Ezra 9–10
1 Now when these things were done, the leaders contacted me, saying, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the lands. They practice the abominations of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. 2 Specifically, they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves, as well as for their sons, so that the holy seed has been mingled with the people of the lands. In fact, the involvement of the leaders and rulers has been foremost in this vile behavior.”
3 When I heard this, I tore my clothes and my robe, plucked out the hair of my head and from my beard, and sat down astonished. 4 Because of the vile behavior of those who had been in exile, every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered to me, but I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice.
5 At the evening sacrifice I rose up from my heaviness and, despite having my clothes and my robe torn, I knelt on my knees and stretched out my hands in prayer to the Lord my God 6 and said:
“O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, because our iniquities have expanded over our heads and our wrongdoing has grown up to the heavens. 7 Since the days of our fathers until this day, we have been in a great guilt. It is because of our iniquities that we, our kings, and our priests have been delivered—by the sword, by captivity, by spoil, and by being shamed—into the hand of the kings of the lands. This day is like that, too.
8 “Yet now for a little while, there has been a favorable response from the Lord our God—leaving us a remnant to escape, giving us a tent peg from His holy place, having our eyes enlightened by our God, and giving us a little reviving in our bondage. 9 For though we were slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage but has extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, granting us a reviving for the rebuilding of the house of our God, for the repairing of its ruins, and for giving us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
10 “Now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments, 11 which You commanded by Your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land that you are entering to possess is an unclean land, with the impurity of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness. 12 Now, therefore, cease giving your daughters as wives to their sons, do not take their daughters to your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you might grow strong and eat the good of the land and leave it as an eternal inheritance to your children.’
13 “After all that has come upon us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt, seeing that You our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such deliverance as this, 14 should we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the people of these abominations? Would You not become so completely angry with us that there would be no remnant nor any who escape? 15 O Lord God of Israel, You are righteous, for we who escaped exile yet remain to this very day. Here we stand before You in our guiltiness even though we should not stand before You because of this.”
Chapter 10
1 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.
18 Some of the sons of the priests were discovered to have wedded foreign women,
namely the sons of Joshua the son of Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah. 19 They committed to sever their relations with their women, and, being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their guilt.
20 Likewise, of the sons of Immer,
there were Hanani and Zebadiah.
21 Of the sons of Harim,
there were Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, and Uzziah.
22 Of the sons of Pashhur,
there were Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah.
23 Also, from the Levites,
there were Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah, (the same is Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.
24 Among the singers,
there was Eliashib,
and from the porters,
there were Shallum, Telem, and Uri.
25 Further from Israel,
of the sons of Parosh,
there were Ramiah, Izziah, Malkijah, Mijamin, Eleazar, Malkijah, and Benaiah.
26 Of the sons of Elam,
there were Mattaniah, Zechariah, Jehiel, Abdi, Jeremoth, and Elijah.
27 Of the sons of Zattu,
there were Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Jeremoth, Zabad, and Aziza.
28 Of the sons of Bebai,
there were Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, and Athlai.
29 Of the sons of Bani,
there were Meshullam, Malluk, Adaiah, Jashub, Sheal, and Jeremoth.
30 Of the sons of Pahath-Moab,
there were Adna, Kelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui, and Manasseh.
31 Of the sons of Harim,
there were Eliezer, Ishijah, Malkijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon, 32 Benjamin, Malluk, and Shemariah.
33 Of the sons of Hashum,
there were Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, and Shimei.
34 Of the sons of Bani,
there were Maadai, Amram, Uel, 35 Benaiah, Bedeiah, Keluhi, 36 Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib, 37 Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasu.
38 Of the sons of Binnui,
there were Shimei, 39 Shelemiah, Nathan, Adaiah, 40 Maknadebai, Shashai, Sharai, 41 Azarel, Shelemiah, Shemariah, 42 Shallum, Amariah, and Joseph.
43 Of the sons of Nebo,
there were Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jaddai, Joel, and Benaiah.
44 All these married foreign women, and some of them had wives that had children.
Acts 1
1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 until the day when He was taken up, after He had given commandments through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen, 3 to whom He presented Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, appearing to them for forty days, and speaking concerning the kingdom of God. 4 Being assembled with them, He commanded them, “Do not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, of which you have heard from Me. 5 For John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
6 So when they had come together, they asked Him, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know the times or the dates, which the Father has fixed by His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9 When He had spoken these things, while they looked, He was taken up. And a cloud received Him from their sight.
10 While they looked intently toward heaven as He ascended, suddenly two men stood by them in white garments. 11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why stand looking toward heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you to heaven, will come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is a Sabbath day’s walk from Jerusalem. 13 When they had entered, they went up into the upper room, where they were staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James. 14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
15 In those days Peter stood up among the disciples (the number of people together was about a hundred and twenty), and said, 16 “Brothers, this Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit previously spoke by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became the guide to those who seized Jesus. 17 For he was numbered with us and took part in this ministry.”
18 (Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity. And falling headlong, he burst asunder in the middle and all his organs spilled out. 19 It became known to all the residents of Jerusalem. So this field is called in their dialect Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)
20 “For it is written in the Book of Psalms,
‘Let his habitation become desolate,
and let no one live in it,’
and,
‘Let another take his office.’
21 Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us while the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John until the very day that He was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness of His resurrection.”
23 So they proposed two, Joseph, called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. 24 Then they prayed, “You, Lord, who knows the hearts of all men, show which of these two You have chosen 25 to take the place in this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, to go to his own place.” 26 Then they cast lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. So he was numbered with the eleven apostles.