⁴ and commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to keep the law and the commandment.

⁴ For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:

⁹ Then I gave orders, and they ^(A)cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.

²⁹ join with their brothers, their nobles, ^(A)and enter into a curse and an oath ^(B)to walk in God's Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes. ^30 (C)We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons. ^31 (D)And if the peoples of the land bring in goods or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. And we will forego the crops of the ^(E)seventh year and the ^(F)exaction of every debt.

³² “We also take on ourselves the obligation to give yearly ^(G)a third part of a shekel^[a] for the service of the house of our God: ^33 (H)for the showbread, ^(I)the regular grain offering, ^(J)the regular burnt offering, the Sabbaths, the new moons, the appointed feasts, the holy things, and the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God. ^34 (K)We, the priests, the Levites, and the people, have likewise cast lots ^(L)for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, according to our fathers' houses, at times appointed, year by year, to burn on the altar of the Lord our God, ^(M)as it is written in the Law. ³⁵ We obligate ourselves ^(N)to bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the Lord; ³⁶ also to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God, the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, ^(O)as it is written in the Law, and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks; ^37 (P)and to bring the first of our dough, and our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the wine and the oil, to the priests, ^(Q)to the chambers of the house of our God; and to bring to the Levites the tithes from our ground, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all our towns where we labor. ³⁸ And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive the tithes. And the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of ^(R)the storehouse. ³⁹ For the people of Israel and the sons of Levi ^(S)shall bring the contribution of grain, wine, and oil to the chambers, where the vessels of the sanctuary are, as well as the priests who minister, and the gatekeepers and the singers. ^(T)We will not neglect the house of our God.”

⁷ And a proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the returned exiles that they should assemble at Jerusalem, ⁸ and that if anyone did not come within three days, by order of the officials and the elders all his property should be forfeited, and he himself banned from the congregation of the exiles.

⁹ Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled at Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month. And all the people sat in the open square before the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the ^(A)heavy rain. ¹⁰ And Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have broken faith and married foreign women, and so increased the guilt of Israel. ¹¹ Now then ^(B)make confession to the Lord, the God of your fathers and do his will. ^(C)Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.” ¹² Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, “It is so; we must do as you have said.

³² Then he made all who were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin join in it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. ³³ And Josiah took away ^(A)all the abominations from all the territory that belonged to the people of Israel and made all who were present in Israel serve the Lord their God. All his days they did not turn away from following the Lord, the God of their fathers.