1 Esdras 9:9-11

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁹ and do his will; separate yourselves from the nations 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.