Ezra and the Community's Difficult Decision

Some leaders came to Ezra with troubling news. They said that people in Israel, including priests and Levites, had not kept separate from the peoples of the lands around them. They had taken wives from those peoples, and the leaders said that even some rulers had been leading this trespass.

When Ezra heard this, he showed deep sorrow. He tore his clothes, pulled hair from his head and beard, and sat down in shock. Others who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered to him because of this trespass, and Ezra remained there until the evening offering.

While Ezra prayed, confessed, wept, and threw himself down before God's house, a very large assembly gathered from Israel, with men, women, and children. The people wept bitterly. Then Shecaniah admitted the community's wrong and proposed a covenant with God to send away the foreign wives and the children born to them, saying it should be done according to the law.

Shecaniah urged Ezra to be courageous, and Ezra stood up. He made the chiefs of the priests, the Levites, and all Israel swear to do this. Then Ezra left the front of God's house and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. There he ate no bread and drank no water, because he mourned over the trespass of the exiles.

A proclamation went out through Judah and Jerusalem for all the returned exiles to gather in Jerusalem within three days. Anyone who refused would lose his possessions and be separated from the assembly. So all the men of Judah and Benjamin came. It was the ninth month, the twentieth day, and they sat in the open place before God's house, trembling because of the matter and because of the great rain.

Ezra told them they had trespassed by marrying foreign women and increasing Israel's guilt. He called them to confess to the Lord and separate themselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign women. The assembly answered that this must be done, but that it would take time because the people were many and the rain was heavy. They proposed that officials handle the cases city by city.

Two men stood against this plan, but the returned exiles carried it out. Ezra and selected family heads examined the matter from the first day of the tenth month until the first day of the first month. How do the people's tears help you feel the weight of this moment?