So I came to Jerusalem. ¹  When I had been there for three days,

I continued up the valley during the night, inspecting the wall. Then I turned back and came to the Valley Gate, and so returned.

When I catch up with ¹  him he will be exhausted and worn out. ²  I will rout him, and the entire army that is with him will flee. I will kill only the king

Then I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, and I presented to them the letters from the king. The king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen.

and I returned to Jerusalem. Then I discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah by supplying him with a storeroom in the courts of the temple of God.

So I went in and looked. I noticed every figure ¹  of creeping thing and beast – detestable images ²  – and every idol of the house of Israel, engraved on the wall all around. ³ 

Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, ¹  ‘With my many chariots I climbed up the high mountains, the slopes of Lebanon. I cut down its tall cedars and its best evergreens. I invaded its most remote regions, ²  its thickest woods.

I came to the exiles at Tel Abib, ¹  who lived by the Kebar River. ²  I sat dumbfounded among them there, where they were living, for seven days. ³ 

“‘Then I passed by you and watched you, noticing ¹  that you had reached the age for love. ²  I spread my cloak ³  over you and covered your nakedness. I swore a solemn oath to you and entered into a marriage covenant with you, declares the sovereign Lord, and you became mine.