¹⁰ They and their wives and their children and their cattle and every resident alien and hired laborer and purchased slave—they all put sackcloth around their waists.^{(A) 11} And all the Israelite men, women, and children living at Jerusalem prostrated themselves before the temple and put ashes on their heads and spread out their sackcloth before the Lord.^{(B) 12} They even draped the altar with sackcloth and cried out in unison, praying fervently to the God of Israel not to allow their infants to be carried off and their wives to be taken as plunder, and the towns they had inherited to be destroyed, and the sanctuary to be profaned and desecrated to the malicious joy of the nations.

¹⁸ Then Uzziah said to her, “O daughter, you are blessed by the Most High God above all other women on earth, and blessed be the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth, who has guided you to cut off the head of the leader of our enemies.^(A)

¹² All the women of Israel gathered to see her and blessed her, and some of them performed a dance in her honor. She took ivy-wreathed wands in her hands and distributed them to the women who were with her,^{(A) 13} and she and those who were with her crowned themselves with olive wreaths. She went before all the people in the dance, leading all the women, while all the men of Israel followed, bearing their arms and wearing garlands and singing hymns.^(B)