The Daily Audio Bible

The People’s Confession of Sin

10 Now while Ezra prayed and confessed, weeping and prostrating himself before the house of God, a very large congregation of men, women, and children gathered around him from Israel, for the people too wept bitterly. ² Shekaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said to Ezra, “We have acted with vile unfaithfulness against our God and have wedded foreign women from the people of the land, yet there is now hope in Israel concerning this. ³ Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to sever relations with all the women and their children according to the counsel of my lord and those who tremble at the commandment of our God. May this be done in accordance with the law. ⁴ Arise, for this matter is your responsibility. But we are standing with you. Be courageous and act!”

⁵ Then Ezra stood and made the presiding Levitical priests and all Israel to swear an oath to act according to this word. And they swore an oath. ⁶ Then Ezra stood in front of the house of God and went into the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib. When he arrived there, he ate no bread and drank no water because he was mourning over the vile unfaithfulness of the exiles.

⁷ They made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem for all the children of the exile to assemble in Jerusalem. ⁸ Whoever would not come within three days would forfeit all his possessions, according to the counsel of the leaders and the elders, and would himself be excluded from the congregation of the exiles.

⁹ Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together to Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month. All the people sat on the grounds of the house of God, trembling about this matter and also because of the great rain. ¹⁰ Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have acted unfaithfully by bringing home foreign women, adding to the guilt of Israel. ¹¹ Now therefore make confession to the Lord God of your fathers and do what pleases Him: Sever your relationships with the people of the land, especially from the foreign women.”

¹² Then all the congregation answered loudly, “As you have said to us, that we will do. ¹³ But there are many people, and because it is the rainy season we will not be able to set up outside. Moreover, this is not a task for a day or two since we have so grievously transgressed in this matter. ¹⁴ Let now our rulers preside over all the congregation so that, in each of our cities, all who have married foreign women, along with the elders and judges of that city, will come at appointed times, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter is turned from us.” ¹⁵ Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah opposed this, with Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supporting them.

¹⁶ Then the descendants of the captivity did so. Ezra the priest selected men, heads of the fathers’ households, according to their families, each of them by name. They sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter, ¹⁷ and finished dealing with every man who had married foreign women by the first day of the first month.

Those Guilty of Intermarriage

⁴⁴ All these married foreign women, and some of them had wives that had children.

Going to Law Before Unbelievers

6 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to the law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? ² Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? ³ Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more the things that pertain to this life? ⁴ If then you have judgments dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint as judges those who are least esteemed in the church? ⁵ I speak to your shame. Is it true that there is not even one wise man among you who shall be able to judge between his brothers? ⁶ But brother goes to the law against brother, and before unbelievers, at that.

⁷ Now therefore it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? ⁸ But you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and do this to your brothers. ⁹ Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ Such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of our God.

Glorify God in Your Body

¹² “All things are lawful to me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be brought under the power of anything. ¹³ “Food is for the belly, and the belly is for food,” but God will destroy both of them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. ¹⁴ God has raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His own power. ¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are the parts of Christ? Shall I then take the parts of Christ and make them the parts of a harlot? God forbid! ¹⁶ What? Do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.”^{[a] 17} But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.

¹⁸ Escape from sexual immorality. Every sin that a man commits is outside the body. But he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. ¹⁹ What? Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God, and that you are not your own? ²⁰ You were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.