^{11 Ref} So now, give praise to the Lord, the God of your fathers, and do his pleasure; and make yourselves separate from the peoples of the land and from the strange women.

^{12 Ref} Then all the people, answering, said with a loud voice, As you have said, so it is right for us to do.

^{13 Ref} But the number of people is great, and it is a time of much rain; it is not possible for us to go on waiting outside, and this is not a thing which may be done in one day or even two: for our sin in this business is great.

^{14 Ref} So now let our rulers be representatives for all the people, and let all those in our towns who are married to strange women come at fixed times, and with them the responsible men and the judges of every town, till the burning wrath of our God is turned away from us, and this has been done.

^{15 Ref} Only Jonathan, the son of Asahel, and Jahzeiah, the son of Tikvah, were against this, Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supporting them.

^{16 Ref} So those who had come back did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain heads of families, by their fathers' families, all of them by their names, were marked out; and on the first day of the tenth month they took their places to go into the question with care.

¹⁷ And they got to the end of all the men who were married to strange women by the first day of the first month.

^{18 Ref} And among the sons of the priests who were married to strange women were these: of the sons of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak and his brothers, Maaseiah and Eliezer and Jarib and Gedaliah.

^{19 Ref} And they gave their word that they would put away their wives; and for their sin, they gave an offering of a male sheep of the flock.