Then arose Ezra,.... From the ground where he lay:
and made the chief priests, and the Levites, and all Israel, to swear that they should do according to this word: he took an oath of all that were present to do what was proposed, namely, to put away strange wives and their children:
and they sware; by means of which they were kept to their word of promise, an oath being a solemn, sacred, thing.