Ezra's Prayer and Inspiration

Ezra’s prayer (in part) from Ezra 9:6-15.

“I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great…

…Shall we then break your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor?”

The question arises about this prayer whether or not it was inspired by God or was it just a historical recounting of a prayer from Ezra’s heart?

Ezra prays this prayer to validate Shecaniah’s suggestion that they make a covenant with God to correct the sin of the holy race who had inter-married with the pagan peoples of the land. (Exodus 34. Deut. 7)

In the prayer Ezra suggests that if they don’t divide these families then God would destroy Israel totally not leaving any survivors.

That was a false conclusion and could not have been inspired by God. God had guaranteed a remnant that the Messiah would come from and it would occur during the reign of the Roman Empire and nothing Ezra did or had left undone could change God’s plan.

Ezra didn’t understand that and his prayer reflects his misunderstanding.

That begs the question was Shecaniah’s proposal to divide families to correct the sin of marrying outside of their race his idea or was it inspired from God?

Nothing in the text suggests that it came from God… Shecaniah wasn’t filled with the Holy Spirit and he didn’t have a dream from God. It seems that his proposal came from his own reasoning.

Both Ezra and Shechaniah were righteous men well versed in the Law of Moses and may have drawn conclusions from their study based on their own reasoning and not from the direct inspiration of God.

For your consideration.