They told me, "The survivors of the captivity there in the province are living in great distress and shame. Furthermore, the Jerusalem wall remains broken down and its gates have been burned by fire."

Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.

Now there was a great cry of distress of the people and of their wives [against] their Jewish brothers.

And thou gavest them into the hand of their oppressors, and they oppressed them; and in the time of their distress, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from the heavens, and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their oppressors.

And now our God, the great the mighty, and the terrible God, watching the covenant and the mercy, it shall not be little before thee all the distress which found us, to our kings, to our chiefs, to our priests, and to our prophets, and to our fathers, and to all thy people from the days of the kings of Assur even to this day.

And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.