1. While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and bowing down before God’s house, a very large crowd of men, women, and children of Israel gathered around him. The people also wept in distress.
2. Then Shecaniah, Jehiel’s son, from the family of Elam, spoke up and said to Ezra, "We’ve been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the neighboring peoples. But even now, there is hope for Israel in spite of this.