Ezra 10:12 (KJV)

Passage

Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said, so must we do.

Nearby Context

Ezra 10:10 And Ezra the priest stood up, and said unto them, Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of Israel.

Ezra 10:11 Now therefore make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives.

Ezra 10:12 Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said, so must we do.

Ezra 10:13 But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand without, neither is this a work of one day or two: for we are many that have transgressed in this thing.

Ezra 10:14 Let now our rulers of all the congregation stand, and let all them which have taken strange wives in our cities come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and the judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be turned from us.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "congregation", "answered", "said", "loud", "voice", "thou", and "hast". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "congregation" and "answered", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 11's "Now therefore make confession unto the LORD..." into verse 13's "But the people are many and it...", so "congregation" and "answered" belong inside that flow. In Ezra context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "congregation" and "answered" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.