Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, Arise, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

And after the death of Jehoiada the rulers of Judah came and bowed down to the king. And the king gave heed to them.

And they forsook the house of Jehovah the God of their fathers, and served the groves and idols; and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of their trespass.

but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.

And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before.

Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers have eaten the food of the governor.

And I said to the king, If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, that I may rebuild it.

Then the king said to me (the queen also sitting beside him), How long shall your journey be? And when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.