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After Esdras had said this, he left off praying; and when all those
that came to him with their wives and children were under lamentation,
one whose name was Jechonias, a principal man in Jerusalem, came to him,
and said that they had sinned in marrying strange wives; and he persuaded
him to adjure them all to cast those wives out, and the children born of
them, and that those should be punished who would not obey the law. So
Esdras hearkened to this advice, and made the heads of the priests, and
of the Levites, and of the Israelites, swear that they would put away those
wives and children, according to the advice of Jechonias. And when he had
received their oaths, he went in haste out of the temple into the chamber
of Johanan, the son of Eliasib, and as he had hitherto tasted nothing at
all for grief, so he abode there that day. And when proclamation was made,
that all those of the captivity should gather themselves together to Jerusalem,
and those that did not meet there in two or three days should be banished
from the multitude, and that their substance should b appropriated to the
uses of the temple, according to the sentence of the elders, those that
were of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin came together in three days, viz.
on the twentieth day of the ninth month, which, according to the Hebrews,
is called Tebeth, and according to the Macedonians, Apelleius. Now as they
were sitting in the upper room of the temple, where the elders also were
present, but were uneasy because of the cold, Esdras stood up and accused
them, and told them that they had sinned in marrying wives that were not
of their own nation; but that now they would do a thing both pleasing to
God, and advantageous to themselves, if they would put those wives away.
Accordingly, they all cried out that they would do so. That, however, the
multitude was great, and that the season of the year was winter, and that
this work would require more than one or two days. "Let their rulers,
therefore, [said they,] and those that have married strange wives, come
hither at a proper time, while the elders of every place, that are in common
to estimate the number of those that have thus married, are to be there
also." Accordingly, this was resolved on by them, and they began the
inquiry after those that had married strange wives on the first day of
the tenth month, and continued the inquiry to the first day of the next
month, and found a great many of the posterity of Jeshua the high priest,
and of the priests and Levites, and Israelites, who had a greater regard
to the observation of the law than to their natural affection,
1
and immediately cast out their wives, and the children which were born
of them. And in order to appease God, they offered sacrifices, and slew
rams, as oblations to him; but it does not seem to me to be necessary to
set down the names of these men. So when Esdras had reformed this sin about
the marriages of the forementioned persons, he reduced that practice to
purity, so that it continued in that state for the time to come.