But many of the priests and Levites and heads of ancestral houses, the old men who had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice. Many also shouted aloud for joy,

The letter which you sent to us has been plainly read before me.

Then when the copy of king Artaxerxes' letter was read before Rehum, and Shimshai the scribe, and their companions, they went in haste to Jerusalem to the Jews, and made them to cease by force and power.

The vessels that are given to you for the service of the house of your God, deliver before the God of Jerusalem.

and has extended loving kindness to me before the king, and his counselors, and before all the king's powerful officers. I was strengthened according to the hand of the LORD my God on me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me.

Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek of him a straight way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.

Watch, and keep them, until you weigh them before the chiefs of the priests and the Levites, and the leaders of the ancestral houses of Israel, at Jerusalem, in the rooms of the house of the LORD."

The LORD, the God of Israel, you are righteous; for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is this day. Behold, we are before you in our guiltiness; for none can stand before you because of this."

Now while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before God's house, there was gathered together to him out of Israel a very great assembly of men and women and children; for the people wept very bitterly.

Then Ezra rose up from before God's house, and went into the room of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib: and when he came there, he ate no bread, nor drank water; for he mourned because of their trespass of the captivity.

Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together to Jerusalem within the three days; it was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month: and all the people sat in the broad place before God's house, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain.