12. Then all the assembly replied with a loud voice, "That's right! As you have said, so it is our duty to do.
13. But there are many people; it is the rainy season and we are not able to stand in the open. Nor can the task be done in one or two days, for we have transgressed greatly in this matter.
14. Let our leaders represent the whole assembly and let all those in our cities who have married foreign wives come at appointed times, together with the elders and judges of each city, until the fierce anger of our God on account of this matter is turned away from us."
15. Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah opposed this, with Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supporting them.
16. But the exiles did so. And Ezra the priest selected men who were heads of fathers' households for each of their father's households, all of them by name. So they convened on the first day of the tenth month to investigate the matter.
17. They finished investigating all the men who had married foreign wives by the first day of the first month.
18. Among the sons of the priests who had married foreign wives were found of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib and Gedaliah.
19. They pledged to put away their wives, and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their offense.
20. Of the sons of Immer there were Hanani and Zebadiah;
21. and of the sons of Harim: Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel and Uzziah;