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Therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the alien wives and those who are born of them, according to the counsel of the LORD and of those who tremble at the law of our God and his commandment; do it now and be strong.

Then Ezra the scribe rose up from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Johanan the son of Elisha; and he sat there, but he neither ate bread nor drank water; for he was sorrowful because of the transgression of the people.

Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, You have transgressed against God, and have taken foreign wives, and thus increased the sins of Israel.

Now therefore make confession to the LORD God of your fathers, and do his will; separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the alien wives.

Let now our elders and all the people stand up, and let all who are in our cities, who have taken foreign wives, come at the time of prayer, and with them the elders of the cities and their judges, till the fierce wrath of our God for this matter is turned from us.

When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for many days, and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

And I said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the mighty, the great and revered God, who keeps truth and grace for those who love him and keep his commandments;

Then the king said to me, For what did you make supplications and pray before the God of heaven?

And a letter to Asaph the keeper of the kings forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the temple and for the castle and for the walls of the city and for the house that I shall dwell in it. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

And I arose in the night, I and the men who had come with me; and I told no man what my God had put in my heart to do in Jerusalem; neither was there any beast with me, except the beast that I rode upon.

Then f told them of the hand of my God which was with me for good, and also the kings words that he had spoken to me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.

Then I answered them and said, The God of heaven has delivered us: therefore we are working, standing firm, and building; but you have no right nor memorial nor portion in Jerusalem.

Hear, O our God, for we have become ridiculed; and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of their captivity:

Nevertheless we made our prayer to our God, that he may set watchmen over us day and night because of them.

In what place therefore you hear the sound of the trumpet, come to us there; our God shall fight for us.

And there were also those who said, Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children are as their children; and, 1o, we are compelling our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are already compelled to become maidservants; and yet they do not raise their hands in protest before God; and our fields, our vineyards, and our goods are given for other men.

Also I said to them, The thing that you are doing is not good; for now you are not walking in the reverence of our God, because you are behaving like the nations which are round about us.

And we said, So may God shake out every man from his house and from his labor who does not perform this promise, even thus shall he be shaken out and emptied. And all the people said, Amen. Then all the people rose up and praised the LORD. And all the people did according to this promise.

But the former governors who had been before me had enslaved the people and taken from them wine and bread, besides forty shekels of silver; also their servants bore rule over the people, and they were subject to them and were tormented by them; but I did not do so, because of the fear of God.

O my God, remember me for good, because of all that I have done for this people.