Ezra 9:3,4 - Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary

What a finished picture hath the Holy Ghost here drawn of a saint of God; silent under the heavy affliction of soul, arising from indignation at the awful calamity. The rending the garment, and the plucking of the hair, were strong expressions of an holy zeal for God's honor, and an holy sorrow for man's transgression. But what I most particularly desire the Reader to notice, is the silent humblings of Ezra, until the evening sacrifice. That grand, and all-important hour, which in all ages of the church, and in every sacrifice, pointed to Jesus. Most probably the ninth hour, the very hour in which Jesus on the cross finished redemption-work, and gave up the ghost, when he offered himself a sacrifice for sin. I cannot but still consider this hour (which corresponds, in point of time, to our three o'clock, in the afternoon) as a most important hour, in reference to Jesus, and with an eye to his sacrifice. For as the several ages, from the time of the first institution of sacrifices to the death of Christ, set apart this hour with peculiar solemnity, as the hour for offering the evening sacrifice; so from the death of Christ, believers now, in looking back to the great event then accomplished, find peculiar comfort in the exercise of faith, in all their prayers and ordinances, which have an eye to the thing signified.