“However, You bore with them for many years,
And admonished them by Your Spirit through Your prophets,
Yet they would not give ear.
Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

However, in Your abundant compassion,
You did not destroy them or abandon them,
for You are a gracious and compassionate God.

However you are just in all that is come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly;

Because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, that he should curse them: however our God turned the curse into a blessing.

But during all this time I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had gone to the king. After some time, however, I asked leave from the king,