The People’s Confession of Sin

Ezra continues mourning in private while a proclamation calls all the exiles to Jerusalem within three days. The men assemble in the rain, trembling over both the matter itself and the storm.

T⁶hen Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and walked to the chamber of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. And while he stayed there, he ate no food and drank no water, because he was mourning over the unfaithfulness of the exiles. ⁷And a proclamation was issued throughout Judah and Jerusalem that all the exiles should gather at Jerusalem. ⁸Whoever failed to appear within three days would forfeit all his property, according to the counsel of the leaders and elders, and would himself be expelled from the assembly of the exiles. ⁹So within the three days, all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled in Jerusalem, and on the twentieth day of the ninth month, all the people sat in the square at the house of God, trembling regarding this matter and because of the heavy rain.

Ezra declares the people’s unfaithfulness and calls them to confess and separate from the foreign wives. The assembly agrees, but asks for an ordered process because the matter is widespread and cannot be handled in one day.

¹⁰Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful by marrying foreign women, adding to the guilt of Israel. ¹¹Now, therefore, make a confession to the LORD, the God of your fathers, and do His will. Separate yourselves from the people of the land and from your foreign wives.” ¹²And the whole assembly responded in a loud voice: “Truly we must do as you say! ¹³But there are many people here, and it is the rainy season. We are not able to stay out in the open. Nor is this the work of one or two days, for we have transgressed greatly in this matter. ¹⁴Let our leaders represent the whole assembly. Then let everyone in our towns who has married a foreign woman come at an appointed time, together with the elders and judges of each town, until the fierce anger of our God in this matter is turned away from us.”

A small group opposes the plan, but the returned exiles proceed as proposed. Ezra appoints family representatives, and the investigation begins in the tenth month and ends by the first month.

¹⁵(Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah, supported by Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite, opposed this plan.) ¹⁶So the exiles did as proposed. Ezra the priest selected men who were family heads, each of them identified by name, to represent their families. On the first day of the tenth month they launched the investigation, ¹⁷and by the first day of the first month they had dealt with all the men who had married foreign women.