They replied to me, "The survivors in the province who have survived the captivity are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned in the fire."

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.

We have certainly offended you and have not kept the commands, regulations, and judgments that you have commanded your servant Moses.

Please, remember the word that you have commanded to your servant Moses, saying, 'If you act unfaithfully I will scatter you all among the nations.

But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, even though all of your outcasts are at the furthest parts of heaven, I will gather them and bring them to the place which I have chosen to make my name dwell.'

They are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand.

Do not cover their guilt, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before you. They have {provoked the builders to anger}.

There were also those saying, "We have pledged our fields and our vineyards and our houses so that we can get grain in the famine."

And there were those who were saying, "We have borrowed money on our fields and our vineyards for the tax of the king.

and I said to them: "We ourselves have bought back our brothers the Jews who were sold to the nations as we were able. But now you yourselves have sold your brothers so they may be sold to us!" They were silent and could not find a word [to say].

Please restore to them this day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, their houses, and the interest on the money, the grain, the grape juice, and the olive oil that you have been taking from them."

Remember me for good, my God, all that I have done for this people.

You have also set up prophets to proclaim in Jerusalem concerning you, saying, '[There is] a king in Judah.' And now it will be proclaimed to the king according to these words. Now, come and we will plan together."

So I sent to him saying, "None of these words you have spoken has happened. You are indeed saying [things] created in your own mind"--

For this reason he was hired: to frighten [me] so that I would act and sin, so that they would have a bad report so they could taunt me.

All of the people went to eat, to drink, to send a share, and to have great joy because they understood the words that they had made known to them.

"You alone are Yahweh. You alone have made the heavens, the heavens of the heavens, and all of their army, the earth and all that is in it, the waters and all that is in them. You give life to all of them, and the army of the heavens worship you.

You found his heart faithful before you and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite and the Girgashite--to give [it] to his seed. And you have kept your word because you are righteous.

You gave them bread from heaven for their starvation, and you caused water to go out from a rock for their thirst. You told them to go in order to take into possession the land that you have sworn by your hand to give to them.

You were patient toward them for many years, and you have warned them by your spirit through the hand of your prophets, but they did not listen. So you gave them into the hand of the nations of the lands.

You are righteous in everything that has come on us, for you dealt faithfully, and we have acted wickedly.

Behold, we are slaves to this day, and the land that you have given to our ancestors to eat its fruits and [enjoy] its goodness--behold, we are slaves in it!

Its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have given over us because of our sins, and [they are] ruling over our dead bodies and our livestock at their pleasure. We are in great trouble.

And we have cast lots for the contributions of the wood offering of the priests, the Levites, and the people to bring [it] to the house of our God, by our fathers' houses, at designated times, year by year, to burn on the altar of Yahweh our God--as it is written in the law.

Remember me, my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my loyal acts which I have done in the house of my God and in his service.