1. And while Ezra was praying, and while he was confessing, weeping, and bowing down before the House of Elohim, a very large assembly – men and women and children – gathered unto him from Yisra’ĕl, for the people wept very bitterly.
2. And Sheḵanyah son of Yeḥi’ĕl, one of the sons of Olam, spoke up and said to Ezra, “We have trespassed against our Elohim, and have taken foreign women from the peoples of the land. And now there is expectancy in Yisra’ĕl concerning this.
3. “Now then, let us make a covenant with our Elohim to put away all these wives and those who have been born to them, according to the counsel of יהוה and of those who tremble at the command of our Elohim. And let it be done according to the Torah.
4. “Arise, for the matter is upon you, but we are with you. Be strong and act.”
5. And Ezra rose, and made the leaders of the priests, the Lĕwites, and all Yisra’ĕl, to swear to do according to this word. And they swore.
6. Then Ezra rose up from before the House of Elohim, and went into the room of Yehoḥanan son of Elyashiḇ. And he went there – he ate no bread and drank no water for he mourned because of the trespass of the exiles.
7. And they passed a call throughout Yehuḏah and Yerushalayim to all the sons of the exile, to gather at Yerushalayim,
8. and that whoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the leaders and elders, all his goods would be put under a ban, and himself separated from the assembly of the exiles.
9. Then all the men of Yehuḏah and Binyamin gathered at Yerushalayim within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth of the month. And all the people sat in the open space of the House of Elohim, trembling because of the matter and because of showers of rain.