The prayer of Ezra: I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you. Ezra 9:6

The Book of Ezra initially formed a single work with the Book of Nehemiah, both works relate an important period in the history of the people of Israel, the reconstruction of the city of Jerusalem and its holy temple, after the destruction caused by the tyrannies of Assyria and Babylon.
And the Book of Ezra begins by telling how God moved the heart of Cyrus so that the exiled Jews could return to their country: "In order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia" Ezra 1:1.
And so the caravans of repatriates began to arrive as a new exodus, but it was not until King of Kings Darius that the second temple could be rebuilt due to the constant opposition of the Samaritans who saw the repatriated Jews as a threat, according to what is recounted in the Book of Ezra.
The book of Ezra relates that under the reign of a new Persian king called Artaxerxes, the work of Ezra began. This character in the Bible was not a prophet but a scribe and priest who, with his reforms, can be considered one of the founders of Judaism.
Ezra in his book left among other things a beautiful prayer where he taught that only those who fear God are blessed to carry out their plans. In this prayer Ezra did not justify himself, nor did he blame God for the events that brought sadness to Israel, but he wisely accepted that are the human decisions that lead men both to a path of happiness and to an uncertain and destructive path.
With these words Ezra accepted the sovereignty of God in the universe and that men are responsible for their destiny:
"I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today" Ezra 9:6-7.

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