Confession of Improper Marriages

1Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled to him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept very sore.   bitterly

2And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said to Ezra, We have trespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of the land: yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing.   sinned; married; foreign

3Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.   agreement

4Arise; for this matter belongs to you: we also will be with you: be of good courage, and do it.

5Then arose Ezra, and made the chief priests, the Levites, and all Israel, to swear that they should do according to this word. And they swore.

6Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of Johanan the son of Eliashib: and when he came there, he did eat no bread, nor drink water: for he mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carried away.   sin, disobedience

7And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together to Jerusalem;

8And that whosoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his substance should be forfeited, and himself separated from the congregation of those that had been carried away.   possessions

9Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together to Jerusalem within three dsiays. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain.

10And Ezra the priest stood up, and said unto them, You^p have transgressed, and have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of Israel.   sinned, disobeyed

11Now therefore make confession to the Lord God of your^p fathers, and do His pleasure: and separate yourselves^p from the people of the land, and from the strange wives.   will

12Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, As you have said, so must we do.

13But 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 that have transgressed in this thing.

14Let now our rulers of all the congregation stand, and let all them which have taken strange 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.

15Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah were employed about this matter: and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them.

16And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain chief of the fathers, after the house of their fathers, and all of them by their names, were separated, and sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.

17And they made an end with all the men that had taken strange wives by the first day of the first month.   finished