23. We were willing to serve your father, follow his orders, and obey his decrees.
24. But what good did it do us? Now our own countrymen have become our enemies. In fact, they have killed as many of us as they could find and have stolen our possessions.
25. But we are not the only ones they have harmed; they have attacked all their neighbours.
26. And now they have laid siege to the fort in Jerusalem and are planning to take it. They have also fortified the Temple and Bethzur.