Please, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I am praying before you by day and by night for your servants, the {Israelites}, and confessing the sins of the {Israelites} that we have sinned against you. I and my father's house have sinned.

I said to the king, "May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad when the city of my ancestors' burial site is ruined and her gates are consumed by fire?"

{Next to him} Uzziel son of Harhaiah (goldsmiths) repaired. {Next to him} Hananiah son of the perfume-makers repaired. They restored Jerusalem up to the Broad Wall.

{Next to them} Rephaiah son of Hur, commander of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired.

Hear, our God, for we are despised. Turn their scorn on their head and give them over to plunder in the land of captivity.

Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, come together to us there. Our God will fight for us."

So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly for [each] man and woman to hear with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month.

So I quarreled with them and cursed them and beat some of their men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath by God: "Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.