13 But there are many people, and because it is the rainy season we will not be able to set up outside. Moreover, this is not a task for a day or two since we have so grievously transgressed in this matter.
14 Let now our rulers preside over all the congregation so that, in each of our cities, all who have married foreign women, along with the elders and judges of that city, will come at appointed times, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter is turned from us.”
15 Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah opposed this, with Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supporting them.
16 Then the descendants of the captivity did so. Ezra the priest selected men, heads of the fathers’ households, according to their families, each of them by name. They sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter,
17 and finished dealing with every man who had married foreign women by the first day of the first month.
18 Some of the sons of the priests were discovered to have wedded foreign women,namely the sons of Joshua the son of Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah.
19 They committed to sever their relations with their women, and, being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their guilt.