9. This occurred after Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar removed Jeconiah, the leading officials, the prisoners, the powerful ones, and the land’s people from Jerusalem, and brought them to Babylon.)
10. And the people in exile said:We have sent you silver. Buy what is needed for entirely burned offerings and sin offerings. Buy incense and prepare grain as well, and offer them on the Lord our God’s altar.
11. Pray for the lives of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his son Belshazzar that their days on earth may be like the days of heaven.
12. The Lord will give us strength and clear vision. We’ll live under the protection of King Nebuchadnezzar and his son Belshazzar, and we’ll serve them many days and find favor with them.
13. Pray for us to the Lord our God because we have sinned against the Lord our God. Even now, the Lord’s wrath and anger haven’t turned away from us.
14. Read aloud this scroll that we sent to you to make it public in the Lord’s house on every festival day and appointed time.
15. You will say:Justice is on the side of the Lord God, but public shame is upon us today, upon everyone in Judah, upon those living in Jerusalem,
16. and upon our rulers, leading officials, priests, prophets, and ancestors,
17. upon all of us who have sinned against the Lord.
18. We have disobeyed the Lord. We have not listened to the Lord God’s voice so as to keep the commandments that he gave to us.