Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people replied “Amen! Amen!” as they lifted their hands. Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.

So the king said to me, “Why do you appear to be depressed when you aren’t sick? What can this be other than sadness of heart?” This made me very fearful.

I replied to the king, “O king, live forever! Why would I not appear dejected when the city with the graves of my ancestors ¹  lies desolate and its gates destroyed ²  by fire?”

So he read it before the plaza in front of the Water Gate from dawn till noon ¹  before the men and women and those children who could understand. ²  All the people were eager to hear ³  the book of the law.

Do not cover their iniquity, and do not wipe out their sin from before them. For they have bitterly offended ¹  the builders! ² 

Adjacent to him Ezer son of Jeshua, head of Mizpah, worked on another section, opposite the ascent to the armory at the buttress.

and the temple servants who were living on Ophel worked ¹  up to the area opposite the Water Gate toward the east and the protruding tower.