Ezra 10:7-9

The Voice

⁷ Those who had sworn the oath sent letters declaring it throughout Judah and Jerusalem telling all the returned exiles to assemble in Jerusalem ⁸ within three days. The counsel of chiefs and elders agreed that anyone who was not here would forfeit all his possessions and his status within the assembly. ⁹ Not surprisingly, all the men from Judah and Benjamin gathered in Jerusalem within three days, in spite of the winter rains. On the twentieth day of the ninth month, everyone sat in the courtyard in front of the True God’s temple—shivering under the weighty matter and the heavy rain.