Now let our princes be appointed for all the assembly, and let all those who are in our cities who have married foreign women come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and its judges, until the fierce wrath of our God is turned from us, until this matter is resolved.”
Ezra 10:12 Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, “As you have said concerning us, 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 outside. This is not a work of one day or two, for we have greatly transgressed in this matter.
Ezra 10:14 Now let our princes be appointed for all the assembly, and let all those who are in our cities who have married foreign women come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and its judges, until the fierce wrath of our God is turned from us, until this matter is resolved.”
Ezra 10:15 Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah stood up against this; and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them.
Ezra 10:16 The children of the captivity did so. Ezra the priest, with certain heads of fathers’ households, after their fathers’ houses, and all of them by their names, were set apart; and they sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.
The verse centers on "princes", "appointed", "assembly", "cities", "married", "foreign", "women", and "come". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "princes" and "appointed", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 13's "But the people are many and it..." into verse 15's "Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and...", so "princes" and "appointed" 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 "princes" and "appointed" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.