1. Now as Ezra prayed and confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children; and the people wept very sore.
2. Then Shechaniah, the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We have rebelled against our God and have taken strange women of the peoples of the land, but there is yet hope for Israel concerning this thing.
3. Now, therefore, let us make a covenant with our God to send away all the women and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of the Lord and of those that fear the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.
4. Arise; for this matter belongs unto thee; we also will be with thee: be of good courage, and do it.
5. Then Ezra arose and made the princes of the priests, the Levites, and all Israel, swear that they should do according to this word. And they swore.
6. Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Johanan, the son of Eliashib; and when he came there, he ate no bread, nor drank water; for he mourned because of the transgression of those that had been carried away.
7. And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto all the sons of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together unto Jerusalem