¹² But to the rest I, not the Lord, say: If any brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her.

¹⁷ What I speak, ^(A)I speak not according to the Lord, but as it were, foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.

⁶ But I say this as a concession, ^(A)not as a commandment.

To the Unmarried and Widows

²⁵ Now concerning virgins: ^(A)I have no commandment from the Lord; yet I give judgment as one ^(B)whom the Lord in His mercy has made ^(C)trustworthy.

¹¹ Now therefore, ^(A)make confession to the Lord God of your fathers, and do His will; ^(B)separate yourselves from the peoples of the land, and from the pagan wives.”

¹² Then all the assembly answered and said with a loud voice, “Yes! As you have said, so we must do. ¹³ But there are many people; it is the season for heavy rain, and we are not able to stand outside. Nor is this the work of one or two days, for there are many of us who have transgressed in this matter. ¹⁴ Please, let the leaders of our entire assembly stand; and let all those in our cities who have taken pagan wives come at appointed times, together with the elders and judges of their cities, until ^(C)the fierce wrath of our God is turned away from us in this matter.” ¹⁵ Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah opposed this, and ^(D)Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite gave them support.

¹⁶ Then the descendants of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain ^(E)heads of the fathers’ households, were set apart by the fathers’ households, each of them by name; and they sat down on the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter. ¹⁷ By the first day of the first month they finished questioning all the men who had taken pagan wives.

Pagan Wives Put Away

¹⁸ And among the sons of the priests who had taken pagan wives the following were found of the sons of ^(F)Jeshua the son of ^[a]Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah. ¹⁹ And they ^(G)gave their promise that they would put away their wives; and being ^(H)guilty, they presented a ram of the flock as their ^(I)trespass offering.

² And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, spoke up and said to Ezra, “We have ^(A)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. ³ Now therefore, let us make ^(B)a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and those who have been born to them, according to the advice of my master and of those who ^(C)tremble at ^(D)the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the ^(E)law.