SERIES O --- RETURN TO THE LAND --- LESSON 11

EZRA’S PRAYER

From Nehemiah 9:6-38

At the great convocation of Israel, the people prayed and confessed their sins as they listened to the Law of YHVH. Then Ezra offered this prayer of commitment: [You alone are Adonai. You have made the heavens and the heaven above the heavens with all that is in them. You have made the earth and all that is in it and the seas and all that they contain. You sustain life in all of these, and all of the hosts of heaven bow before You. You are Adonai who chose Abram, brought him from Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the new name Abraham. When You knew that he was faithful, You made a Covenant with him, giving him and his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Girgashites. You have fulfilled Your promise, for You are righteous and true to Your Word. You saw the affliction of our ancestors in Egypt and heard their cries by the Red Sea. You performed great miracles before Pharaoh, his servants, and all the people of his land, for You knew how cruelly they treated our ancestors. Through these great miracles You have made Your Name great before others. You divided the sea before our people, and so they passed through it on dry ground. But those who pursued were cast into its depths, like a stone sinking beneath the raging waters. With a pillar of cloud, You led our people by day and with a pillar of fire You led them by night, a light to show them the way to go. You descended to Mount Sinai with a message from heaven. You gave them just and true Laws and Commandments, making known to them Your holy Shabbat. You gave these Laws through Your servant Moses. When our ancestors were hungry, You gave them bread from heaven, and when they were thirsty, You gave them water from the rock. You ordered them to conquer and possess the land which You had promised, but our people were stubborn, refusing to listen and obey Your Commandments. They forgot the wonderful miracles You had performed among them, and appointed a leader to take them back to their slavery in Egypt. But You are a forgiving Elohiym, full of grace and mercy, slow to anger and abundant in kindness; so You did not forsake them. Even when they moulded a metal calf and told the people it was the god who brought them up from Egypt and behaved in such sinful ways, You, in Your compassion, did not forsake them in the wilderness. Your pillar of cloud never left them by day to guide them along the way, nor Your pillar of fire by night to light their path. You gave Your Spirit to teach them and manna to feed them and water to quench their thirst. For forty years you provided for them in the wilderness, and they were never in want. Their clothes never wore out, and their feet did not swell. You gave our people kingdoms and peoples and gave every corner of the land for a heritage. You let them conquer the land of King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan. You caused them to increase as the stars of heaven, and You brought them into the land which You promised to their ancestors. As they entered the land, You subdued the inhabitants, the Canaanites, and gave them into the hands of our people, with their kings and their peoples, to do with them as they desired. They captured fortified cities and fertile lands and possessed houses filled with good things, carved out cisterns, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. They ate until they were filled and enjoyed the fatness of life to the full through Your goodness. But our people were disobedient and rebelled against You, throwing away the Law You gave them, killing Your prophets who warned them to repent and return to You, and doing many other evil things. You delivered them into the hand of their enemies who oppressed them. But when they cried in their time of trouble, You heard from heaven and with great compassion delivered them from their oppressors. As soon as things were well again, our people returned to evil. Therefore, You abandoned them again to their enemies and these ruled over them. When they cried out once more, You heard from heaven and rescued them with compassion and warned them to return to Your Law. But they were proud and stubborn and refused to listen, persisting in their sinful ways. Again, You gave them into the hands of their enemies, even though You mercifully kept them from being destroyed for You would not give them up completely. You are certainly a gracious and merciful YHVH. Now our great, mighty, and awesome YHVH, Who keeps His Promises and loving kindness, do not ignore our troubles and hardships. We have had much trouble from the days of the kings of Assyria until now, coming upon us, our kings, our princes, priests, prophets, ancestors, and all our people. You have been fair and just in punishing us for our wickedness, for our kings, leaders, priests, and ancestors have not kept Your Law or listened to Your Commandments which You gave to them. They did not serve You or turn from evil, despite the many good things You did for them and the abundance You bestowed upon them, with the broad rich lands You set before them. Today we are slaves in our own rich land which You gave to our ancestors. We are slaves in the rich land which You gave to our ancestors so they could enjoy its fruits and abundance. Its riches today are for the kings whom You have placed over us because of our sins, we are distressed, for they rule our bodies and our cattle as they please. [Because of all of these things, we are putting our agreement to serve You in writing, a sealed document with the names of our leaders, Levites, and priests.]

COMMENTARY

SEALS AND THEIR USES

In the modern world, seals are used more for amusement than for anything else. But in the ancient world, and in fact until a little over one hundred years ago, seals were a very serious matter -- both making them and using them. They served not only as a way to sign things, but also as a way to protect them: an unbroken seal meant that the contents had not been tampered with in any way. The earliest seals probably developed from amulets or magic charms, originally worn to protect a person from evil. The imprint of a {magic} amulet in the soft clay of a jar stopper threatened harm to anyone who damaged it. But eventually seals came to be made for themselves, and engraving or carving their designs is now called {glyptic art.} A seal cutter, or {burgul,} designed and cut seals in a variety of materials. The least expensive and most available were made from clay or limestone, but some were also cut from semiprecious and precious stones, marble, ivory, even sea shells. Seals displayed many different kinds of scenes. Boating, wedding and banquet scenes were not uncommon. Sometimes they were religious or mythical, or bore pictures of YHVHs or rulers. Geometric designs appeared often in early seals, and later, when writing was invented, names or phrases of praise would be used. Seals were used for a number of reasons. The impression of a person’s seal served as a signature on letters, contracts and deeds. The poor who did not own individual seals {signed} by pressing their thumbs or the hem of their garments into soft clay. People of wealth carried seals as a sign of their status. Government officials carried them to indicate authority. High officials approved the acts of lower-ranking officials with their stamps. Royal decrees were put into effect at the sight of the royal stamp. Seals were used not only on documents. From the earliest days, they were stamped on clay stoppers and jar handles to protect the contents. Taxes, in the form of wine or oil, were often collected in jars protected in just that way. By official decree, seals were used to indicate the permanent closing of doors, tombs, fountains and wells. When papyrus came to be used as a writing surface, it was no longer possible to protect documents with the clay envelopes that had been used previously. Instead, the {double deed} or {tied document} appeared. The document was written on the upper half of a piece of papyrus, followed by a space, and then repeated in larger writing on the bottom half. The upper half was then rolled and tied with a cord, which was knotted several times. A witness signed by each knot, and each signature had a seal placed beside it. The bottom half, still unrolled and readable, was used as reference; the upper half was the legal document that could be unsealed and opened as evidence in a legal dispute.