13. But the people are many, and it is a time of heavy rain, and we are not able to stand outside, neither is this a work of one day or two: for we are many that have transgressed in this thing.
14. Let now our rulers of all the congregation stand, and let all them who have taken foreign wives in our cities come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and the judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter is turned from us.
15. Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah opposed this matter: and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supported them.
16. And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain heads of the fathers' houses, according to their fathers' houses, and each of them by name, were set apart, and sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.
17. And they finished with all the men that had taken foreign wives by the first day of the first month.
18. And among the sons of the priests there were found that had taken foreign wives: namely, of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren; Maaseiah, and Eliezer, and Jarib, and Gedaliah.
19. And they gave their promise that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their trespass.