Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin, &c. Not only of these two tribes, as appears from the following catalogue, in which there are priests and Levites; but all the Israelites, (Ezra 10:25,) who are thus described, because the greatest part of them were of these tribes, though others were mixed with them: and because they all now dwelt in that land, which formerly was appropriated to those tribes. All the people sat in the street Hebrew, ברחוב, birchob, LXX., εν πλατεια, in a broad, open place, of the house of God. Houbigant renders it, the court, namely, that in which the people stood when they worshipped. This, lying open, and not being yet enclosed by a wall, as may be conjectured from Nehemiah 2:8, is called in the original an open place, or street, and not חצר, chatser, the name usually given to the court. Here the people were not only within view of the temple, but in a place adjoining to it, that so they might be as in God's presence, and be thereby awed to a more faithful and vigorous prosecution of their work. Trembling because of this matter The offence they had committed against God, and the consequences thereof; and for the great rain Hebrew, ם i הגשׁמי, haggeshamim, the rains, or showers. It was now the depth of winter, when the rains in Judea are extremely cold; and the people seem to have taken the heavy rains on this occasion as a token of God's displeasure.
Related Commentaries of Ezra 10:9
Ezra 10:9
9 Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain.