1. On the twenty-fourth day of this same month the Israelites assembled; they were fasting and wearing sackcloth, their heads covered with dust.
2. Those truly of Israelite descent separated from all the foreigners, standing and confessing their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors.
3. For one-fourth of the day they stood in their place and read from the book of the law of the lord their God, and for another fourth they were confessing their sins and worshiping the lord their God.