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Ezra / Public Repentance and the Proposal to Send Away Foreign Wives
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Public Repentance and the Proposal to Send Away Foreign Wives

Ezra 10:1-17

10
Chapter 10
1 While Ezra prayed and confessed, weeping and falling on his face before the house of God, a very large assembly of men, women, and children from Israel gathered to him, for the people wept bitterly. 2 Shecaniah son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, said to Ezra, "We have transgressed against our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the earth. Yet now there is hope for Israel in this matter." 3 Now let us make a covenant for our God to put away all the wives and those born from them, according to the counsel of my lords and those who tremble at the commandments of our God. And according to the Torah, it shall be done. 4 Rise, for the matter is upon you and we are with you. Be strong and do it. 5 Ezra arose and made the chiefs of the priests, the Levites, and all Israel swear to do according to this word, and they swore. 6 Ezra rose from before the house of God and went to the chamber of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. He did not eat bread or drink water there, for he was mourning over the trespass of the exiles. 7 They sent a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the exiles, calling them to assemble at Jerusalem. 8 Everyone who does not come within three days, according to the counsel of the officials and the elders, will have all his property banned and will be separated from the assembly of the exile. 9 All the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered in Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month, and all the people sat in the square in front of the house of God, trembling because of this matter and the heavy rains. 10 And Ezra the priest arose and said to them, "You have caused transgression and have brought back foreign women to add to the guilt of Israel." 11 Now give thanks to the LORD God of your fathers and do his favor: separate yourselves from the peoples of the lands and from the foreign women. 12 The whole assembly answered with a loud voice, "Yes, we will do as you have said." 13 But the people are many, and it is the time of the rains, and we have no strength to stand outside. The work is not for one day or two, for we have greatly sinned in this matter. 14 Let our rulers now stand for all the assembly. Everyone in our cities who has married foreign women will come at appointed times, along with the elders and judges of each city, until the fierceness of the anger of our God from us is turned away—until this matter. 15 But Jonathan son of Asahel and Jehizkiah son of Tikvah stood against this, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them. 16 And the sons of the exile did so, and Ezra the priest separated men, heads of the fathers' houses according to their fathers' houses, all of them by name. And they sat on the first day of the tenth month to investigate the matter for Darius. 17 And they finished—all the men who had caused foreign women to return—on the first day of the first month.