12
Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, "As thou hast said, so must we do.
13
But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand outside, neither is this a work of one day or two; for we are many who have transgressed in this thing.
14
Let now our rulers of all the congregation stand, and let all those who have taken foreign wives in our cities come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city and the judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be turned from us."
15
Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah stood against this matter, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them.
16
And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain chief of the fathers, were separated according to the house of their fathers, and all of them by their names. And they sat down on the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter,
17
and they made an end with all the men who had taken foreign wives by the first day of the first month.
18
And among the sons of the priests who had taken foreign wives (namely, of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brethren), there were found: Maaseiah, and Eliezer, and Jarib, and Gedaliah.
19
And they gave their hands that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their trespass.
20
And of the sons of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah;
21
and of the sons of Harim: Maaseiah and Elijah, and Shemaiah, and Jehiel, and Uzziah;
22
and of the sons of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethaneel, Jozabad, and Elasah;