What Does Ezra 9:10 Mean?
And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have let go of your commands,
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments,THE KEY
The verse holds one departure beside another: God has not forsaken them, yet they have forsaken God’s instruction.
THE MEANING
The reader reaches the moment when explanation runs out: the breach is named plainly before God. It is a departure from instruction already given, not simply a failure to know what was asked. The question “what shall we say?” lets the truth stand without excuse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the breach is only confusion: the speaker names it as forsaking, a real departure from what was given.
THE ROOT
עָזַבְנוּ
ʿāzavnū
GROWS FROM
עזב
ʿ-z-b
to leave, abandon, forsake
“let go of” in this verse is ʿāzavnū. The root means departure: the speakers have left behind what God instructed. The same root appears in the previous verse, where God “hath not forsaken” them; the passage turns the same word around to show the contrast between their departure and the one they have not suffered.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāzav: to leave or forsake
עָזַב
The same verb describes God not abandoning the speakers in Ezra 9:9, making the contrast immediate.
ʿāzuv: left, forsaken, abandoned
עָזוּב
This related form names the state that follows departure, showing that forsaking is more than a passing mistake.
מִצְוֹתֶיךָ
miṣvōteḵā
GROWS FROM
צוה
ṣ-w-h
to command, charge, direct
“commands” in this verse is miṣvōteḵā. “Commandments” comes from the root צוה (ṣ-w-h, command or charge), so what has been forsaken is an instruction entrusted to them. The word’s branch מִצְוָה (miṣvāh, commandment) keeps the verse’s focus on a known charge, rather than a vague sense of failure.
ALSO GROWS
miṣvāh: commandment, command
מִצְוָה
This singular form shares the seed of “commandments,” showing the plural as many particular charges.
ṣiwwāh: commanded, charged
צִוָּה
This verb form makes the root’s action clear: the commandments are what was given as a charge.
THE PATTERN
The language of forsaking makes fidelity visible as staying with what has been given, and departure as a real relational break.
And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him, Hear and respond to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you, while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you. But if you let go of him, he will let go of you.They have nearly run me out upon the earth, but I do not let go of your precepts.Let your way of living be without the love of silver, and let what is at hand be enough, for he has said, I will never let go of you, nor leave you behind.THE THREAD
For we were servants, yet our God has not let go of us in our bondage, but has stretched out faithful love toward us in the eyes of the kings of Persia, to give us a living, to raise up the house of our God, and to set its dry ruins standing, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.Both verses use עָזַב (ʿāzav, leave or forsake): in 9:9 God has not abandoned them in bondage; in 9:10 they say they have abandoned God’s commandments. The repeated root makes the confession a mirror: they name the abandonment they have not received.
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