³ And I said to the king, “^(A)May the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad ^(B)when the city, the ^[a]site of my fathers’ tombs, is desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?”

¹⁷ Then I said to them, “You see the bad situation we are in, that ^(A)Jerusalem is desolate and its gates have been burned by fire. Come, let’s rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that we will no longer be a disgrace.”