The crowd around Ezra was a gathering of people who trembled at the words of God (Ezra 9:4). Ezra was a very respected leader and his extreme distress caught the people’s attention.1 Presumably these people were very concerned about their fellow Israelites, and they were eager to see God’s Word put into practice following Ezra’s teaching.
1 While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children, gathered to him out of Israel, for the people wept bitterly.