1 Now 1while Ezra was praying and makingconfession, weeping and prostrating himself 2before the house of God, a verylargeassembly, men, women and children, gathered to him from Israel; for the peopleweptbitterly*.
2
Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, said to Ezra, "3We have beenunfaithful to our God and have marriedforeignwomen from the peoples of the land; yet nowthere is hope for Israel in spite of this.
3
"So now4let us make a covenant with our God to putawayall the wives and 5their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of 6those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done7according to the law.
4
"Arise! For this matter is your responsibility, but we will be with you; 8be courageous and act."
5
Then Ezrarose and 9made the leadingpriests, the Levites and allIsrael, takeoath that they would do according to thisproposal; so they took the oath.
6
Then Ezra10rose from before* the house of God and went into the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib. Although he wentthere, 11he did not eatbreadnordrinkwater, for he was mourningover the unfaithfulness of the exiles.
7
They made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the exiles*, that they should assemble at Jerusalem,
8
and that whoever* would not come within threedays, according to the counsel of the leaders and the elders, all his possessions should be forfeited and he himselfexcluded from the assembly of the exiles.
9
So all the men of Judah and Benjaminassembled at Jerusalem within the threedays. It was the ninthmonth on the twentieth of the month, and all the peoplesat in the opensquare before the house of God, 12tremblingbecause of this matter and the heavy rain.
10
Then Ezra the prieststood up and said to them, "You have beenunfaithful and have marriedforeignwivesadding to the guilt of Israel.
11
"Now therefore, 13makeconfession to the LORDGod of your fathers and 14do His will; and 15separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreignwives."
12
Then all the assemblyreplied with a loudvoice, "That's right! As you have said, so it is our duty to do.
13
"But there are manypeople; it is the rainyseason and we are not able to stand in the open. Nor can the task be done in one or twodays, for we have transgressedgreatly in thismatter.
14
"Let our leadersrepresent the wholeassembly and let all those in our cities who have marriedforeignwivescome at appointedtimes, together with the elders and judges of eachcity, until the 16fierceanger of our God on account of thismatter is turnedaway from us."
15
OnlyJonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvahopposedthis, with Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levitesupporting them.
16
But the exiles*didso. And Ezra the priestselectedmen who were heads of fathers' households for each of their father'shouseholds, all of them by name. So they convened on the firstday of the tenthmonth to investigate the matter.
17
They finished investigating all the men who had marriedforeignwives by the firstday of the firstmonth.