Isn’t this the fast I choose: To break the chains of wickedness, to untie the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, and to tear off every yoke?
Let our leaders represent the entire assembly. Then let all those in our towns who have married foreign women come at appointed times, together with the elders and judges of each town, in order to avert the fierce anger of our God concerning this matter.’
Then the Israelites took two hundred thousand captives from their brothers #– #women, sons, and daughters. They also took a great deal of plunder from them and brought it to Samaria.
So some men who were leaders of the Ephraimites #– #Azariah son of Jehohanan, Berechiah son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai #– #stood in opposition to those coming from the war.