⁹ for when you return to the Lord, your brothers and your sons will receive mercy in the presence of their captors and will return to this land.^(A) For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful;^(B) he will not turn his face away from you if you return to him.’

⁹ Though we are slaves,^(A) our God has not abandoned us in our slavery. He has extended grace to us in the presence of the Persian kings,^(B) giving us relief, so that we can rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins,^(C) to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.