⁵ So my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles, the officials and the common people for registration by families. I found the genealogical record of those who had been the first to return. This is what I found written there:

9 All Israel^(A) was listed in the genealogies recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. They were taken captive to Babylon^(B) because of their unfaithfulness.^(C)

²⁹ Remember^(A) them, my God, because they defiled the priestly office and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.^(B)

¹¹ “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹² He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend^(A)?’ The man was speechless.

¹³ “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’^(B)

¹¹ “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’

¹² “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’^(A)

³ “‘If the anointed priest^(A) sins,^(B) bringing guilt on the people, he must bring to the Lord a young bull^(C) without defect^(D) as a sin offering^[a](E) for the sin he has committed.^(F)