Chapter 29
The prayer or confession of Ezra, in which he entreats the Lord to remember the covenant that He made with their fathers.
[Nehemiah 9:6] -- And Ezra said: You alone, Lord, etc. What was previously stated, Because they confessed their sins and the sins of their fathers; is shown in more detail with Ezra beseeching how it was done. Moreover, in the conclusion he says, Therefore over all these, we ourselves make and write a covenant; and our princes, our Levites, and our priests sign; and so forth. It is more clearly shown how, with great grace of devotion, all their persons made a new assembly after the Feast of Booths, so that they might unite themselves with the divine covenant, having been thoroughly cleansed from the contamination of sins, and confirm the condition of the holy covenant both by word and by writing. As if separated from the company of the impious, they might more securely fulfill the work which they had long ago begun; that is, they would appoint suitable citizens of the reestablished city from the number of the pious.