Ezra 9:7
Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.
The verse is part of a supplication offered at the time of the evening sacrifice, on the knees with hands spread out to God after tearing the garment and the mantle. It confesses an unbroken great trespass continuing from the days of the fathers unto that present day. It declares that because of their iniquities the people together with their kings and their priests were delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands for violent death, captivity, plunder, and public shame. It remembers God's goodness in giving His people a foothold again in their native land, and is spoken with shame and grief and righteous indignation over ingratitude in returning to sin after such mercy.
The captivity it describes came because apostasy was largely traceable to mingling with heathen nations in transgression of God's laws given as a safeguard against apostasy, and obedience to God's command to keep separate from the surrounding nations would have spared many sad and humiliating experiences. In the work of reform it shows humbling before God by confessing personal sins and the sins of the people together and entreating pardon as if personally the offender. It also shows patient toiling and praying and suffering to set the people right with God under the increased burden of secret opposition from pretended friends within Israel whose evil passions and rebellious wills warred against God's plain requirements.