and said unto the king, "If it please the king, let him give me letters to the captains beyond the water, that they may convey me over, till I come into Judah:

And letters unto Asaph the lord of the king's wood, that he may give me wood for beams to the gates of the palace, which are hard on the house and hard on the walls of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into." And the king gave me according to the good hand of God upon me.

Hear, O thou our God, how we are despised! Turn their shame upon their own head, that thou mayest give them over into despising in the land of their captivity.

Now are our brethrens' bodies as our own bodies and their children as our children: else should we subdue our sons and daughters into bondage, and some of our daughters are subdued already, and no strength is there in our hands, and other men shall have our lands and vineyards."

But I said, "Should any such man as I flee? Who is that, being as I am, that will go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in."

And the reed sea didst thou divide in sunder before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea dry-shoed: and their persecutors threwest thou into the deep as a stone, in the mighty waters;

And their children multipliedest thou as the stars of heaven, and broughtest them into the land whereof thou hadst spoken unto their fathers, that they should go in to it, and have it in possession.

And the children went in, and possessed the land, and thou subduedest before them the inhabiters of the land, even the Cananites, and gavest them into their hand, and their kings and the people of the land, that they might do with them what they would.

Therefore gavest thou them over into the hand of their enemies that vexed them. And in the time of their trouble they cried unto thee, and thou heardest them from heaven and through thy great mercy thou gavest them saviours, which helped them out of the hand of their enemies.

And many years didst thou forbear them, and testified unto them through thy spirit, even by the office of thy prophets, and yet would they not hear. Therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the nations in the lands.

And the rulers of the people dwelt at Jerusalem. But the other people cast lots therefore, so that among ten one part went to Jerusalem into the holy city to dwell, and nine parts in the cities.

And what time as the book of Moses was read in the ears of the people there was found written therein, that the Ammonites and Moabites should never come into the congregation of God,

because they met not the children of Israel with bread and water, and hired Balaam against them, that he should curse them: nevertheless our God turned the curse into a blessing.