I then proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahawa, to humble ourselves before our Elohim, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions,
Then we set out from the Ahawa River on the twelfth of the first month, to go to Yerushalayim. And the hand of our Elohim was upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambush along the way.
and said to the sovereign, “Let the sovereign live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?”
These I remember, and pour out my being within me. For I used to pass along with the throng; I went with them to the House of Elohim, With the voice of joy and praise, A multitude keeping a festival!
Observe! The voice, the cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land, “Is יהוה not in Tsiyon? Is her Sovereign not in her?” “Why have they provoked Me with their carved images, and with foreign worthlessnesses?”
“This is why I weep. My eye, my eye is running down with water, Because the comforter, Who could bring back my life, Has been far from me. My children are stunned, For the enemy has prevailed.”
Their heart cried out to יהוה, “O wall of the daughter of Tsiyon, Let tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no numbness, Let your eyes have no rest.
