²⁴ Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said.

²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”

⁵ So Ezra rose up and put the leading priests and Levites and all Israel under oath^(A) to do what had been suggested. And they took the oath.

² Then Shekaniah son of Jehiel, one of the descendants of Elam,^(A) said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful^(B) to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around us. But in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel.^(C)

¹⁹ Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you.^(A) You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes^(B) to him.

² After Moses had sent away his wife Zipporah,^(A) his father-in-law Jethro received her ³ and her two sons.^(B) One son was named Gershom,^[a] for Moses said, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land”;^{(C) 4} and the other was named Eliezer,^[b](D) for he said, “My father’s God was my helper;^(E) he saved me from the sword of Pharaoh.”

⁵ Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, together with Moses’ sons and wife, came to him in the wilderness, where he was camped near the mountain^(F) of God.