Ezra 10:1–8

The People’s Response

¹⁰While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children gathered to him out of Israel; the people also wept bitterly.^{* 2}Shecaniah son of Jehiel, of the descendants of Elam, addressed Ezra, saying, “We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.^{* 3}So now let us make a covenant with our God to send away all these wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the law.^{* 4}Take action, for it is your duty, and we are with you; be strong, and do it.”^{* 5}Then Ezra stood up and made the leading priests, the Levites, and all Israel swear that they would do as had been said. So they swore.^*

Foreign Wives and Their Children Rejected

⁶Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the chamber of Jehohanan son of Eliashib, where he spent the night.^q He did not eat bread or drink water, for he was mourning over the faithlessness of the exiles.^{* 7}They made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the returned exiles that they should assemble at Jerusalem ⁸and that, if any did not come within three days, by order of the officials and the elders all their property should be forfeited and they themselves banned from the congregation of the exiles.