Then I say, “Look! I come! What is written in the scroll pertains to me. ¹ 

and execute the judgment to which their enemies ¹  have been sentenced. ²  All his loyal followers will be vindicated. ³  Praise the Lord!

The Lord responded: ¹  “Write down this message! ²  Record it legibly on tablets, so the one who announces ³  it may read it easily. ⁴ 

Moreover, the Lord will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, ¹  until you have perished.

The men of the ¹  city, the leaders ²  and the nobles who lived there, ³  followed the written orders Jezebel had sent them. ⁴ 

They discovered written in the law that the LORD had commanded through ¹  Moses that the Israelites should live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month,

And during the reign ¹  of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, ²  Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their colleagues ³  wrote to King Artaxerxes ⁴  of Persia. This letter ⁵  was first written in Aramaic but then translated. [Aramaic:] ⁶ 

Written in it were the following words: “Among the nations it is rumored ¹  (and Geshem ²  has substantiated ³  this) that you and the Jews have intentions of revolting, and for this reason you are building the wall. Furthermore, according to these rumors ⁴  you are going to become their king.

My God placed it on my heart to gather the leaders, ¹  the officials, and the ordinary people so they could be enrolled on the basis of genealogy. I found the genealogical records ²  of those who had formerly returned. Here is what I found written in that record: ³ 

On that day the book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing ¹  of the people. They found ²  written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite may ever enter the assembly of God,

it was found written that Mordecai had disclosed that Bigthana ¹  and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the entrance, had plotted to assassinate ²  King Ahasuerus.

“Son of man, write down the name of this day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid siege ¹  to Jerusalem ²  this very day.

Just as it is written in the law of Moses, so all this calamity has come on us. Still we have not tried to pacify ¹  the LORD our God by turning back from our sin and by seeking wisdom ²  from your reliable moral standards. ³ 

“At that time Michael, the great prince who watches over your people, ¹  will arise. ²  There will be a time of distress unlike any other from the nation’s beginning ³  up to that time. But at that time your own people, all those whose names are ⁴  found written in the book, will escape.