5. They wept, fasted, and prayed before the Lord,
6. and collected such funds as each could afford.
7. These they sent to Jerusalem, to Jehoiakim the priest, son of Hilkiah, son of Shallum, and to the priests and the whole people who were with him in Jerusalem.
8. (At the same time he received the vessels of the house of the Lord that had been removed from the temple, to restore them to the land of Judah, on the tenth of Sivan. These silver vessels Zedekiah, son of Josiah, king of Judah, had had made
9. after Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, carried off as captives Jeconiah and the princes, the skilled workers, the nobles, and the people of the land from Jerusalem, and brought them to Babylon.)
10. The message was: “We send you funds, with which you are to procure burnt offerings, sin offerings, and frankincense, and to prepare grain offerings; offer these on the altar of the Lord our God,
11. and pray for the life of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and of Belshazzar, his son, that their lifetimes may be as the days of the heavens above the earth.
12. Pray that the Lord may give us strength, and light to our eyes, that we may live under the protective shadow of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and of Belshazzar, his son, to serve them many days, and find favor in their sight.
13. Pray for us to the Lord, our God, for we have sinned against the Lord, our God. Even to this day the wrath of the Lord and his anger have not turned away from us.
14. On the feast day and during the days of assembly, read aloud in the house of the Lord this scroll that we send you:
15. “To the Lord our God belongs justice; to us, people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, to be shamefaced, as on this day—
16. to us, our kings, rulers, priests, and prophets, and our ancestors.
17. We have sinned in the Lord’s sight
18. and disobeyed him. We have not listened to the voice of the Lord, our God, so as to follow the precepts the Lord set before us.