I will take the blind by a way of which they had no knowledge, guiding them by roads strange to them: I will make the dark places light before them, and the rough places level. These things will I do and will not give them up.

They will not be in need of food or drink, or be troubled by the heat or the sun: for he who has mercy on them will be their guide, taking them by the springs of water.

O Lord, I am conscious that a man's way is not in himself: man has no power of guiding his steps.

For our little ones

Why is the Lord taking us into this land to come to our death by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will get into strange hands: would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?

You have made clear your strength even out of the mouths of babies at the breast, because of those who are against you; so that you may put to shame the cruel and violent man.

And they took to him little children, so that he might put his hands on them: and the disciples said sharp words to them.

For the word of God is for you and for your children and for all those who are far off, even all those who may be marked out by the Lord our God.

General references

That the Lord your God may make clear to us the way in which we are to go and what we are to do.