² He said in the presence of his associates and of the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it by themselves?^[a] Will they offer sacrifice? Will they finish it in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish—burned ones at that?”^(A)

¹⁶ O Lord, in view of all your righteous acts, let your anger and wrath, we pray, turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; because of our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people have become a disgrace among all our neighbors.^(A)

Psalm 79

Plea for Mercy for Jerusalem

A Psalm of Asaph.

¹⁰ But Judah said, “The strength of the burden bearers is failing, and there is too much rubbish so that we are unable to work on the wall.”

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

Decision to Restore the Walls

¹⁷ Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer suffer disgrace.”^(A)

³ I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my ancestors’ graves, lies waste and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”^(A)