Today you have declared the Lord to be your God, and that you will walk in his ways, keep his statutes, commandments, and ordinances, and obey him.

“As for this temple you are building, if you follow ¹  my rules, observe ²  my regulations, and obey all my commandments, ³  I will fulfill through you the promise I made to your father David. ⁴ 

May he make us submissive, ¹  so we can follow all his instructions ²  and obey ³  the commandments, rules, and regulations he commanded our ancestors.

You must serve me with integrity and sincerity, just as your father David did. Do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations. ¹ 

“But if you or your sons ever turn away from me, fail to obey the regulations and rules I instructed you to keep, ¹  and decide to serve and worship other gods, ² 

You must carefully obey at all times the rules, regulations, law, and commandments he wrote down for you. You must not worship other gods.

Then you will succeed, if you carefully obey the rules and regulations which the Lord ordered Moses to give to Israel. ¹  Be strong and brave! Don’t be afraid and don’t panic! ² 

You must serve me as your father David did. Do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations. ¹ 

“But if you people ¹  ever turn away from me, fail to obey the regulations and rules I instructed you to keep, ²  and decide to serve and worship other gods, ³ 

What follows ¹  is a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priestly scribe. ²  Ezra was ³  a scribe in matters pertaining to the commandments of the Lord and his statutes over Israel:

Who acts and carries out decrees? ¹  Who ²  summons the successive generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, am present at the very beginning, and at the very end – I am the one. ³ 

¹ “Here is my servant whom I support, my chosen one in whom I take pleasure. I have placed my spirit on him; he will make just decrees ²  for the nations. ³ 

The Lord affirms, ¹  “The descendants of Israel will not cease forever to be a nation in my sight. That could only happen if the fixed ordering of the heavenly lights were to cease to operate before me.” ² 

Moreover the Lord says, ¹  ‘I will make something happen to prove that I will punish you in this place. I will do it so that you will know that my threats to bring disaster on you will prove true. ² 

Then you will know that I am the Lord, whose statutes you have not followed and whose regulations you have not carried out. Instead you have behaved according to the regulations of the nations around you!’”

refrains from wrongdoing, ¹  does not engage in usury or charge interest, carries out my regulations and follows my statutes. He will not die for his father’s iniquity; ²  he will surely live.

“Yet you say, ‘Why should the son not suffer ¹  for his father’s iniquity?’ When the son does what is just and right, and observes all my statutes and carries them out, he will surely live.

“But if the wicked person turns from all the sin he has committed and observes all my statutes and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die.

I did this ¹  because they rejected my regulations, did not follow my statutes, and desecrated my Sabbaths; for their hearts followed their idols. ² 

I did this ¹  because they did not observe my regulations, they rejected my statutes, they desecrated my Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on ²  their fathers’ idols.