And they made an end with all the men that had taken strange wives by the first day of the first month.
Ver. 17. By the first day of the first month] So that it was not the work of one day or two, as Ezra 10:13, but of full three months; and yet they were not slothful in that business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. In the work of repentance take time enough, dig deep enough by thorough humiliation; lest the fall of the house be great. The English are not sick soon enough, saith one, and they are well too soon; this is true of their minds, as well as of their bodies.