For we are bondmen, and our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, and hath inclined mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, that he should give us life, and promote the house of our God, and to set up the desolation thereof, and to give us a hedge in Judah and in Jerusalem.

And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken thy commandments,

For I was ashamed to require of the king, soldiers and horsemen, to help us against the enemy in the way. For we had said unto the king, "The hand of our God is upon all them that seek him in goodness, and his violence and wrath is upon all them that forsake him."