and say to the king, 'Let the king to the age live! wherefore should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of the graves of my fathers, is a waste, and its gates have been consumed with fire?'

yea, there are who are saying, 'Our sons, and our daughters, we -- are many, and we receive corn, and eat, and live.'

And I say, 'A man such as I -- doth he flee? and who as I, that doth go in unto the temple, and live? -- I do not go in.'

for unto the chambers do they bring in -- the sons of Israel and the sons of Levi -- the heave-offering of the corn, the new wine, and the oil, and there are vessels of the sanctuary, and the priests, those ministering, and the gatekeepers, and the singers, and we do not forsake the house of our God.

Sons of Levi, heads of the fathers, are written on the book of the Chronicles even till the days of Johanan son of Eliashib;