9And gathered are all the men of Judah and Benjamin to Jerusalem by the third day, it [is] the ninth month, on the twentieth of the month, and all the people sit in the broad place of the house of God, trembling on account of the matter and of the showers.
10And Ezra the priest riseth, and saith unto them, `Ye -- ye have trespassed, and ye settle strange women, to add to the guilt of Israel;
11and, now, make confession to Jehovah, God of your fathers, and do His good pleasure, and be separated from the peoples of the land, and from the strange women.`
12And all the assembly answer and say [with] a great voice, `Right; according to thy word -- on us to do;
13but the people [are] many, and [it is] the time of showers, and there is no power to stand without, and the work [is] not for one day, nor for two, for we have multiplied to transgress in this thing.
14`Let, we pray thee, our heads of all the assembly stand, and all who [are] in our cities, who have settled strange wives, do come in at the times appointed, and with them the elders of city and city, and its judges, till the turning back of the fury of the wrath of our God from us, for this thing.`
15Only Jonathan son of Asahel, and Jahaziah son of Tikvah, stood against this, and Meshullam, and Shabbethai the Levite, helped them.
