12. Everyone in the crowd shouted:You're right! We will do what you say.
13. But there are so many of us, and we can't just stay out here in this downpour. A lot of us have sinned by marrying foreign women, and the matter can't be settled in only a day or two.
14. Why can't our officials stay on in Jerusalem and take care of this for us? Let everyone who has sinned in this way meet here at a certain time with leaders and judges from their own towns. If we take care of this problem, God will surely stop being so terribly angry with us.
15. Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah were the only ones who objected, except for the two Levites, Meshullam and Shabbethai.
16. Everyone else who had returned from exile agreed with the plan. So Ezra the priest chose men who were heads of the families, and he listed their names. They started looking into the matter on the first day of the tenth month,
17. and they did not finish until the first day of the first month of the next year.
18-19. Here is a list of the priests who had agreed to divorce their foreign wives and to sacrifice a ram as a sin offering:Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah from the family of Joshua son of Jozadak and his brothers;
20. Hanani and Zebadiah from the family of Immer;
21. Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, and Uzziah from the family of Harim;
22. Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah from the family of Pashhur.
23. Those Levites who had foreign wives were: Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah (also known as Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.
24. Eliashib, the musician, had a foreign wife.These temple guards had foreign wives:Shallum, Telem, and Uri.
25. Here is a list of the others from Israel who had foreign wives:Ramiah, Izziah, Malchijah, Mijamin, Eleazar, Hashabiah, and Benaiah from the family of Parosh;
26. Mattaniah, Zechariah, Jehiel, Abdi, Jeremoth, and Elijah from the family of Elam;
27. Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Jeremoth, Zabad, and Aziza from the family of Zattu;
28. Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, and Athlai from the family of Bebai;
29. Meshullam, Malluch, Adaiah, Jashub, Sheal, and Jeremoth from the family of Bani;
30. Adna, Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui, and Manasseh from the family of Pahath Moab;