Ezra 10:1-5 - The People Respond

¹ And when Ezra prayed after this manner, and knowledged, wept, and lay before the house of God, there resorted unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children: For the people wept very sore. ² And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the children of Elam, answered, and said unto Ezra, "We have trespassed against the LORD our God, in that we have taken strange wives of the people of the land. Now there is hope yet in Israel concerning this: ³ for now will we make a covenant with our God, that we shall put away all the wives - and such as are born of them - according to the counsel of the LORD and of them that fear the commandment of our God, that we may do according to the law. ⁴ Get thee up therefore, for the matter belongeth unto thee. We will be with thee; be of good comfort, and do it."

⁵ Then rose Ezra, and took an oath of the rulers, priests, and Levites, and all of Israel, that they should do according to this word: and they sware.