Study Desk

Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, "You have been unfaithful and have married foreign wives, adding to the guilt of Israel.

"Now therefore, ^(C1)make confession to the LORD God of your fathers and ^(C2)do His will; and ^(C3)separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives."

Then all the assembly replied with a loud voice, "It is ^(F1)our duty to do exactly as you have said!

"However, there are many people, it is the rainy season, and we are not able to stand in the open. Nor can the task be done in one or two days, because we have done a great wrong in this matter.

"Please let our leaders ^(F1)represent all the assembly and have all those in our cities who have married foreign wives come at appointed times, together with the elders and judges of each city, until the ^(C1)fierce anger of our God on account of this matter is turned away from us."