¹⁰ “They scoff at kings and princes and scorn their forts. They simply heap up dirt against their walls and capture them! ^11 [a]They sweep past like wind and are gone, but their guilt is deep, for they claim their power is from their gods.”

¹² O Lord my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal—is your plan in all of this to wipe us out? Surely not! O God our Rock, you have decreed the rise of these Chaldeans to chasten and correct us for our awful sins.