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 without, neither is this a work of one day or two: for ||we are many that have transgressed in this thing. 14 Let 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. 15 Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah †were employed about this matter: and tMeshullam and uShabbethai the Levite helped them. 16 And 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. 17 And they made an end with all the men that had taken strange wives by v*the first day of the first month.