² And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish—stones that are burned?”

¹⁶ “O Lord, ^(A)according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, ^(B)Your holy mountain; because for our sins, ^(C)and for the iniquities of our fathers, ^(D)Jerusalem and Your people ^(E)are a reproach to all those around us.

A Dirge and a Prayer for Israel, Destroyed by Enemies

A Psalm of Asaph.

¹⁰ Then Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is failing, and there is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall.”

⁶ So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

¹⁷ Then I said to them, “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies ^[a]waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be ^(A)a reproach.”