The First Book of Esdras
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Anonymous
8:64 And all the weight of them was written up the same hour.
8:65 Moreover they that were come out of the captivity offered sacrifice unto the Lord God of Israel, even twelve bullocks for all Israel, fourscore and sixteen rams,
8:66 Threescore and twelve lambs, goats for a peace offering, twelve; all of them a sacrifice to the Lord.
8:67 And they delivered the king’s commandments unto the king’s stewards’ and to the governors of Celosyria and Phenice; and they honoured the people and the temple of God.
8:68 Now when these things were done, the rulers came unto me, and said,
8:69 The nation of Israel, the princes, the priests and Levites, have not put away from them the strange people of the land, nor the pollutions of the Gentiles to wit, of the Canaanites, Hittites, Pheresites, Jebusites, and the Moabites, Egyptians, and Edomites.
8:70 For both they and their sons have married with their daughters, and the holy seed is mixed with the strange people of the land; and from the beginning of this matter the rulers and the great men have been partakers of this iniquity.
8:71 And as soon as I had heard these things, I rent my clothes, and the holy garment, and pulled off the hair from off my head and beard, and sat me down sad and very heavy.
8:72 So all they that were then moved at the word of the Lord God of Israel assembled unto me, whilst I mourned for the iniquity: but I sat still full of heaviness until the evening sacrifice.
8:73 Then rising up from the fast with my clothes and the holy garment rent, and bowing my knees, and stretching forth my hands unto the Lord,
8:74 I said, O Lord, I am confounded and ashamed before thy face;
8:75 For our sins are multiplied above our heads, and our ignorances have reached up unto heaven.
8:76 For ever since the time of our fathers we have been and are in great sin, even unto this day.
8:77 And for our sins and our fathers’ we with our brethren and our kings and our priests were given up unto the kings of the earth, to the sword, and to captivity, and for a prey with shame, unto this day.
8:78 And now in some measure hath mercy been shewed unto us from thee, O Lord, that there should be left us a root and a name in the place of thy sanctuary;
8:79 And to discover unto us a light in the house of the Lord our God, and to give us food in the time of our servitude.
8:80 Yea, when we were in bondage, we were not forsaken of our Lord; but he made us gracious before the kings of Persia, so that they gave us food;
8:81 Yea, and honoured the temple of our Lord, and raised up the desolate Sion, that they have given us a sure abiding in Jewry and Jerusalem.
8:82 And now, O Lord, what shall we say, having these things? for we have transgressed thy commandments, which thou gavest by the hand of thy servants the prophets, saying,
8:83 That the land, which ye enter into to possess as an heritage, is a land polluted with the pollutions of the strangers of the land, and they have filled it with their uncleanness.
8:84 Therefore now shall ye not join your daughters unto their sons, neither shall ye take their daughters unto your sons.
8:85 Moreover ye shall never seek to have peace with them, that ye may be strong, and eat the good things of the land, and that ye may leave the inheritance of the land unto your children for evermore.
8:86 And all that is befallen is done unto us for our wicked works and great sins; for thou, O Lord, didst make our sins light,
8:87 And didst give unto us such a root: but we have turned back again to transgress thy law, and to mingle ourselves with the uncleanness of the nations of the land.
8:88 Mightest not thou be angry with us to destroy us, till thou hadst left us neither root, seed, nor name?
8:89 O Lord of Israel, thou art true: for we are left a root this day.
8:90 Behold, now are we before thee in our iniquities, for we cannot stand any longer by reason of these things before thee.
8:91 And as Esdras in his prayer made his confession, weeping, and lying flat upon the ground before the temple, there gathered unto him from Jerusalem a very great multitude of men and women and children: for there was great weeping among the multitude.
8:92 Then Jechonias the son of Jeelus, one of the sons of Israel, called out, and said, O Esdras, we have sinned against the Lord God, we have married strange women of the nations of the land, and now is all Israel aloft.
8:93 Let us make an oath to the Lord, that we will put away all our wives, which we have taken of the heathen, with their children,
8:94 Like as thou hast decreed, and as many as do obey the law of the Lord.
8:95 Arise and put in execution: for to thee doth this matter appertain, and we will be with thee: do valiantly.
8:96 So Esdras arose, and took an oath of the chief of the priests and Levites of all Israel to do after these things; and so they sware.
9:1 Then Esdras rising from the court of the temple went to the chamber of Joanan the son of Eliasib,
9:2 And remained there, and did eat no meat nor drink water, mourning for the great iniquities of the multitude.
9:3 And there was a proclamation in all Jewry and Jerusalem to all them that were of the captivity, that they should be gathered together at Jerusalem:
9:4 And that whosoever met not there within two or three days according as the elders that bare rule appointed, their cattle should be seized to the use of the temple, and himself cast out from them that were of the captivity.
9:5 And in three days were all they of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin gathered together at Jerusalem the twentieth day of the ninth month.
9:6 And all the multitude sat trembling in the broad court of the temple because of the present foul weather.
9:7 So Esdras arose up, and said unto them, Ye have transgressed the law in marrying strange wives, thereby to increase the sins of Israel.