Ezra was praying and confessing. He was crying and bowing down in front of God’s temple. While Ezra was doing that, a large group of the people of Israel—men, women, and children—gathered around him. Those people were also crying very hard.
Eli was sitting on a chair near the city gates when this man came to Shiloh. Eli was worried about God’s Holy Box, [47] so he was sitting there waiting and watching. Then the Benjamite man came into Shiloh and told the bad news. All the people in town began to cry out loud.