1:4 When I heard these things I sat down abruptly, 1 crying and mourning for several days. I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
9:1 On the twenty-fourth day of this same month the Israelites assembled; they were fasting and wearing sackcloth, their heads covered with dust.
1 tn Heb “sat down.” Context suggests that this was a rather sudden action, resulting from the emotional shock of the unpleasant news, so “abruptly” has been supplied in the present translation.