¹² To the rest I say—I and not the Lord—that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her.^(A)

¹⁷ What I am saying in regard to this boastful undertaking, I am saying not with the Lord’s authority but as a fool;^(A)

⁶ This I say by way of concession, not of command.^(A)

The Unmarried and the Widows

²⁵ Now concerning virgins, I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.^(A)

¹¹ Now make confession to the Lord the God of your ancestors and do his will; separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.”^{(A) 12} Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, “It is so; we must do as you have said. ¹³ But the people are many, and it is a time of heavy rain; we cannot stand in the open. Nor is this a task for one day or for two, for many of us have transgressed in this matter. ¹⁴ Let our officials represent the whole assembly, and let all in our towns who have taken foreign wives come at appointed times, and with them the elders and judges of every town, until the fierce wrath of our God on this account is averted from us.”^{(B) 15} Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah opposed this, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levites supported them.

¹⁶ Then the returned exiles did so. Ezra the priest selected men,^[a] heads of families, according to their families, each of them designated by name. On the first day of the tenth month they sat down to examine the matter.^{(C) 17} By the first day of the first month they had come to the end of all the men who had married foreign women.

¹⁸ There were found of the descendants of the priests who had married foreign women, of the descendants of Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah. ¹⁹ They pledged themselves to send away their wives, and their guilt offering was a ram of the flock for their guilt.^(D)

² Shecaniah son of Jehiel, of the descendants of Elam, addressed Ezra, saying, “We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.^{(A) 3} So now let us make a covenant with our God to send away all these wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the law.^(B)