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now therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters to your sons, nor seek their peace or their prosperity forever; that you may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your sons forever.

And after all that has come on us for our evil deeds, and for our great guilt, seeing that you our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such a remnant,

O Yahweh, the God of Israel, you are righteous; for we are left a remnant that is escaped, as it is this day: look, we are before you in our guiltiness; for none can stand before you because of this.

Now while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there was gathered together to him out of Israel a very great assembly of men and women and children; for the people wept very intensely.

And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said to Ezra, We have trespassed against our God, and have married foreign women of the peoples of the land: yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this thing.

Arise; for the matter belongs to you, and we are with you: be of good courage, and do it.

Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib: and he spent the night there, he ate no bread, nor drank water; for he mourned because of the trespass of them of the captivity.

Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together to Jerusalem within the three days; it was the ninth month, on the twentieth [day] of the month: and all the people sat in the broad place before the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain.

But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand outside: neither is this a work of one day or two; for we have greatly transgressed in this matter.

Let now our princes be appointed for all the assembly, and let all those that are in our cities that have married foreign women come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and the judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our God is turned from us, until this matter is despatched.

And they gave their hand that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, [they offered] a ram of the flock for their guilt.

Let your ear now be attentive, and your eyes open, that you may listen to the prayer of your slave, which I pray before you at this time, day and night, for the sons of Israel your slaves while I confess the sins of the sons of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Yes, I and my father's house have sinned:

Then the king said to me, For what do you make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.

And the king said to me (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall your journey be? and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.

and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the castle which pertains to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God on me.

And when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the slave, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly, for man came to seek the welfare of the sons of Israel.

And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither did I tell man what my God put into my heart to do for Jerusalem; neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode on.

Then I went on to the fountain gate and to the king's pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass.

And I told them of the hand of my God which was good on me, as also of the king's words that he had spoken to me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good [work].

After him repaired the Levites, Rehum the son of Bani. Next to him repaired Hashabiah, the ruler of half the district of Keilah, for his district.