1 Esdras 9:9-11

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

⁹ and do his will; separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from your foreign wives.’

¹⁰ Then all the multitude shouted and said with a loud voice, ‘We will do as you have said. ¹¹ But the multitude is great and it is winter, and we are not able to stand in the open air. This is not a work we can do in one day or two, for we have sinned too much in these things.