Ezra 9:6

9:6 I prayed, ¹ 

“O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God! For our iniquities have climbed higher than our heads, and our guilt extends to the heavens.

Ezra 3:12

3:12 Many of the priests, the Levites, and the leaders ²  – older people who had seen with their own eyes the former temple while it was still established ³  – were weeping loudly, ⁴  and many others raised their voice in a joyous shout.

¹ tn Heb “I said.”

² tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”

³ sn The temple had been destroyed some fifty years earlier by the Babylonians in 586 b.c.

⁴ tn Heb “with a great voice.”