“Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, and how I have carried out your will.” Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.

David said to Solomon: “My son, I really wanted to build a temple to honor the Lord my God.

Make my son Solomon willing to obey your commands, rules, and regulations, and to complete building the palace for which I have made preparations.”

When your people come to their senses in the land where they are held prisoner, they will repent and beg for your mercy in the land of their imprisonment, admitting, ‘We have sinned and gone astray, we have done evil!’

Those among all the Israelite tribes who were determined to worship the Lord God of Israel followed them to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord God of their ancestors.

All Judah was happy about the oath, because they made the vow with their whole heart. They willingly sought the Lord and he responded to them. He made them secure on every side.

Nevertheless you have done some good things; you removed the Asherah poles from the land and you were determined to follow the Lord.”

He wholeheartedly and successfully reinstituted service in God’s temple and obedience to the law, in order to follow his God.

He appointed military officers over the army and assembled them in the square at the city gate. He encouraged them, saying,

So when the envoys arrived from the Babylonian officials to visit him and inquire about the sign that occurred in the land, God left him alone to test him, in order to know his true motives.

He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him vow allegiance in the name of God. He was stubborn and obstinate, and refused to return to the Lord God of Israel.

Now Ezra had dedicated himself to the study of the law of the Lord, to its observance, and to teaching its statutes and judgments in Israel.

I also have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?

How long must I worry, and suffer in broad daylight? How long will my enemy gloat over me?

Do not drag me away with evil men, with those who behave wickedly, who talk so friendly to their neighbors, while they plan to harm them!

Trust in him at all times, you people! Pour out your hearts before him! God is our shelter! (Selah)

For forty years I was continually disgusted with that generation, and I said, ‘These people desire to go astray; they do not obey my commands.’

For he never bothered to show kindness; he harassed the oppressed and needy, and killed the disheartened.

Make the hearts of these people calloused; make their ears deaf and their eyes blind! Otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, their hearts might understand and they might repent and be healed.”

You said to yourself, “I will climb up to the sky. Above the stars of El I will set up my throne. I will rule on the mountain of assembly on the remote slopes of Zaphon.