Let your ear now be attentive, and your eyes open, that you may hear the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you now, day and night, for the children of Israel your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you: both I and my father's house have sinned.

O Lord, I beseech you, let now your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants, who desire to fear your name: and prosper, I pray you, your servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cupbearer.

Then the king said unto me, For what do you make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.

And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall your journey be? and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.

And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress which pertains to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the temple that I shall enter into. And the king so granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.

So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.

And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even to the jackal's well, and to the refuse gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down; and the gates thereof were consumed with fire.

Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king's pool: but there was no place for the animal that was under me to pass.

Then went I up in the night by the valley, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned.

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.

Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.

But the gate of the fountain repaired Shallun the son of Col-hozeh, the ruler of the district of Mizpah; he built it, and covered it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and the wall of the pool of Shelah by the king's garden, and unto the stairs that go down from the city of David.

Palal the son of Uzai, made repairs opposite the turning of the wall, and the tower which projects out from the king's upper house, that was by the court of the prison. After him Pedaiah the son of Parosh made repairs.

After him repaired Malchijah the goldsmith's son unto the house of the Nethinim, and of the merchants, opposite the gate Hammiphkad, and to the upper chamber of the corner.

So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.

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 our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease.

They who built on the wall, and they that bore burdens, so burdened themselves, everyone with one of his hands worked in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.

For the builders, everyone had his sword girded by his side, and so built. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me.

So we labored in the work: and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared.

So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us put off our clothes, saving that every one put them off for washing.

There were also those that said, We have borrowed money for the king's tax, and that upon our lands and vineyards.

Then said they, We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do as you say. Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they should do according to this promise.

Also I shook my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, that performs not this promise, even thus be he shaken out, and emptied. And all the congregation said, Amen, and praised the LORD. And the people did according to this promise.

But the former governors that had been before me laid burdens upon the people, and had taken of them food and wine, besides forty shekels of silver; yea, even their servants bore rule over the people: but so did not I, because of the fear of God.

And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, while I leave it, and come down to you?

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

Therefore was he hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me.

So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days.

And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was done by our God.

Who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahemani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah. The number, I say, of the men of the people of Israel was this;

The children of Keros, the children of Sia, the children of Padon,

The children of Solomon's servants: the children of Sotai, the children of Sophereth, the children of Perida,

All the Nethinim, and the children of Solomon's servants, were three hundred ninety and two.

And these were they who went up also from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer: but they could not prove their father's house, nor their descendants, whether they were of Israel.

So the priests, and the Levites, and the gatekeepers, and the singers, and some of the people, and the Nethinim, and all Israel, dwelt in their cities; and when the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their cities.

So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be you grieved.

So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the water gate, and in the square at the gate of Ephraim.

And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness.

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 did see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the Red sea;

And showed signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land: for you knew that they dealt arrogantly against them. So did you get you a name, as it is this day.

And you did divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors you threw into the deep, as a stone into the mighty waters.

Yea, forty years did you sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes grew not old, and their feet swelled not.

Moreover you gave them kingdoms and nations, and did distribute them even into the corners: so they possessed the land of Sihon, the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.

So the children went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings, and the people of the land, that they might do with them as they would.

And they took strong cities, and a rich land, and possessed houses full of all goods, cisterns hewed out, vineyards, and olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness.

But after they had rest, they did evil again before you: therefore you left them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them: yet when they returned, and cried unto you, you heard them from heaven; and many times did you deliver them according to your mercies;

They joined with their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, and his ordinances and his statutes;

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.

For it was the king's commandment concerning them, that a certain portion should be for the singers, as required every day.

And Pethahiah the son of Meshezabel, of the children of Zerah the son of Judah, was at the king's hand in all matters concerning the people.

So stood the two companies of them that gave thanks in the house of God, and I, and half of the rulers with me:

Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy: the wives also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.

In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys; and also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them about the day in which they sold provisions.

So the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside of Jerusalem once or twice.

Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge you before the wall? if you do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the sabbath.

In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab: