and said: “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached the heavens.
Parallel translations
- WEB and I said, “My God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God; for our iniquities have increased over our head, and our guiltiness has grown up to the heavens.
- KJV And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.
- ESV saying: “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens.
- NKJV And I said: “O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens.
- NASB and I said, “My God, I am ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God, for our wrongful deeds have risen above our heads, and our guilt has grown even to the heavens.
- NLT I prayed, “O my God, I am utterly ashamed; I blush to lift up my face to you. For our sins are piled higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached to the heavens.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Ezra confessed deep shame, saying their iniquities had risen over their heads and their guilt reached the heavens. He identified fully with his people's sin.
Overview
Though personally innocent of intermarriage, Ezra prayed 'our iniquities,' standing in solidarity with the guilty community. His sense of overwhelming guilt before a holy God reflects true confession that does not minimize sin. This honest acknowledgment of guilt is exactly the condition the gospel addresses, for it is the sin-burdened who are invited to find cleansing in Christ (1 John 1:9).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Rev 18:5For her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
- Ps 38:4For my iniquities have overwhelmed me; they are a burden too heavy to bear.
- 2 Chr 28:9But a prophet of the LORD named Oded was there, and he went out to meet the army that returned to Samaria. “Look,” he said to them, “because of His wrath against Judah, the LORD, the God of your fathers, has delivered them into your hand. But you have slaughtered them in a rage that reaches up to heaven.
- Job 42:6Therefore I retract my words, and I repent in dust and ashes.”
- Luke 15:21The son declared, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
- Ezra 9:15O LORD, God of Israel, You are righteous! For we remain this day as a remnant. Here we are before You in our guilt, though because of it no one can stand before You.”
- Jer 3:24–25From our youth, that shameful god has consumed what our fathers have worked for—their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters.
- Isa 59:12For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us. Our transgressions are indeed with us, and we know our iniquities:
- Isa 1:18“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.
- Jer 31:19After I returned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’
- Gen 13:13But the men of Sodom were wicked, sinning greatly against the LORD.
- Ezra 9:13After all that has come upon us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt (though You, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such a remnant as this),
- Job 40:4“Behold, I am insignificant. How can I reply to You? I place my hand over my mouth.
- Jer 3:3Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to be ashamed.
- Rom 6:21What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death.
- Ezek 16:63so that when I make atonement for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, declares the Lord GOD.”
- Jer 8:12Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse, says the LORD.
- Jer 6:15Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse,” says the LORD.
- Dan 9:7–8To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but this day we are covered with shame—the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, and all Israel near and far, in all the countries to which You have driven us because of our unfaithfulness to You.
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Christ at the center
The return from exile and the rebuilt altar keep alive the hope of a greater restoration — the true return from our deeper exile of sin accomplished by Christ.
How Ezra 9:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.