3. Now let us make an agreement before our God. We will send away all these women and their children as you and those who respect the commands of our God advise. Let it be done to obey God’s Teachings.
4. Get up, Ezra. You are in charge, and we will support you. Have courage and do it.”
5. So Ezra got up and made the priests, Levites, and all the people of Israel promise to do what was suggested; and they promised.
6. Then Ezra left the Temple and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While Ezra was there, he did not eat or drink, because he was still sad about the unfaithfulness of the captives who had returned.
7. They sent an order in Judah and Jerusalem for all the captives who had returned to meet together in Jerusalem.
8. Whoever did not come to Jerusalem within three days would lose his property and would no longer be a member of the community of the returned captives. That was the decision of the officers and elders.
9. So within three days all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered in Jerusalem. It was the twentieth day of the ninth month. All the men were sitting in the open place in front of the Temple and were upset because of the meeting and because it was raining.