Ezra 9:14

Break thy commandments. Ezra views the sin in which he found his people to have fallen as having “grown up unto the heavens” (v. 6). Their sin was tantamount to a complete forsaking of God’s commandments, and in this condition they “cannot stand” before God (v. 15). Ezra’s public confession on behalf of his people (see Daniel 9:5-16) is based partly on the nature of the sin itself, and partly on the fact that they had revealed base ingratitude in turning from God so soon after He had forgiven their sins that sent them into captivity and had showered favor after favor upon them as they returned to Palestine. To fall again into the same transgression was, in Ezra’s estimation, unpardonable, and the punishment must certainly be nothing less than irretrievable destruction of the nation.