What Does Ezra 9:10 Mean in the King James?
And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments,
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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
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
“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 unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.They had almost consumed me upon earth; but I forsook not thy precepts.Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.THE THREAD
For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, 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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