The whole assembly responded with a loud voice: “You are right! We must do as you say.
Now honor the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from your foreign wives.”
But there are many people here and it is the rainy season; so we cannot stand outside. Besides, this matter cannot be taken care of in a day or two, because we have sinned greatly in this thing.
Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab.
their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.
Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow.