Confession of Improper Marriages

10 Now ^(A)while Ezra was praying, and while he was confessing, weeping, and bowing down ^(B)before the house of God, a very large assembly of men, women, and children gathered to him from Israel; for the people wept very ^(C)bitterly. ² And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, spoke up and said to Ezra, “We have ^(D)trespassed^[a] against our God, and have taken pagan wives from the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope in Israel in spite of this.