Give them those things so they can offer sacrifices that please the God of heaven. And I want them to pray that things will go well for me and my sons.

By the canal that flows toward Ahava, I announced a fast. I told the people not to eat any food. In that way, we made ourselves humble in God’s sight. We prayed that he would give us and our children a safe journey. We asked him to keep safe everything we owned.

So we didn’t eat anything. We prayed to our God about all these matters. And he answered our prayers.

Ezra Prays for the People

After all these things had been done, the leaders came to me. They said, “The people of Israel have committed sins. Even the priests and Levites have sinned. They haven’t kept themselves separate from the nations around them. The Lord hates the practices of those nations. He hates what the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites and Jebusites do. He also hates what the Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites do.

I prayed, “I’m filled with shame and dishonor, my God. I can hardly look to you and pray. That’s because our sins are piled up above our heads. Our guilt reaches all the way to the heavens.

The People Admit They Have Sinned

Ezra was praying and admitting to God that his people had sinned. He was weeping and throwing himself down in front of the house of God. Then a large crowd of Israelites gathered around him. Men, women and children were there. They too wept bitterly.