Ezra 8-10

When Ezra arrived in Jerusalem he found a group of people who were not maintaining the ethnic and faith purity required by the Law. Inter marriage with those outside of Israel was being practiced with the requirement of submission to the Law by the outsiders entering into marriage. In Ezra 9:6 we find the beginning of Ezra's prayer. It is a prayer that is punctuated by the plural first person pronoun. Ezra had just arrived and was a strict observer of the Law. Yet he included himself before God as a transgressor. Why? Because God's people are always one community. Modern believers would do well to adopt that same attitude.
Stuart