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And after all that is come vpon vs for our euill deedes, and for our great trespasses, (seeing that thou our God hast stayed vs from being beneath for our iniquities, and hast giuen vs such deliuerance)

O Lord God of Israel, thou art iust, for we haue bene reserued to escape, as appeareth this day: beholde, we are before thee in our trespasse: therfore we canot stand before thee because of it.

Whiles Ezra prayed thus, and confessed himselfe weeping, and falling downe before the house of God, there assembled vnto him of Israel a very great Congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept with a great lamentation.

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.

Now therfore let vs make a couenant with our God, to put away all the wiues (and such as are borne of them) according to the counsell of the Lord, and of those that feare the commandements of our God, and let it be done according to the Lawe.

And Ezra rose vp from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of Iohanan the sonne of Eliashib: he went euen thither, but he did eate neither bread, nor drunke water: for he mourned, because of the transgression of them of the captiuitie.

Then all the men of Iudah & Beniamin assembled theselues vnto Ierusalem within three dayes, which was the twentieth day of the ninth moneth, and all the people sate in the streete of the house of God, trembling for this matter, and for the raine.

Now therefore giue praise vnto the Lord God of your fathers, and do his will, and separate your selues from the people of the land, and from the strange wiues.

Let our rulers stand therefore before all the Congregation, & let all them which haue taken strange wiues in our cities, come at the time appoynted, & with them the Elders of euery citie and the Iudges thereof, til the fierce wrath of our God for this matter turne away from vs.

And when I heard these wordes, I sate downe and wept, and mourned certeine dayes, & I fasted and prayed before the God of heauen,

And sayde, O Lorde God of heauen, the great and terrible God, that keepeth couenant and mercy for them that loue him, and obserue his commandements,

And I said to the King, God saue the King for euer: why should not my countenance be sad, when the citie & house of the sepulchres of my fathers lieth waste, and the gates thereof are deuoured with fire?

And the King said vnto me, For what thing doest thou require? Then I prayed to the God of heauen,

And letters vnto Asaph the keeper of the Kings parke, that hee may giue me timber to buylde the gates of the palace (which apperteined to the house) and for the walles of the citie, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the King gaue me according to the good hand of my God vpon me.

And I rose in the night, I, and a fewe men with me: for I told no man, what God had put in mine heart to do at Ierusalem, & there was not a beast with me, saue the beast whereon I rode.

Then I tolde them of the hande of my God, (which was good ouer me) and also of the Kings wordes that he had spoken vnto me. And they sayd, Let vs rise, and buyld. So they strengthened their hand to good.

Then answered I them, and sayd to them, The God of heauen, he will prosper vs, and we his seruants will rise vp and buylde: but as for you, ye haue no portion nor right, nor memoriall in Ierusalem.

Heare, O our God (for we are despised) and turne their shame vpon their owne head, and giue them vnto a pray in the lande of their captiuitie,

The we prayed vnto our God, & set watchmen by them, day and night, because of them.

And when our enemies heard that it was knowen vnto vs, then God brought their counsell to nought, and we turned all againe to the wall, euery one vnto his worke.