Proclame a fastynge, call the congregacyon, gather the elders & all the inhabiters of the lande together into the house of the Lord your God, & crye vnto the Lorde:
but put on sack cloth both man and beast, and crye myghtely vnto God: yee se that euery man turne from hys euell waye, and from the wyckednesse, that he hath in hande.
Seuen dayes ye shall offer sacryfyce vnto the Lorde, and the .viij. daye shalbe an holy feast vnto you & ye shal offer sacryfyce vnto the Lorde. It is the ende of the feast, and ye shal do no laborious worke therin.
And euerye daye from the fyrste daye vnto the last, red he in the boke of the lawe of God. And seuen dayes helde they the feaste, & on the eyght daye of the gatherynge together, accordynge vnto the maner.
Go thou thy waye then, and gather together all the Iewes that are founde at Susan, and fast ye for me, that ye eat not & drinke not in thre dayes, nether day nor nyght. I & my Damosels wil fast lykewise, and so wil I go into the kynge contrary to the commaundement: yf I perish I peryshe.
And this was done in the fyfth yeare of Iehoakim, the sonne of Iosiah Kynge of Iuda, in the .ix. moneth when it was commaunded that all the people of Ierusalem shoulde fast before the Lorde, and they also that were come from the cytyes of Iuda vnto Ierusalem.
Heare O ye elders, pondre this well, al ye that dwell in the lande, yf euer there happened suche a thynge in youre dayes, or in the dayes of youre fathers.