1. And it came to be in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaḥshashta the sovereign, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the sovereign. And I had never been sad in his presence.
2. And the sovereign said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is none else but sorrow of heart.” Then I was very much afraid,
3. and said to the sovereign, “Let the sovereign live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?”