Ver. 1. The people of Israel and the priests, &c.— See Deuteronomy 7:3. The manner in which Ezra is said to have expressed his concern for the people's unlawful marriages is, by rending his garment and his mantle, ver. 3 i.e. both his inner and upper garment, which was a token not only of great grief and sorrow, but of his apprehension likewise of the divine displeasure; and by pulling off the hair of his head and beard, which was still a higher sign of exceeding great grief among other nations as well as the Jews; and therefore we find in Homer, that when Ulysses and his companions bewailed the death of Elpenor, "they sat in great grief, and plucked off their hair." See the conclusion of the xth Book of the Odyssey. Instead of doing according to their abominations, &c. Houbigant reads, their wickedness is such as it was with the Canaanites, &c.
Related Commentaries of Ezra 9:1
Ezra 9:1
1 Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.