Ezra 9–10

Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not ^aseparated themselves from the people of the lands, ^bdoing according to their abominations, even of the ^cCanaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the ^dAmmonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. ²For they have ^etaken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the ^fholy seed have ^gmingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and ^hrulers hath been chief in this trespass. ³And when I heard this thing, ⁱI rent my garment and my mantle, and pluckt off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down ^kastonied. ⁴Then were assembled unto me every one that ^ltrembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those that had been carried away; and I sat ^kastonied until the ^mevening sacrifice. ⁵And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and ⁿhaving rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and ^ospread out my hands unto the Lord my God, ⁶and said,

O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for ^pour iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass ^qis grown up unto the heavens. ^7rSince the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities ^shave we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to ^tconfusion of face, as it is this day. ⁸And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the Lord our God, to leave us a ^uremnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may ^wlighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage. ^9xFor we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but ^yhath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us ^za wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. ¹⁰And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments, ¹¹which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their ^auncleanness. ¹²Now therefore ^bgive not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor ^cseek their peace or their wealth for ever: that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and ^dleave it for an inheritance to your children for ever. ¹³And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for ^eour great trespass, seeing that thou our God ^fhast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such ^gdeliverance as this; ¹⁴should we again break thy commandments, and ^hjoin in affinity with the people of these abominations? wouldest thou not be ⁱangry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor ^gescaping? ¹⁵O Lord God of Israel, ^kthou art righteous: for we remain yet ^gescaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before thee ^lin our trespasses: for we cannot ^mstand before thee because of this.

X.Now ^awhen Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and ^bcasting himself down ^cbefore the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept very sore. ²And Shechaniah the son of ^dJehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We have ^etrespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of the land: yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. 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 ^ftremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done ^gaccording to the law. ⁴Arise; for this matter belongeth unto thee: we also will be with thee: ^hbe of good courage, and do it. ⁵Then arose Ezra, and made the chief priests, the Levites, and all Israel, ⁱto swear that they should do according to this word. And they sware. ⁶Then Ezra rose up ^kfrom before the house of God, and went into the ^lchamber of ^mJohanan the son of ^mEliashib: and when he came thither, he did ⁿeat no bread, nor drink water: for he mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carried away. ⁷And ⁿⁿthey made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together unto 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.

⁹Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem within three days. 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, ^otrembling because of this matter, and for the great rain. ¹⁰And Ezra the priest stood up, and said unto them, Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of Israel. ¹¹Now therefore ^pmake confession unto the Lord God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and ^qseparate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives. ¹²Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast 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 without, 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 ^rappointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and the judges thereof, until ^sthe 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 ^tMeshullam and ^uShabbethai 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 ^vthe 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 ^vthe first day of the first month.

¹⁸And among the sons of the priests there were found that had taken strange wives: namely, of the sons of ^wJeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren; Maaseiah, and Eliezer, and Jarib, and Gedaliah. ¹⁹And they ^xgave their hands that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered ^ya ram of the flock for their trespass. ²⁰And of the sons of ^zImmer; Hanani, and Zebadiah. ²¹And of the sons of ^aHarim; ^pMaaseiah, and Elijah, and ^aShemaiah, and Jehiel, and Uzziah. ²²And of the sons of ^bPashur; ^cElioenai, ^pMaaseiah, Ishmael, Nethaneel, Jozabad, and Elasah.

²³Also of the Levites; ^dJozabad, and Shimei, and Kelaiah, (the same is ^eKelita,) ^fPethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer. ²⁴Of the singers also; Eliashib: and of the porters; Shallum, and Telem, and Uri.

²⁵Moreover of Israel: of the sons of ^gParosh; Ramiah, and Jeziah, and ^hMalchiah, and Miamin, and Eleazar, and ^hMalchijah, and Benaiah. ²⁶And of the sons of ⁱElam; Mattaniah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, and Abdi, and Jeremoth, and Eliah. ²⁷And of the sons of ^jZattu; Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, and Jeremoth, and Zabad, and Aziza. ²⁸Of the sons also of ^kBebai; Jehohanan, Hananiah, ^lZabbai, and Athlai. ²⁹And of the sons of ^mBani; Meshullam, ⁿMalluch, and Adaiah, Jashub, and Sheal, and Ramoth. ³⁰And of the sons of ^oPahath-moab; Adna, and Chelal, Benaiah, ^pMaaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezaleel, and Binnui, and Manasseh. ³¹And of the sons of ^aHarim; Eliezer, Ishijah, ^qMalchiah, Shemaiah, Shimeon, ^32rBenjamin, ⁿMalluch, and Shemariah. ³³Of the sons of ^sHashum; Mattenai, Mattathah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, and Shimei. ³⁴Of the sons of ^tBani; Maadai, Amram, and Uel, ³⁵Benaiah, Bedeiah, Chelluh, ³⁶Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib, ³⁷Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasau, ³⁸and Bani, and Binnui, Shimei, ³⁹and Shelemiah, and Nathan, and ^uAdaiah, ⁴⁰Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai, ⁴¹Azareel, and Shelemiah, Shemariah, ⁴²Shallum, Amariah, and Joseph. ⁴³Of the sons of ^vNebo; Jeiel, ^wMattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jadau, and Joel, Benaiah. ⁴⁴All these had taken strange wives: and some of them had wives ^xby whom they had children.