²⁶ I prayed to the Lord and said, “Sovereign Lord, do not destroy your people,^(A) your own inheritance^(B) that you redeemed^(C) by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.^{(D) 27} Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness^(E) of this people, their wickedness and their sin. ²⁸ Otherwise, the country^(F) from which you brought us will say, ‘Because the Lord was not able to take them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them,^(G) he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.’^{(H) 29} But they are your people,^(I) your inheritance^(J) that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.^(K)”

²⁰ Now, Lord our God, deliver^(A) us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth^(B) may know that you, Lord, are the only God.^[a](C)”

¹⁶ He then brought me into the inner court^(A) of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar,^(B) were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun^(C) in the east.^(D)

³⁵ And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel^(A) to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah,^(B) whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.^(C)