7. telling them to guard the mountain passes because they were the entrance to Judea. It would be easy to stop anyone trying to enter through them, because the passages were narrow and allowed for only two men at the most to pass through.
8. So the Israelites did everything that they were told to do by Joakim the high priest and the council of the Israelites that was meeting in Jerusalem.
9. Every man in Israel humbled himself and cried out earnestly to God.
10. They, along with their wives, their children, and their cattle, and every immigrant, hired worker, and slave put funeral clothing around their waists.
11. And all the Israelite men, women, and children living in Jerusalem fell on their faces before the temple, putting ashes on their heads and stretching out their funeral clothing before the Lord.
12. They even laid funeral clothing around the altar. They earnestly cried out in unison to the God of Israel not to let their children and women be carried off like stolen goods, nor the cities they inherited to be destroyed and the sanctuary polluted and defiled—giving the nations something to gloat over.