1 And in these things being finished, the chiefs came near to me, saying, The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites were not separated from the people of the lands according to their abominations, to the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, the Ammonite, the Moabite, the Egyptian and the imorite.
2 For they took from their daughters to themselves and to their sons: and the holy seed mingled themselves with the people of the lands: and the hand of the chiefs and the prophets was the first in this transgression.
3 And in my hearing this word I rent my garment and my robe, and I shall pluck off from the hair of my head and my beard, and I shall sit down, being astonished.
4 And to me all will assemble, trembling at the word of the God of Israel for the transgression of the exile; and I sat astonished till the sacrifice of the evening.
5 And at the sacrifice of the evening I rose up from my humbling; and in my rending my garment and my robe and I shall bend upon my knees and spread forth my hands to Jehovah my God.
6 And saying, My God, I was ashamed and disgraced to lift up my face, O my God, to thee: for our iniquities were multiplied over the head, and our guilt was magnified even to the heavens.
7 From the days of our fathers we are in a great trespass even to this day; and in our iniquities we were given, we, our kings, our priests, into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity and to plunder, and to shame of face as this day.
8 And now for a little moment grace was from Jehovah our God to leave to us an escaping, and to give to us a nail in his holy place, for our God to enlighten our eyes and to give us a little preservation of our life in our servitude.
9 For we are servants; and in our servitude God forsook us not, and he extended to us mercy before the kings of Persia, to give to us the preservation of life to set up the house of our God, and to cause its desolations to stand, and to give to us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
10 And now what shall we say, O our God, after this? for we forsook thy commands,
11 Which thou didst command by the hand of thy servants the prophets, saying, The land which ye are coming in to inherit it being a land of uncleanness in the uncleanness of the people of the lands in their abominations which filled it from mouth to mouth in their pollution.
12 And now ye shall not give your daughters to their sons, and ye shall not take their daughters to your sons, and ye shall not seek their peace and their good even forever, so that ye shall be strong and eat the good of the land, and cause to your sons to inherit even forever.
13 And after all coming upon us for our evil deeds, and in our great guilt, for thou our God didst withhold below our iniquities, and didst give to us an escaping according to this.
14 Shall we turn back to break thy commands and to contract marriage with the people of these abonminations? Wilt thou not be angry with us even to finishing, for not a remaining and escaping.
15 O Jehovah God of Israel, thou art just: for we remained an escaping as this day: behold us before thee in our guilts; for not to stand before thee for