also a letter unto Asaph, keeper of the park that belongeth unto the king, that he may give me timber to build up the gates of the fortress which pertaineth to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house whereinto I shall enter. And the king gave me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

Each of the builders had his sword strapped around his waist while he was building, and the trumpeter was beside me.

One hundred and fifty men, prefects and Jews, and those who came to us from the nations around us, [were] at my table.

When all our enemies heard about it, and all the [Gentile] nations around us saw it, they lost their confidence; for they recognized that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.

So the sons of the singers gathered together from the district around Jerusalem, and from the villages of the Netophathites,

from Beth-gilgal and from the fields of Geba and Azmaveth, for the singers had built villages for themselves around Jerusalem.

Then I testified against them, and said to them, "Why do you stay around the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you." From that time on, they didn't come on the Sabbath.