And because of all this
Of all this distress, and that it might be removed, and be clear of it; or "in all this distress and evil", as Jarchi and Aben Ezra, in the midst of it all:
we make a sure covenant;
or faithfully promise to observe the law of God, and particularly put away strange wives, and not intermarry with the people of the land:
and write it;
that it may remain and be a testimony against them should they break it, being their own handwriting:
and our princes, Levites, and priests, seal unto it;
as witnesses of it, and thereby binding themselves to observe the same things; their names that sealed are given in the next chapter.