Ezra 10:6
Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of Johanan the son of Eliashib: and when he came thither, he did eat no bread, nor drink water: for he mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carried away.
The verse stands in the history of the Jews after their return from the Babylonian captivity, when work was undertaken to separate the people from the heathen and to prepare them spiritually for the rebuilding of Jerusalem. It records Ezra's grief over the transgression of the returned exiles. That transgression was the sin of those who had been carried away.
They had taken foreign wives in forbidden alliances with the neighboring nations, and those alliances had left them morally corrupted. Ezra met this apostasy with deep mourning and earnest supplication, rising up from before the house of God, withdrawing into the chamber of Johanan the son of Eliashib, and eating no bread and drinking no water. His deep humiliation on their behalf helped the people to recognize their condition and to confess. In that reform practical separation from these corrupt practices came before instruction in God's law.
The chapter containing the verse gives God's clear counsel in love and mercy concerning marriage, to be read and prayerfully considered and cheerfully obeyed. Marriage is to be entered only in the Lord, and its duties are to be studied beforehand. Heeding that counsel escapes bitter anguish of heart, painful regret through long years, frequent disappointments in that honorable estate, and a repentance at once too soon and too late.