3 Now, therefore, let us make a covenant with our God to send away all the women and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of the Lord and of those that fear the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.
4 Arise; for this matter belongs unto thee; we also will be with thee: be of good courage, and do it.
5 Then Ezra arose and made the princes of the priests, the Levites, and all Israel, swear that they should do according to this word. And they swore.
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 there, he ate no bread, nor drank water; for he mourned because of the transgression of those that had been carried away.
7 And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto all the sons of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together unto Jerusalem
8 and that whoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and of the elders, all his substance should be forfeited and himself separated from the congregation of those that had been carried away.
9 Thus were all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered together unto Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth of the month; and all the people sat in the plaza of the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the rains.