I beseech thee O My Lord, let - I pray thee - thine ear be attentive unto the prayer of thy servant, and unto the prayer of thy servants who delight to revere thy Name, and oh prosper, I pray thee, thy servant to-day, and grant him compassion before this man. Now, I, was cup-bearer unto the king.

Then said the king unto me, Wherefore is thy countenance sad, seeing that, thou, art not sick? this is nothing else, but sadness of heart. Then feared I exceedingly,

But, when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed at us, and poured contempt upon us, - and said, What is this thing which ye would do? against the king, would ye rebel?

I too, then, my brethren and my young men, might be lending unto them on interest silver and corn! I pray you, let us leave off this lending on interest!

Restore, I pray you, unto them this very day, their fields, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, - also the hundredth of silver and corn, new wine and oil, for which ye have been lending to them.

And they said, We will restore them, and, from them, will we require nothing, so, will we do, as thou, art saying. Then called I the priests, and put them on oath, to do according to this promise.

Also, my lap, shook I out, and said - Thus and thus, may God shake out every man who shall not confirm this promise, out of his house and out of his labour, yea, thus and thus, let him be shaken out and empty, - And all the convocation said, Amen! and praised Yahweh, and the people did according to this promise.

Moreover also, in this work of the wall, I repaired, and, no field, did we buy, - though, all my young men, were gathered thither unto the work.

Now, that which was prepared for a single day, was - one ox, six choice sheep, also, fowls, were prepared for me, and, apportioned unto ten days, of every sort of wine, in abundance, - yet, in spite of this, the bread of the pasha, demanded I not, because heavy was the bondage upon this people.

Remember unto me, O my God, for good, - all that I have done for this people.

Yet they sent unto me, according to this message, four times, - and I replied to them according to this answer.

Then Sanballat sent unto me, according to this message, a fifth time, by his young man, - with an open letter, in his hand:

to this end, hired, he was, to the end that I might be afraid and do so, and might sin, - and it might serve them for an evil report, to the end they might bring reproach upon me.

And it came to pass, when all our enemies heard, and all the nations that were round about us saw, that they fell greatly in their own eyes, and took knowledge that, from God, had this work been wrought.

Now, on the twenty-fourth day of this month, were the sons of Israel gathered together, with fasting and with sackcloth, having earth upon them.

and didst grant signs and wonders against Pharaoh, and against all his servants, and against all the people of his land, for thou hadst taken note, that they ruled proudly over them, - and so thou didst make thee a name, as at this day.

Yea, although they made them a molten calf, and said, This, is thy God, that brought thee up out of Egypt, - and wrought great insults,

Now, therefore, O our God - the GOD great, mighty, and fearful - keeping the covenant and the lovingkindness, let not all the trouble seem little before thee, which hath come upon us - on our kings, on our rulers, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, - from the days of the kings of Assyria, until this day.

Seeing, therefore, all this, we, are plighting our faith, and putting it in writing, - and, upon the sealed scroll, are our rulers, our Levites, our priests.

Now, before this, Eliashib the priest, who was set over a chamber of the house of God, was allied unto Tobiah;

But, throughout all this time , was I not in Jerusalem, - for, in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon, I came unto the king, and, at the end of certain days, obtained I leave of the king;

Remember me, O my God, concerning this, - and do not wipe out my lovingkindnesses, which I have done for the house of my God, and for those keeping charge thereof.

so I contended with the nobles of Judah, - and said unto them, What is this wicked thing which, ye, are doing, and profaning the sabbath day?

Was it not, thus, your fathers did, and our God brought upon us all this calamity, and upon this city? - and, ye, would add indignation against Israel, by profaning the sabbath!

And I gave word to the Levites, that they should be purifying themselves and coming in, as keepers of the gates, to hallow the sabbath day. This also, remember to me, O my God, and have pity upon me, according to the abundance of thy lovingkindness.

Unto you, then, shall we hearken, to do all this great wickedness, to act unfaithfully with our God, - by marrying foreign wives?