Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in Yerushalayim;
and kept the feast of matzah seven days with joy: for the LORD had made them joyful, and had turned the heart of the king of Ashur to them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Yisra'el.
I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God put into my heart to do for Yerushalayim; neither was there any animal with me, except the animal that I rode on.
and a letter to Asaf the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the castle which appertains to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. The king granted me, according to the good hand of my God on me.
My God put into my heart to gather together the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, that they might be reckoned by genealogy. I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up at the first, and I found written therein:
Moshe said to Par`oh, *I give you the honor of setting the time that I should pray for you, and for your servants, and for your people, that the frogs be destroyed from you and your houses, and remain in the river only.*
The glory of Levanon shall come to you, the fir tree, the pine, and the box tree together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.
But I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at length you have revived your thought for me; in which you did indeed take thought, but you lacked opportunity.
*This is the covenant that I will make with them: 'After those days,' says the Lord, 'I will put my laws on their heart, I will also write them on their mind;'* then he says,
*For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Yisra'el. After those days,* says the Lord; *I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be to them a God, and they will be to me a people.
For God has put in their hearts to do what he has in mind, and to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be accomplished.