91 While I was lying face down in front of the temple, praying with tears in my eyes and confessing the sins of the people of Israel, a large number of men, women, and children gathered around me and cried bitterly.

92 Shecaniah son of Jehiel spoke up and said: 93-94 if we follow your advice and the advice of others who obey the Law of the Lord. We must promise the Lord that we will divorce our foreign wives and send them away, together with their children. 95 Ezra, get up and do something to solve this problem. We will support you, even if you have to be severe with us.

96 So I got up and made the leaders of the priests and Levites and the leaders of Israel swear that they would follow this plan. 9 1 Then I left the courtyard of the temple and went to the living quarters of Jehohanan son of Eliashib, 2 where I spent the night. I continued to mourn over the terrible sins the people had committed, and I did not eat or drink a thing.

3-4 The leaders of the people sent a message to all the men who had returned from Babylonia and were now living in Jerusalem and Judah. It told them to meet in Jerusalem within two days, or three at the most, or else their livestock would be taken and sacrificed to the Lord. In addition, those men would no longer be considered part of the people that had returned from Babylonia.

5 Three days later, on the twentieth day of the ninth month, everyone from Judah and Benjamin came to Jerusalem. 6 They all went to the temple courtyard, where they sat down, shivering in the winter rain.

7 I stood up and said: 8 Now you must confess your sins to the Lord God of our ancestors. You must give him honor 9 and obey him. Divorce your foreign wives and don't have anything to do with the rest of the foreigners who live around here.

10 Everyone in the crowd shouted: 11 but we can't just stand out here in the open. Many of us have sinned, and the matter can't be settled in only a day or two. 12 Why can't our officials stay on in Jerusalem and take care of this for us? Let everyone who has married a foreign woman meet here at a certain time 13 with leaders and judges from their own towns. If we take care of this problem, God will surely stop being so terribly angry with us.

14 Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah were put in charge of the plan, and Meshullam, Levi, and Shabbethai were appointed as judges along with them. 15 Everyone who had returned from exile did what the plan required them to do. 16 I myself chose a group of men who were heads of the families, and I listed their names. They started looking into the matter on the first day of the tenth month, 17 and they did not finish until the first day of the first month of the following year.

Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version ®. Copyright © 1995 American Bible Society. Used by permission.