We were bondmen - Rather, “we are bondmen” (compare the marginal reference). The Israelites, though returned from the captivity, were still “bondmen.” The Persian monarch was their absolute lord and master.
Related Commentaries of Ezra 9:9
Ezra 9:9
9 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 repaird the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.