And said before his brethren, and the multitude of the Samaritans: What are the silly Jews doing? Will the Gentiles let them alone? Will they sacrifice and make an end in a day? Are they able to raise stones out of the heaps of the rubbish, which are burnt?
Then I said to them: You know the affliction wherein we are, because Jerusalem is desolate, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire. Come, and let us build up the walls of Jerusalem, and let us be no longer a reproach.
And I said to the king: O king, live for ever: Why should not my countenance be sorrowful, seeing the city of the place of the sepulchres of my fathers is desolate, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire?
And they said to me: They that have remained, and are left of the captivity there in the province, are in great affliction and reproach: And the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire.
Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Juda and Benjamin, and the priests, and Levites, and every one whose spirit God had raised up, to go up to build the temple of the Lord which was in Jerusalem.
And she arose to go from the land of Moab to her own country with both her daughters-in-law: for she had heard that the Lord had looked upon his people, and had given them food.
HER time is near at hand, and her days shall not be prolonged. For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose out of Israel, and will make them rest upon their own ground. And the stranger shall be joined with them, and shall adhere to the house of Jacob.
Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her: for her evil is come to an end, her iniquity is forgiven. She hath received of the hand of the Lord double for all her sins.
The Lord therefore will comfort Sion: and will comfort all the ruins thereof. And he will make her desert as a place of pleasure and her wilderness as the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of praise.
For thus saith the Lord: When the seventy years shall begin to be accomplished in Babylon, I will visit you: and I will perform my good word in your favour, to bring you again to this place.
Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I bring back the captivity of the pavilions of Jacob and will have pity on his houses, and the city shall be built in her high place, and the temple shall be found according to the order thereof.