All the assembly replied in a loud voice: “We will do just as you have said!
Now give praise to the Lord God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the local residents and from these foreign wives.”
However, the people are numerous and it is the rainy season. We are unable to stand here outside. Furthermore, this business cannot be resolved in a day or two, for we have sinned greatly in this matter.
Also in those days I saw the men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
They were not really committed to him, and they were unfaithful to his covenant.
They were unfaithful and acted as treacherously as their ancestors; they were as unreliable as a malfunctioning bow.