4. and to the powerful ones, the rulers’ sons, the elders, and all the people, from the least important to the greatest, and to all the ones who lived in Babylon by the Sud River.
5. They wept, fasted, and prayed before the Lord.
6. They collected silver from everyone able to give, and
7. they sent it to Jerusalem to the priest Jehoiakim, Hilkiah’s son, Shallum’s grandson, and to the other priests, and to all the people who were with Jehoiakim in Jerusalem.
8. During the same time, on the tenth day of Sivan, Baruch took the equipment from the Lord’s house that had been removed from the temple—the silver equipment that Judah’s King Zedekiah, Josiah’s son, had made—to return it to Judah. (
9. This occurred after Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar removed Jeconiah, the leading officials, the prisoners, the powerful ones, and the land’s people from Jerusalem, and brought them to Babylon.)
10. And the people in exile said:We have sent you silver. Buy what is needed for entirely burned offerings and sin offerings. Buy incense and prepare grain as well, and offer them on the Lord our God’s altar.
11. Pray for the lives of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his son Belshazzar that their days on earth may be like the days of heaven.
12. The Lord will give us strength and clear vision. We’ll live under the protection of King Nebuchadnezzar and his son Belshazzar, and we’ll serve them many days and find favor with them.
13. Pray for us to the Lord our God because we have sinned against the Lord our God. Even now, the Lord’s wrath and anger haven’t turned away from us.
14. Read aloud this scroll that we sent to you to make it public in the Lord’s house on every festival day and appointed time.
15. You will say:Justice is on the side of the Lord God, but public shame is upon us today, upon everyone in Judah, upon those living in Jerusalem,
16. and upon our rulers, leading officials, priests, prophets, and ancestors,