Ezra 9

¹ Once this was done, the officials approached me to say, 'The people of Israel, the priests and theLevites, have not renounced the disgusting practices of the people of the country -- the Canaanites, the Hittites,the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites-

² since they and their sons have married some of their women, as a result of which the holy race hasbeen contaminated by the people of the country. The officials and leaders have been the worst offenders in thisact of infidelity.'

³ On hearing this, I tore my clothes and my cloak; I pul ed hair from my head and beard and sat down inhorror.

⁴ Al who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered round me, when faced with the infidelity ofthe exiles, while I went on sitting there in horror until the evening sacrifice.

⁵ At the evening sacrifice I came out of my stupor and, falling on my knees in my torn clothes and cloak,stretched out my hands to Yahweh my God,

⁶ and said: 'My God, I am ashamed, I blush to lift my face to you, my God. For our iniquities haveincreased, until they are higher than our heads, and our guilt has risen as high as heaven.

⁷ From the days of our ancestors until now we have been deeply guilty and, because of our iniquities, we,our kings and our priests, have been handed over to the kings of other countries, to the sword, to captivity, topil age, to shame, as is the case today.

⁸ And now, for a brief moment, the favour of Yahweh our God has allowed a remnant of us to escape andgiven us a stable home in his holy place, so that our God can raise our spirits and revive us a little in our slavery.

⁹ For we are slaves; but God has not forgotten us in our slavery; he has extended his faithful love to useven under the kings of Persia and revived us to rebuild the Temple of our God, restore its ruins and provide uswith a refuge in Judah and in Jerusalem.

¹⁰ But now, our God, what can we say after this? For we have abandoned your commandments,

¹¹ which you gave through your servants the prophets in these terms, "The country which you are aboutto possess is a polluted country, pol uted by the people of the country and their disgusting practices, which havefilled it with their filth from end to end.

¹² Hence you are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, or let their daughters marry yoursons, or ever concern yourselves about peace or good relations with them, if you want to grow stronger, to liveoff the fat of the land and bequeath it to your sons for ever."

¹³ 'After al that has befal en us because of our evil deeds and our deep guilt -- though you, our God, havepunished us less than our iniquities deserved and have al owed us to escape like this-

¹⁴ are we to break your commandments again and intermarry with people with these disgustingpractices? Would you not be enraged with us to the point of destroying us, leaving neither remnant nor survivor?

¹⁵ Yahweh, God of Israel, you are upright. We survive only as the remnant we are today. We come beforeyou in our guilt; because of it we cannot stand in your presence.'