1. Darius the Mede, who was the son of Xerxes, ruled over the kingdom of Babylonia.
2. In the first year of his reign, I was studying the sacred books and thinking about the seventy years that Jerusalem would be in ruins, according to what the Lord had told the prophet Jeremiah.
3. And I prayed earnestly to the Lord God, pleading with him, fasting, wearing sackcloth, and sitting in ashes.