Ezra 10:9

Ver. 9. It was the ninth month, &c.— That is, some time in December, when the rains in the Holy Land are extremely cold. Dr. Russel, in his account of the weather at Aleppo, which very much resembles that in Judea, says, that "the natives reckon the severity of the winter to last but forty days, beginning from the twelfth of December and ending the twentieth of January; and that this computation comes in fact near the truth; that the air during this time is excessively piercing, even to those who are but just come from a cold climate;" &c. and it certainly must be much more so, when the season proves wet, as was the case at present. See Observations, p. 15. The street of the house of God, in this verse, is rendered by Houbigant, more properly, the court; for it means that court where the people stood when they worshipped.