1 Esdras 9:10-12

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

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. ¹² So let the leaders of the multitude stay, and let all those in our settlements who have foreign wives come at the time appointed,