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They made also a collection of money according to every man's power.
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And they sent it to Jerusalem unto Jehoiakim the high priest, the son of Hilkiah, son of Shallum, and to the priests and to all the people who were found with him at Jerusalem.
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At the same time, he received the vessels of the house of the Lord, that were carried out of the temple, to return them into the land of Judah, the tenth day of the month of Sivan, namely, silver vessels, which Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah had made,
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after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away Jeconiah, and the princes and the captives and the mighty men and the people of the land from Jerusalem, and brought them unto Babylon.
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And they said: "Behold, we have sent you money to buy you burnt offerings and sin offerings and incense, and to prepare ye a meat offering and offer upon the altar of the Lord our God;
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and pray for the life of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and for the life of Belshazzar his son, that their days may be upon earth as the days of heaven.
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And the Lord will give us strength, and lighten our eyes; and we shall live under the shadow of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and under the shadow of Belshazzar his son, and we shall serve them many days and find favor in their sight.
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Pray for us also unto the Lord our God, for we have sinned against the Lord our God; and unto this day the fury of the Lord and His wrath is not turned from us.
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And ye shall read this book, which we have sent unto you, to make confession in the house of the Lord upon the feasts and solemn days.
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"And ye shall say: `To the Lord our God belongeth righteousness, but unto us the confusion of faces, as it has come to pass this day unto them of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
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and to our kings, and to our princes, and to our priests, and to our prophets, and to our fathers;