ABSTRACT
When confronted with the news that a group of golah men had taken daughters from the peoples-of-the-lands as wives, Ezra’s response is to engage in rituals of mourning, lament and penitence (Ezra 9.3–5; 10.1). He tears his garments, pulls his hair and beard, falls to the ground, prays, confesses, weeps, throws himself down repeatedly and fasts. While many scholars deem Ezra’s mourning and lament inappropriate for a man of his standing, it plays a key role in the reconfiguration of golah masculinity. Ezra modifies his masculine body, distances himself from his Persian emissarial duties and positions himself in subordination to Yhwh. Gendered, social and cultic roles within the golah are challenged and reconfigured as members become mourners with and around Ezra.
