From the days of our fathers until this very day our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities we, along with our kings and priests, have been delivered over by the local kings to sword, captivity, plunder, and embarrassment -- right up to the present time.

I had them assemble at the canal that flows toward Ahava, and we camped there for three days. I observed that the people and the priests were present, but I found no Levites there.

And weighed unto them the silver, and the gold, and the articles, even the offering for the house of our God, which the king, and his counselors, and his lords, and all Israel there present, had offered:

that they may present sweet odours to the God of the heavens, and pray for the life of the king and of his sons.

The governor said to them that they could not eat from the holy food of the sanctuary until there was present a priest for the Urim and Thummim.

Then this Sheshbazzar went and laid the foundations of the temple of God in Jerusalem. From that time to the present moment it has been in the process of being rebuilt, although it is not yet finished.'