they came to Zerubbabel and the leaders ¹  and said to them, “Let us help you build, ²  for like you we seek your God and we have been sacrificing to him ³  from the time ⁴  of King Esarhaddon ⁵  of Assyria, who brought us here.” ⁶ 

When the seventh month arrived and the Israelites ¹  were living ²  in their ³  towns, the people assembled ⁴  in ⁵  Jerusalem. ⁶ 

“Everything that has happened to us has come about because of our wicked actions and our great guilt. Even so, our God, you have exercised restraint ¹  toward our iniquities and have given us a remnant such as this.

Now when these things had been completed, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the local residents ¹  who practice detestable things similar to those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.