Ezra 9:1-4

1When we had done all these things, the Jewish leaders came to speak to me. They said, ‘Some of the Israelites have done disgusting things, like the people of other nations do. Some priests and Levites have done the same bad things. They live in the same way as the other people who live in this land, the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. They have not kept themselves separate.

2They have married some of the foreign people's daughters. They have let their sons do the same thing. In this way, God's holy people have become mixed with the foreign people who live near to them. Our own leaders and officers have led the way in these bad things.’

3When I heard this, I was very upset. I tore my shirt and my coat. I pulled out hair from my head and my beard. I was angry and ashamed. I sat down.

4Then everyone who respected the words of Israel's God came around me. They were afraid of what God might do, because the Israelites who came from Babylon had not obeyed him. I continued to sit there, until the time of the evening sacrifice. I was still very upset.