²³ So we fasted^(A) and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.

Ask, Seek, Knock^(A)

⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you;^(B) seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds;^(C) and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

³¹ On the twelfth day of the first month we set out from the Ahava Canal^(A) to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us,^(B) and he protected us from enemies and bandits along the way.

¹² In his distress he sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled^(A) himself greatly before the God of his ancestors. ¹³ And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.

¹⁶ “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast^(A) for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”^(B)

²⁰ They were helped^(A) in fighting them, and God delivered the Hagrites and all their allies into their hands, because they cried^(B) out to him during the battle. He answered their prayers, because they trusted^(C) in him.

²⁹ But if from there you seek^(A) the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart^(B) and with all your soul.^(C)

³ So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting,^(A) and in sackcloth and ashes.^(B)