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For a multitude of the people, euen a multitude of Ephraim, and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not cleansed themselues, yet did eate the Passeouer, but not as it was written: wherefore Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, The good Lord be mercifull toward him,

And his seruants spake yet more against the Lorde God, and against his seruant Hezekiah.

And in the eight yeere of his reigne (when he was yet a childe) he began to seeke after the God of Dauid his father: and in the twelft yeere he began to purge Iudah, and Ierusalem from the hie places, and the groues, and the carued images, and molten images:

Then came the same Sheshbazzar & layde the foundation of the house of God, which is in Ierusalem, and since that time euen vntill nowe, hath it bene in buylding, yet is it not finished.

For though we were bondmen, yet our God hath not forsaken vs in our bondage, but hath enclined mercy vnto vs in the sight of the Kings of Persia, to giue vs life, & to erect the house of our God, & to redresse the places thereof, and to giue vs a wall in Iudah and in Ierusalem.

Then Shechaniah the sonne of Iehiel one of the sonnes of Elam answered, & sayd to Ezra, We haue trespassed against our God, & haue taken strange wiues of the people of the land, yet nowe there is hope in Israel concerning this.

But if ye turne vnto me, & keepe my commandements, and doe them, though your scattering were to the vttermost part of the heauen, yet will I gather you from thence, and will bring you vnto the place that I haue chosen to place my Name there.

And the rulers knewe not whither I was gone, nor what I did, neither did I as yet tell it vnto the Iewes, nor to the Priestes, nor to the noble men, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that laboured in the worke.

And Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and said, Although they buylde, yet if a foxe goe vp, he shall euen breake downe their stonie wall.

And there was prepared daily an oxe, and sixe chosen sheepe, and birdes were prepared for me, and within ten dayes wine for all in abundance. Yet for all this I required not the bread of the gouernour: for the bondage was grieuous vnto this people.

Yet they sent vnto me foure times after this sort. And I answered them after the same maner.

But refused to obey, & would not remember thy marueilous works that thou haddest done for them, but hardened their neckes, and had in their heads to returne to their bondage by their rebellion: but thou, O God of mercies, gratious and full of compassion, of long suffring and of great mercie, yet forsookest them not.

Yet thou for thy great mercies forsookest them not in the wildernesse: the pillar of the cloude departed not from them by day to leade them the way, neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way whereby they should goe.

Yet they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy Lawe behinde their backes, and slewe thy Prophets (which protested among them to turne them vnto thee) and committed great blasphemies.

Therefore thou deliueredst them into the hande of their enemies that vexed them: yet in the time of their affliction, when they cryed vnto thee, thou heardest them from the heauen, & through thy great mercies thou gauest them sauiours, who saued them out of the hande of their aduersaries.

But when they had rest, they returned to doe euill before thee: therefore leftest thou them in the hande of their enemies, so that they had the dominion ouer them, yet when they conuerted and cryed vnto thee, thou heardest them from heauen, and deliueredst them according to thy great mercies many times,

Yet thou diddest forbeare them many yeeres, and protestedst among them by thy Spirite, euen by the hande of thy Prophets, but they woulde not heare: therefore gauest thou them into the hande of the people of the lands.

Yet for thy great mercies thou hast not consumed them, neither forsaken them: for thou art a gracious and mercifull God.

Did not your fathers thus, and our God brought all this plague vpon vs, and vpon this citie? yet yee increase the wrath vpon Israel, in breaking the Sabbath.

Did not Salomon the king of Israel sinne by these thinges? yet among many nations was there no King like him: for he was beloued of his God, and God had made him King ouer Israel: yet strange women caused him to sinne.