2 and stayed the night there. He neither ate bread nor drank water, as he was mourning for the great immoral deeds of the multitude.
3 An announcement was issued throughout Judea and Jerusalem to all who had returned from exile that they should gather at Jerusalem.
4 Whoever didn’t meet there within two or three days, according to the order of the leading elders, their animals would be used for sacrifice and the people themselves cut off from the company of those who had returned from the exile.
5 Then everyone from the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin gathered together at Jerusalem within three days; this was the twentieth day of the ninth month.
6 The whole crowd sat in the square of the temple, shivering because it was winter.
7 Then Ezra stood up and said, "You have broken the Law and married foreign women, and thus have increased the sin of Israel.
8 So confess and give glory to the Lord God of our ancestors.