What Does Ezra 9:15 Mean in the King James?
O LORD God of Israel, thou art righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this.
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
Being left alive before God is not the same as being able to stand before God.
THE MEANING
God’s rightness remains the measure, while the reader stands before God with the trespass still named. The verse holds survival and inability to stand together now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that survival itself makes a person clear before God dissolves here. The verse names both the spared remnant and its continuing guilt.
THE ROOT
צַדִּיק
tsaddiq
GROWS FROM
צדק
ṣ-d-q
To be right or just; to be in alignment.
“righteous” in this verse is tsaddiq. The verse calls God tsaddiq while the speakers cannot stand before him. The root connects rightness with alignment, setting God’s rightness beside their compromised position.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Rightness, justice.
צֶדֶק
It shares the root of “righteous,” so God’s quality and the standard of rightness belong to the same word family.
tsedaqah: Righteousness, justice.
צְדָקָה
This branch carries the same root into acts and conditions of rightness, deepening the contrast with the speakers’ trespasses.
פְּלֵיטָה
peletah
GROWS FROM
פלט
p-l-ṭ
To escape or slip away; to survive what threatens.
“escaped” in this verse is peletah. The Hebrew first says נִשְׁאַרְנוּ (nish’arnu, “we have been left”) and then פְּלֵיטָה (peletah, “a surviving remnant”), naming their survival through distinct roots. Their presence is real, but the next clause makes clear that survival does not give them standing.
ALSO GROWS
palit: A survivor or escapee.
פָּלִיט
It names a person who has escaped, making the group described as a remnant feel concrete.
niflat: Escaped, was delivered.
נִפְלַט
This verbal form keeps the emphasis on getting out of danger, a different reality from being cleared of guilt.
בְּאַשְׁמָתֵינוּ
be’ashmateinu
GROWS FROM
אשם
ʾ-sh-m
To incur guilt or be liable.
“trespasses” in this verse is be’ashmateinu. The word carries the sense of guilt or liability, not just a vague inner flaw. The same root also names the guilt offering, joining the offense and its reckoning in one word family.
ALSO GROWS
ashem: Guilty or liable.
אָשֵׁם
It shows the condition behind the speakers’ admission that they cannot stand.
asham: Guilt; also a guilt offering.
אָשָׁם
The branch links wrongdoing with the language of liability and its reckoning.
THE PATTERN
God’s rightness remains clear while human standing is exposed by guilt.
If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly:Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.THE THREAD
If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?Ezra says there is no standing before God amid guilt; the psalm asks who could stand if God marked crookedness. Both use עמד (‘amad, “stand”), making Ezra’s confession the psalm’s question.
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