MPV Commentary

The Levites Confess God's Manifold Goodness, and Their Own

4 Then the Levites stood up on the stairs, the platforms from which they usually addressed the people. There were likely several placed at strategic distances to prevent confusion and ensure that each speaker could be heard by the vast crowd gathered in the open air.

They cried out with a loud voice to the Lord, expressing their deep sense of sin and fervently imploring God's forgiving mercy. This was a natural accompaniment to their extraordinary prayer meeting, as it was common for people in the East to use violent gestures and vehement tones when giving expression to deep and earnest feelings.

5 The Levites then said, "Stand up and bless the Lord your God." If this prayer was recited by all the Levites together, it may have been prepared and adopted beforehand by Ezra. Alternatively, it may simply embody the substance of their confession and thanksgiving.

6-38 In this solemn and impressive prayer, the Levites make public confession of their sins and deprecate the judgments due to the transgressions of their fathers. They begin with a profound adoration of God, acknowledging His supreme majesty and omnipotence in creation, preservation, and government of all.

They then proceed to enumerate God's mercies and distinguished favors to them as a nation, from the time of Abraham's call and the gracious promise intimated to him in the divinely bestowed name of Abraham. This promise implied that he was to be the father of the faithful, the ancestor of the Messiah, and the honored individual through whom all the families of the earth would be blessed.

The Levites trace in detail the signal instances of divine interposition for their deliverance and interest, including their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, their miraculous passage through the Red Sea, the promulgation of God's law, and His forbearance and long-suffering shown them amid their frequent rebellions. They also acknowledge the signal triumphs given them over their enemies, their happy settlement in the promised land, and all the extraordinary blessings they received from God.

22 Moreover, you gave them kingdoms and nations, putting them in possession of a rich country with an extensive territory that had once been occupied by various princes and people.

You divided them into tribes, just as one divides a piece of land into separate sections or corners. The land of Sihon and the land of the king of Heshbon were among the territories they inherited.

32 Now therefore, our God, who keeps covenant and mercy, we acknowledge Your fidelity to Your covenant. Our national history bears testimony to it, but we are painfully conscious of having violated it. Therefore, we seek refuge in the riches of divine grace.

36 Behold, we are servants this day, still tributaries of a foreign prince whose officers rule over us. We are not like our fathers, who were free tenants of the land that God gave them.

37 The land yields much increase to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. Our agricultural labors have been resumed in the land, and we plough, sow, and till it, but You bless the work of our hands with a plentiful return. However, this increase is not for ourselves, as once it was, but for our foreign masters, to whom we pay large and oppressive tribute.

They have dominion over our bodies, liable to be pressed into service at the mandate of their Assyrian conqueror, either in war or in public works. Our beasts are also taken to do their pleasure.

38 We make a sure covenant, and write it down, signing it as a witness against us if we are unfaithful to our engagements in the future.