Ezra Chapter 9 verse 3 Holy Bible
And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my robe, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down confounded.
read chapter 9 in ASV
And hearing this, with signs of grief and pulling out the hair of my head and my chin, I took my seat on the earth deeply troubled.
read chapter 9 in BBE
And when I heard this thing, I rent my mantle and my garment, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down overwhelmed.
read chapter 9 in DARBY
And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down astonied.
read chapter 9 in KJV
And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down confounded.
read chapter 9 in WBT
When I heard this thing, I tore my garment and my robe, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down confounded.
read chapter 9 in WEB
And at my hearing this word, I have rent my garment and my upper robe, and pluck out of the hair of my head, and of my beard, and sit astonished,
read chapter 9 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 3. - I rent my garment and my mantle. Rending the clothes was always, and still is, one of the commonest Oriental modes of showing grief. Reuben rent his clothes when his brothers sold Joseph to the Midianites, and Jacob did the same when he believed that Joseph was dead (Genesis 37:29, 34). Job "rent his mantle" on learning the death of his sons and daughters (Job 1:20); and his friends "rent every one his mantle when they came to mourn with him and comfort him" (Job 2:11, 12). Rent clothes indicated that a messenger was a messenger of woe (1 Samuel 4:12; 2 Samuel 1:2), or that a man had heard something that had greatly shocked him, and of which he wished to express his horror (2 Kings 18:37; Matthew 26:65). Ezra's action is of this last kind, expressive of horror more than of grief, but perhaps in some degree of grief also. And plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard. These are somewhat unusual signs of grief among the Orientals, who were wont to shave the head in great mourning, but seldom tore the hair out by the roots. The practice is not elsewhere mentioned in Scripture, excepting in the apocryphal books (1 Esdras 8:71; 2 Esdras 1:8; Apoc. Esther 4:2). And sat down astonied. Compare Daniel 4:19; Daniel 8:27, where the same verb is used in the same sense.
