Ezra is absolutely humbled and there is a true sense of shame over real sin and real guilt. That is what he says; he says shame of face. In other words,
Brian Borgmanwe are so ashamed. I cannot even bring myself to look up to you.Have you ever done something and then realize you need to tell somebody, whether it was your parents when you were younger, or your spouse? You get ready to kind of spit out what you had done but then you cannot even bring yourself to look them in the eye because you feel so utterly ashamed of what you have done. That is what Ezra is saying, we as your people are so utterly ashamed of what we have done, that we cannot even look up to you. There really is a legitimate place for shame and guilt. We live in a culture that tries to get rid of all sense of guilt and shame; [even evangelicalism does this]. The reality is that there is legitimate guilt and shame for real sin, and if we try to mitigate that, we may be circumventing the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing about true conviction and thus true repentance.1
6 saying:“O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens.