1 Esdras 8:68–9:17

⁶⁸After these things had been done, the principal men came to me and said, ⁶⁹“The people of Israel and the leaders and the priests and the Levites have not put away from themselves the alien peoples of the land and their pollutions, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Edomites. ⁷⁰For they and their sons have married the daughters of these people, and the holy race has been mixed with the alien peoples of the land; and from the beginning of this matter the leaders and the nobles have been sharing in this iniquity.”

⁷¹As soon as I heard these things I rent my garments and my holy mantle, and pulled out hair from my head and beard, and sat down in anxiety and grief. ⁷²And all who were ever moved at the word of the Lord of Israel gathered round me, as I mourned over this iniquity, and I sat grief-stricken until the evening sacrifice. ⁷³Then I rose from my fast, with my garments and my holy mantle rent, and kneeling down and stretching forth my hands to the Lord ⁷⁴I said,

“O Lord, I am ashamed and confounded before thy face. ⁷⁵For our sins have risen higher than our heads, and our mistakes have mounted up to heaven ⁷⁶from the times of our fathers, and we are in great sin to this day. ⁷⁷And because of our sins and the sins of our fathers we with our brethren and our kings and our priests were given over to the kings of the earth, to the sword and captivity and plundering, in shame until this day. ⁷⁸And now in some measure mercy has come to us from thee, O Lord, to leave to us a root and a name in thy holy place, ⁷⁹and to uncover a light for us in the house of the Lord our God, and to give us food in the time of our servitude. ⁸⁰Even in our bondage we were not forsaken by our Lord, but he brought us into favor with the kings of the Persians, so that they have given us food ⁸¹and glorified the temple of our Lord, and raised Zion from desolation, to give us a stronghold in Judea and Jerusalem.

⁸²“And now, O Lord, what shall we say, when we have these things? For we have transgressed thy commandments, which thou didst give by thy servants the prophets, saying, ⁸³‘The land which you are entering to take possession of it is a land polluted with the pollution of the aliens of the land, and they have filled it with their uncleanness. ⁸⁴Therefore do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons, and do not take their daughters for your sons; ⁸⁵and do not seek ever to have peace with them, in order that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever.’ ⁸⁶And all that has happened to us has come about because of our evil deeds and our great sins. For thou, O Lord, didst lift the burden of our sins ⁸⁷and give us such a root as this; but we turned back again to transgress thy law by mixing with the uncleanness of the peoples of the land. ⁸⁸Wast thou not angry enough with us to destroy us without leaving a root or seed or name? ⁸⁹O Lord of Israel, thou art true; for we are left as a root to this day. ⁹⁰Behold, we are now before thee in our iniquities; for we can no longer stand in thy presence because of these things.”

⁹¹While Ezra was praying and making his confession, weeping and lying upon the ground before the temple, there gathered about him a very great throng from Jerusalem, men and women and youths; for there was great weeping among the multitude. ⁹²Then Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the men of Israel, called out, and said to Ezra, “We have sinned against the Lord, and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land; but even now there is hope for Israel. ⁹³Let us take an oath to the Lord about this, that we will put away all our foreign wives, with their children, ⁹⁴as seems good to you and to all who obey the law of the Lord. ⁹⁵Arise and take action, for it is your task, and we are with you to take strong measures.” ⁹⁶Then Ezra arose and had the leaders of the priests and Levites of all Israel take oath that they would do this. And they took the oath.

Chapter 9

¹Then Ezra rose and went from the court of the temple to the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib, ²and spent the night there; and he did not eat bread or drink water, for he was mourning over the great iniquities of the multitude. ³And a proclamation was made throughout Judea and Jerusalem to all who had returned from the captivity that they should assemble at Jerusalem, ⁴and that if any did not meet there within two or three days, in accordance with the decision of the ruling elders, their cattle should be seized for sacrifice and the men themselves expelled from the multitude of those who had returned from the captivity.

⁵Then the men of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin assembled at Jerusalem within three days; this was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month. ⁶And all the multitude sat in the open square before the temple, shivering because of the bad weather that prevailed. ⁷Then Ezra rose and said to them, “You have broken the law and married foreign women, and so have increased the sin of Israel. ⁸Now then make confession and give glory to the Lord the God of our fathers, ⁹and do his will; separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from your foreign wives.” ¹⁰Then all the multitude shouted and said with a loud voice, “We will do as you have said. ¹¹But the multitude is great and it is winter, and we are not able to stand in the open air. This is not a work we can do in one day or two, for we have sinned too much in these things. ¹²so let the leaders of the multitude stay, and let all those in our settlements who have foreign wives come at the time appointed, ¹³with the elders and judges of each place, until we are freed from the wrath of the Lord over this matter.” ¹⁴Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah undertook the matter on these terms, and Meshullam and Levi and Shabbethai served with them as judges. ¹⁵And those who had returned from the captivity acted in accordance with all this.

¹⁶Ezra the priest chose for himself the leading men of their fathers’ houses, all of them by name; and on the new moon of the tenth month they began their sessions to investigate the matter. ¹⁷And the cases of the men who had foreign wives were brought to an end by the new moon of the first month.