85. and never seek peaceful relations with them if we wanted to be strong and enjoy the land and pass it on to our descendants for ever.
86. Even after everything that has happened to us in punishment for our sins, we know that you, Lord, have punished us less than we deserve
87. and have allowed us to survive. But we have rebelled again, broken your Law, and intermarried with these wicked people.
88. Yet you were not angry enough to destroy us completely and leave none of us alive, with no descendants and without our name.
89. Lord of Israel, you are faithful; you have allowed us to survive.
90. We confess our guilt to you; we have no right to come into your presence.”
91. While Ezra was bowing in prayer in front of the Temple, weeping and confessing these sins, a large group of people from Jerusalem — men, women, and children — gathered round him, all of them weeping bitterly.
92. Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, one of the Israelites, said to Ezra, “We have sinned against the Lord by marrying foreign women, but even so, there is still hope for Israel.
93. Now we must make a solemn promise to the Lord that we will send all these foreign women and their children away.
94. We will do what you and the others who obey the Law of the Lord advise us to do.
95. It is your responsibility to act. We are behind you, so go ahead and get it done.”
96. So Ezra began by making the leaders of the priests, of the Levites, and of the rest of the people take an oath that they would divorce their foreign wives.