¹⁰ Then Ezra the priest stood and said to them: “You have committed a terrible sin. By marrying pagan women, you have increased Israel’s guilt.

³² Go ahead and finish what your ancestors started.

⁶ I prayed,

¹³ “You must not bring the prisoners here!” they declared. “We cannot afford to add to our sins and guilt. Our guilt is already great, and the Lord’s fierce anger is already turned against Israel.”

¹⁷ Was our sin at Peor not enough? To this day we are not fully cleansed of it, even after the plague that struck the entire community of the Lord. ¹⁸ And yet today you are turning away from following the Lord. If you rebel against the Lord today, he will be angry with all of us tomorrow.

¹⁴ But here you are, a brood of sinners, doing exactly the same thing! You are making the Lord even angrier with Israel.