16:001:004 And it came to pass, when I heard these
words, that I sat down
and
wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed
before
the God of heaven,
16:001:005 And said, I beseech thee, O lord God
of heaven, the great and
terrible
God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that
love
him and observe his commandments:
16:001:006 Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine
eyes open, that thou
mayest
hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before
thee
now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy
servants,
and confess the sins of the children of Israel,
which
we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s
house
have sinned.
16:001:007 We have dealt very corruptly against thee,
and have not kept
the
commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments,
which
thou
commandedst thy servant Moses.
16:001:008 Remember, I beseech thee, the word that
thou commandedst thy
servant
Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you
abroad
among the nations:
16:001:009 But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments,
and do them;
though
there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part
of
the
heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will
bring
them
unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.
16:001:010 Now these are thy servants and thy people,
whom thou hast
redeemed
by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.
16:001:011 O lord, I beseech thee, let now thine
ear be attentive to the
prayer
of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants,
who
desire
to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy
servant
this
day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
For I
was
the king’s cupbearer.
16:002:001 And it came to pass in the month Nisan,
in the twentieth year
of
Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him:
and I took
up
the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had
not been
beforetime
sad in his presence.
16:002:002 Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is
thy countenance sad,
seeing
thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow
of
heart.
Then I was very sore afraid,
16:002:003 And said unto the king, Let the king live
for ever: why should
not
my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of
my
fathers’
sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are
consumed
with fire?
16:002:004 Then the king said unto me, For what dost
thou make request?
So
I prayed to the God of heaven.
16:002:005 And I said unto the king, If it please
the king, and if thy
servant
have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest
send
me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres,
that
I may build it.


