Ezra 10:8-14

8Everyone who did not come within three days, would forfeit all his property according to the counsel of the officials and the elders, and would himself be excluded from the assembly of the exiles.

9So within three days all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled in Jerusalem. On the twentieth day of the ninth month, all the people were sitting in the plaza before the House of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the rain.

10Then Ezra the kohen stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful and taken foreign wives, increasing the guilt of Israel.

11So now, give praise to Adonai, the God of your fathers, and do His will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from your foreign wives.”

12The entire assembly answered and said with a loud voice, “Yes, we will do just as you have said.

13However, there are many people here and it is the rainy season, and we are not able to stand outside. Besides, this task cannot be resolved in one or two days, for we have transgressed greatly in this matter.

14Let our leaders stand for the whole assembly. Let everyone in our cities who has married a foreign woman come at an appointed time, and with them the elders of each city and its judges, until the burning wrath of our God is turned back from us in this matter.”