And Judah said, What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Behold, we are my lord's servants, both we and he also with whom the cup is found.
which You commanded by Your servants the prophets, saying, The land into which you go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from one end to the other with their uncleanness.
For we were slaves, yet our God has not left us in our bondage, but has given mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us some life, to set up the house of our God, and to repair its waste, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
And many years You had patience with them, and testified against them by Your Spirit, by Your prophets, but they would not give ear. And You gave them into the hand of the people of the lands.
And our kings, our rulers, our priests, and our fathers, have not kept Your Law, nor listened to Your commandments and Your words with which You testified against them.
But we know that whatever things the Law says, it says to those who are under the Law; so that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may be under judgment before God,