Daily Meditation
11 Now therefore make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives.
Today’s Reading
Ezra
Chapter 10
Now when Ezra had
prayed
1 Now when Ezra had
prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the
house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation
of men and women and children: for the people wept very sore. 2 And Shechaniah
the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We
have trespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of
the land: yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. 3 Now
therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and
such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those
that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the
law. 4 Arise; for this matter belongeth unto thee: we also will be with thee:
be of good courage, and do it. 5 Then arose Ezra, and made the chief priests,
the Levites, and all Israel, to swear that they should do according to this
word. And they sware.
6 Then Ezra rose up
from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of Johanan the son of
Eliashib: and when he came thither, he did eat no bread, nor drink water: for
he mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carried away. 7
And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto all the children
of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together unto Jerusalem; 8
and that whosoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel
of the princes and the elders, all his substance should be forfeited, and
himself separated from the congregation of those that had been carried away.
9 Then all the men
of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem within three
days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people
sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and
for the great rain. 10 And Ezra the priest stood up, and said unto them, Ye
have transgressed, and have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of
Israel. 11 Now therefore make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers, and
do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from
the strange wives. 12 Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud
voice, As thou hast said, so must we do. 13 But the people are many, and it is
a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand without, 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 which
have taken strange 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 be turned from us.
15 Only Jonathan the
son of Asahel and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah were employed about this matter:
and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them. 16 And the children of the
captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain chief of the fathers, after
the house of their fathers, and all of them by their names, were separated, and
sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter. 17 And they
made an end with all the men that had taken strange wives by the first day of
the first month.
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