liction, and reproach:
and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and the gates thereof are
burnt with fire.

1:4. And when I had heard these words, I sat down, and wept, and mourned
for many days: and I fasted, and prayed before the face of the God of
heaven.

1:5. And I said: I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, strong, great,
and terrible, who keepest covenant and mercy with those that love thee,
and keep thy commandments:

1:6. Let thy ears be attentive, and thy eyes open, to hear the prayer of
thy servant, which I pray before thee now, night and day, for the
children of Israel thy servants: and I confess the sins of the children
of Israel, by which they have sinned against thee: I and my father's
house have sinned.

1:7. We have been seduced by vanity, and have not kept thy commandments,
and ceremonies and judgments, which thou hast commanded thy servant
Moses.

1:8. Remember the word that thou commandedst to Moses thy servant,
saying: If you shall transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the
nations:

1:9. But if you return to me, and keep my commandments, and do them,
though you should be led away to the uttermost parts of the world, I
will gather you from thence, and bring you back to the place which I
have chosen for my name to dwell there.

1:10. And these are thy servants, and thy people: whom thou hast
redeemed by thy great strength, and by thy mighty hand.

1:11. I beseech thee, O Lord, let thy ear be attentive to the prayer of
thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants who desire to fear thy
name: and direct thy servant this day, and give him mercy before this
man. For I was the king's cupbearer.

2 Esdras Chapter 2

Nehemias with commission from king Artaxerxes cometh to Jerusalem: and
exhorteth the Jews to rebuild the walls.

2:1. And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of
Artaxerxes the king: that wine was before him, and I took up the wine,
and gave it to the king: and I was as one languishing away before his
face.

2:2. And the king said to me: Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou
dost not appear to be sick? this is not without cause, but some evil, I
know not what, is in thy heart. And I was seized with an exceeding great
fear:

2:3. And I said to the king: O king, live for ever: why should not my
countenance be sorrowful, seeing the city of the place of the sepulchres
of my fathers is desolate, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire?

2:4. T