1 Esdras 9:2-4

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

² and spent the night there, and he did not eat bread or drink water, for he was mourning over the great iniquities of the multitude. ³ And a proclamation was made throughout Judea and Jerusalem to all who had returned from exile that they should assemble at Jerusalem ⁴ and that if any did not meet there within two or three days, in accordance with the decision of the ruling elders, their livestock would be seized for sacrifice and the men themselves^[a] expelled from the multitude of those who had returned from the captivity.