85. Neither shall you⌃ seek to have peace with them for ever, that you⌃ may be strong, and eat the good things of the land, and that you⌃ may leave it for an inheritance to your children for evermore.
86. And all that is befallen is done to us for our wicked works and great sins: for you, O Lord, did make our sins light,
87. and did give to us such a root: but we have turned back again to transgress your law, in mingling ourselves with the uncleanness of the heathen of the land.
88. You was not angry with us to destroy us, till you had left us neither root, seed, nor name.
89. O Lord of Israel, you are true: for we are left a root this day.
90. Behold, now are we before you in our iniquities, for we can’t stand any longer before you by reason of these things.
91. And as Esdras in his prayer made his confession, weeping, and lying flat upon the ground before the temple, there gathered to him from Jerusalem a very great throng of men and women and children: for there was great weeping among the multitude.
92. Then Jechonias the son of Jeelus, one of the sons of Israel, called out, and said, O Esdras, we have sinned against the Lord God, we have married strange women of the heathen of the land, and now is all Israel aloft.
93. Let us make an oath to the Lord herein, that we will put away all our wives, which we have taken of the strangers, with their children,
94. like as seems good to you, and to as many as do obey the Law of the Lord.
95. Arise, and put in execution: for to you does this matter appertain, and we will be with you to do valiantly.
96. So Esdras arose, and took an oath of the chief of the priests and Levites of all Israel to do after these things; and so they sware.