³ Then I turned to the Lord God to seek an answer by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.^(A)

³ Call to me, and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.^(A)

¹⁰ For thus says the Lord: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.^{(A) 11} For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.^{(B) 12} Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you.^{(C) 13} When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart,^(D)

¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.^{(A) 17} Elijah was a human like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.^{(B) 18} Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth yielded its harvest.^(C)

⁴ When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.^{(A) 5} I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments,^{(B) 6} let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for your servants, the Israelites, confessing the sins of the Israelites, which we have sinned against you. Both I and my family have sinned.^{(C) 7} We have offended you deeply, failing to keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances that you commanded Moses your servant.^{(D) 8} Remember the word that you commanded Moses your servant, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples,^{(E) 9} but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are under the farthest skies, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place where I have chosen to establish my name.’^{(F) 10} They are your servants and your people whom you redeemed by your great power and your strong hand.^{(G) 11} O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man!”

At the time, I was cupbearer to the king.^(H)

¹⁶ “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”^(A)

Ezra’s Prayer

⁵ At the evening sacrifice I got up from my fasting, with my garments and my mantle torn, and fell on my knees, spread out my hands to the Lord my God,^(A)

⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.^{(A) 9} Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.^(B)

Foreign Wives and Their Children Rejected

⁶ Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the chamber of Jehohanan son of Eliashib, where he spent the night.^[a] He did not eat bread or drink water, for he was mourning over the faithlessness of the exiles.^(A)