And it came to be, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days. And I was fasting and praying before the Elohim of the heavens,
because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before יהוה when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a ruin and a curse, and did tare your garments and wept before Me, I also have heard,” declares יהוה.
for Shelomoh had made a bronze platform five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had put it in the midst of the court. And he stood on it, and knelt down on his knees before all the assembly of Yisra’ĕl, and spread out his hands toward the heavens –
“Thus said Koresh sovereign of Persia, ‘יהוה Elohim of the heavens has given me all the reigns of the earth. And He has commanded me to build Him a house in Yerushalayim which is in Yehuḏah.
And while Ezra was praying, and while he was confessing, weeping, and bowing down before the House of Elohim, a very large assembly – men and women and children – gathered unto him from Yisra’ĕl, for the people wept very bitterly.
And at the evening offering I rose from my affliction. And having torn my garment and my robe, I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to יהוה my Elohim,
And I answered them, and said to them, “The Elohim of the heavens, He shall bless us and let us, His servants, rise and build, but you have no portion or right or remembrance in Yerushalayim.”
to seek compassion from the Elah of the heavens concerning this secret, so that Dani’ĕl and his companions should not perish with the rest of the wise ones of Baḇel.