These [are] the people of the province who came back from the captivity, of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, everyone to his city.

These [are] the heads of the province who dwelt in Jerusalem. (But in the cities of Judah everyone dwelt in his own possession in their cities -- Israelites, priests, Levites, Nethinim, and descendants of Solomon's servants.)

Now these [are] the people of the province who came back from the captivity, of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away to Babylon, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, everyone to his [own] city.

Let it be known to the king that we went into the province of Judea, to the temple of the great God, which is being built with heavy stones, and timber is being laid in the walls; and this work goes on diligently and prospers in their hands.

Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus (this [was] the Ahasuerus who reigned over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India to Ethiopia),

"Here we [are,] servants today! And the land that You gave to our fathers, To eat its fruit and its bounty, Here we [are,] servants in it!

And it yields much increase to the kings You have set over us, Because of our sins; Also they have dominion over our bodies and our cattle At their pleasure; And we [are] in great distress.

You have given us up like sheep [intended] for food, And have scattered us among the nations.

You make us a reproach to our neighbors, A scorn and a derision to those all around us.

By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept When we remembered Zion.

For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song, And those who plundered us [requested] mirth, [Saying,] "Sing us [one] of the songs of Zion!"

Rise up, you women who are at ease, Hear my voice; You complacent daughters, Give ear to my speech.

Tremble, you [women] who are at ease; Be troubled, you complacent ones; Strip yourselves, make yourselves bare, And gird [sackcloth] on [your] waists.

On the land of my people will come up thorns [and] briers, Yes, on all the happy homes [in] the joyous city;

In the days of her affliction and roaming, Jerusalem remembers all her pleasant things That she had in the days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the enemy, With no one to help her, The adversaries saw her [And] mocked at her downfall.

You have heard their reproach, O LORD, All their schemes against me,

Remember, O LORD, what has come upon us; Look, and behold our reproach!

"then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

We have become a reproach to our neighbors, A scorn and derision to those who are around us.

Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; I will give Jacob to the curse, And Israel to reproaches.

'I will deliver them to trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for [their] harm, [to be] a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them.

And I will pursue them with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence; and I will deliver them to trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth -- to be a curse, an astonishment, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them,

" For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'As My anger and My fury have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will My fury be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And you shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.'

'in that you provoke Me to wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have gone to dwell, that you may cut yourselves off and be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?

'They have not been humbled, to this day, nor have they feared; they have not walked in My law or in My statutes that I set before you and your fathers.'

'And I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to dwell there, and they shall all be consumed [and] fall in the land of Egypt. They shall be consumed by the sword [and] by famine. They shall die, from the least to the greatest, by the sword and by famine; and they shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse and a reproach!

Then I said to them, "You see the distress that we [are] in, how Jerusalem [lies] waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach."

And all the army of the Chaldeans who [were with] the captain of the guard broke down the walls of Jerusalem all around.

And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; [And] break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.

Your holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

Our holy and beautiful temple, Where our fathers praised You, Is burned up with fire; And all our pleasant things are laid waste.

" Go up on her walls and destroy, But do not make a complete end. Take away her branches, For they [are] not the LORD's.

And the Chaldeans burned the king's house and the houses of the people with fire, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.

And all the army of the Chaldeans who [were] with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around.