For we are bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us before the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God and to repair the ruins thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
Ezra 9:7 Since the days of our fathers, we have been in great trespass to this day; and for our iniquities we, our kings, our priests, have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, and to captivity, and to spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.
Ezra 9:8 And now for a little space there hath been favour from Jehovah our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.
Ezra 9:9 For we are bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us before the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God and to repair the ruins thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
Ezra 9:10 And now, what shall we say, our God, after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments,
Ezra 9:11 which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land, unto which ye go to possess [it], is an unclean land through the filthiness of the peoples of the lands, through their abominations with which they have filled it from one end to another through their uncleanness.
The verse centers on "mercy", "bondmen", "hath", "forsaken", "bondage", "extended", and "before". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "mercy" and "bondmen", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 8's "And now for a little space there..." into verse 10's "And now what shall we say our...", so "mercy" and "bondmen" belong inside that flow. In Ezra context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "mercy" and "bondmen" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.