And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great distress and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.

Now these are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power, and by your strong hand.

Therefore the king said unto me, Why is your countenance sad, seeing you are not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very much afraid,

And said unto the king, Let the king live forever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchers, lies waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?

Then said I unto them, You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we are no more a reproach.

And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they finish in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?

Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a spoil in a land of captivity:

And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is failing, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.

And I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall, one far from another.

For there were those that said, We, our sons, and our daughters, are many: therefore let us get grain for them, that we may eat, and live.

Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought unto bondage already: neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and vineyards.

I likewise, and my brethren, and my servants, are lending them money and grain: I pray you, let us stop this charging interest.

Moreover there were at my table a hundred and fifty of the Jews and rulers, besides those that came unto us from among the nations that are about us.

Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as you say, but you invent them out of your own heart.

These are the children of the province, that went up out of the captivity, of those that had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and came again to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one unto his city;

You, even you, are LORD alone; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and you preserve them all; and the host of heaven worships you.

You are the LORD, the God who did choose Abram, and brought him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gave him the name of Abraham;

And found his heart faithful before you, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his descendants, and have performed your words; for you are righteous:

And refused to obey, neither were mindful of your wonders that you did among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a leader to return to their bondage: but you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsook them not.

Nevertheless for your great mercies' sake you did not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for you are a gracious and merciful God.

Yet you are just in all that is brought upon us; for you have done right, but we have done wickedly:

Behold, we are servants this day, and for the land that you gave unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it:

And it yields much increase unto the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.

For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the offering of the grain, of the new wine, and the oil, unto the chambers, where are the vessels of the sanctuary, and the priests that minister, and the gatekeepers, and the singers: and we will not forsake the house of our God.

Now these are the leaders of the province that dwelt in Jerusalem: but in the cities of Judah dwelt everyone in his own possession in their cities; Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the Nethinim, and the children of Solomon's servants.

And these are the sons of Benjamin; Sallu the son of Meshullam, the son of Joed, the son of Pedaiah, the son of Kolaiah, the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ithiel, the son of Jeshaiah.

Now these are the priests and the Levites that went up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,