Ezra 10:1-9

1Now 1while Ezra was praying and making confession, weeping and prostrating himself 2before the house of God, a very large assembly, men, women and children, gathered to him from Israel; for the people wept bitterly. 2Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, said to Ezra, “3We have been unfaithful to our God and have 4married foreign women from the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. 3So now 5let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and 67their children, according to the counsel of 8my lord and of 9those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done 10according to the law. 4Arise! For this matter is 11your responsibility, but we will be with you; 12be courageous and act.”

5Then Ezra rose and 13made the leading priests, the Levites and all Israel, take oath that they would do according to this 14proposal; so they took the oath. 6Then Ezra 15rose from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib. Although he went there, 16he did not eat bread nor drink water, for he was mourning over the unfaithfulness of the exiles. 7They made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the exiles, that they should assemble at Jerusalem, 8and that whoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the leaders and the elders, all his possessions should be forfeited and he himself excluded from the assembly of the exiles.

9So all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled at Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month on the twentieth of the month, and all the people sat in the open square before the house of God, 17trembling because of this matter and the heavy rain.