While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself to the ground before the temple of God, a very large crowd of Israelites – men, women, and children alike – gathered around him. The people wept loudly. ¹ 

Everyone who did not come within three days would thereby forfeit all his property, in keeping with the counsel of the officials and the elders. Furthermore, he himself would be excluded from the assembly of the exiles.

Now Ezra had dedicated himself ¹  to the study of the law of the Lord, to its observance, and to teaching ²  its statutes and judgments in Israel.

Then King Cyrus brought out the vessels of the Lord’s temple which Nebuchadnezzar had brought from Jerusalem and had displayed ¹  in the temple of his gods.

The Israelites who were returning from the exile ate it, along with all those who had joined them ¹  in separating themselves from the uncleanness of the nations of the land to seek the Lord God of Israel.