Then the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, “How long will your journey be, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a definite time.

I told them how the hand of my God had been favorable to me and also about the king’s words which he had spoken to me. Then they said, “Let us arise and build.” So they put their hands to the good work.

Hear, O our God, how we are despised! Return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity.

They found written in the law how the Lord had commanded through Moses that the sons of Israel should live in booths during the feast of the seventh month.