Words of Nehemiah son of Hachaliah. And it cometh to pass, in the month of Chisleu, the twentieth year, and I have been in Shushan the palace,

and they say to me, 'Those left, who have been left of the captivity there in the province, are in great evil, and in reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burnt with fire.'

And it cometh to pass, at my hearing these words, I have sat down, and I weep and mourn for days, and I am fasting and praying before the God of the heavens.

let Thine ear be, I pray Thee, attentive, and Thine eyes open, to hearken unto the prayer of Thy servant, that I am praying before Thee to-day, by day and by night, concerning the sons of Israel Thy servants, and confessing concerning the sins of the sons of Israel, that we have sinned against Thee; yea, I and the house of my father have sinned;

and ye have turned back unto Me, and kept My commands, and done them -- if your outcast is in the end of the heavens, thence I gather them, and have brought them in unto the place that I have chosen to cause My name to tabernacle there.

'I beseech Thee, O Lord, let, I pray Thee, Thine ear be attentive unto the prayer of Thy servant, and unto the prayer of Thy servants, those delighting to fear Thy Name; and give prosperity, I pray Thee, to Thy servant to-day, and give him for mercies before this man;' and I have been butler to the king.

And it cometh to pass, in the month of Nisan, the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, wine is before him, and I lift up the wine, and give to the king, and I had not been sad before him;

and the king saith to me, 'Wherefore is thy face sad, and thou not sick? this is nothing except sadness of heart;' and I fear very much,

and say to the king, 'Let the king to the age live! wherefore should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of the graves of my fathers, is a waste, and its gates have been consumed with fire?'

And the king saith to me, 'For what art thou seeking?' and I pray unto the God of the heavens,

and say to the king, 'If to the king it be good, and if thy servant be pleasing before thee, that thou send me unto Judah, unto the city of the graves of my fathers, and I built it.'

And the king saith to me (and the queen is sitting near him), 'How long is thy journey? and when dost thou return?' and it is good before the king, and he sendeth me away, and I set to him a time.

And I say to the king, 'If to the king it be good, letters let be given to me for the governors beyond the River, that they let me pass over till that I come in unto Judah:

and a letter unto Asaph, keeper of the paradise that the king hath, that he give to me trees for beams for the gates of the palace that the house hath, and for the wall of the city, and for the house into which I enter;' and the king giveth to me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

And I come in unto the governors beyond the River, and give to them the letters of the king; and the king sendeth with me heads of a force, and horsemen;

and Sanballat the Horonite heareth, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and it is evil to them -- a great evil -- that a man hath come in to seek good for the sons of Israel.

and I rise by night, I and a few men with me, and have not declared to a man what my God is giving unto my heart to do for Jerusalem, and there is no beast with me except the beast on which I am riding.

And I pass over unto the gate of the fountain, and unto the pool of the king, and there is no place for the beast under me to pass over,

And the prefects have not known whither I have gone, and what I am doing; and to the Jews, and to the priests, and to the freemen, and to the prefects, and to the rest of those doing the work, hitherto I have not declared it;

And I declare to them the hand of my God that is good upon me, and also the words of the king that he said to me, and they say, 'Let us rise, and we have built;' and they strengthen their hands for good.

And I return them word, and say to them, 'The God of the heavens -- He doth give prosperity to us, and we His servants rise and have built; and to you there is no portion, and right, and memorial in Jerusalem.'

and by his hand have the Tekoites strengthened, and their honourable ones have not brought in their neck to the service of their Lord.

And by their hand hath Melatiah the Gibeonite strengthened, and Jadon the Meronothite, men of Gibeon and of Mizpah, to the throne of the governor beyond the River.

And the gate of the fountain hath Shallum son of Col-Hozeh, head of the district of Mizpah, strengthened: he doth build it, and cover it, and set up its doors, its locks, and its bars, and the wall of the pool of Siloah, to the garden of the king, and unto the steps that are going down from the city of David.

After him hath Baruch son of Zabbai hastened to strengthen a second measure from the angle unto the opening of the house of Eliashib the high priest.

And it cometh to pass, when Sanballat hath heard that we are building the wall, that it is displeasing to him, and he is very angry and mocketh at the Jews,

and saith before his brethren and the force of Samaria, yea, he saith, 'What are the weak Jews doing? are they left to themselves? do they sacrifice? do they complete in a day? do they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish? -- and they burnt!'

and do not cover over their iniquity, and their sin from before Thee let not be blotted out, for they have provoked to anger -- over-against those building.

And we build the wall, and all the wall is joined -- unto its half, and the people have a heart to work.

And it cometh to pass, when Sanballat hath heard, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, that lengthening hath gone up to the walls of Jerusalem, that the breeches have begun to be stopped, then it is very displeasing to them,

and they conspire, all of them together, to come in to fight against Jerusalem, and to do to it injury.

And we pray unto our God, and appoint a watch against them, by day and by night, because of them.

And Judah saith, 'The power of the burden-bearers hath become feeble, and the rubbish is abundant, and we are not able to build on the wall.'

And our adversaries say, 'They do not know, nor see, till that we come in to their midst, and have slain them, and caused the work to cease.'

And it cometh to pass, when the Jews have come who are dwelling near them, that they say to us ten times from all the places whither ye return -- they are against us.

And it cometh to pass, when our enemies have heard that it hath been known to us, and God doth frustrate their counsel, and we turn back, all of us, unto the wall, each unto his work;

yea, it cometh to pass, from that day, half of my servants are working in the business, and half of them are keeping hold of both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the coats of mail; and the heads are behind all the house of Judah.

Also, at that time I said to the people, 'Let each with his servant lodge in the midst of Jerusalem, and they have been to us by night a guard, and by day for the work:'

and now, as the flesh of our brethren is our flesh, as their sons are our sons, and lo, we are subduing our sons and our daughters for servants, and there are of our daughters subdued, and our hand hath no might, and our fields and our vineyards are to others.'

And it is very displeasing to me when I have heard their cry and these words,

and my heart reigneth over me, and I strive with the freemen, and with the prefects, and say to them, 'Usury one upon another ye are exacting;' and I set against them a great assembly,

and say to them, 'We have acquired our brethren the Jews, those sold to the nations, according to the ability that is in us, and ye also sell your brethren, and they have been sold to us!' and they are silent, and have not found a word.

And I say, 'Not good is the thing that ye are doing; in the fear of our God do ye not walk, because of the reproach of the nations our enemies?

Give back, I pray you, to them, as to-day, their fields, their vineyards, their olive-yards, and their houses, and the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, of the new wine, and of the oil, that ye are exacting of them.'

And they say, 'We give back, and of them we seek nothing; so we do as thou art saying.' And I call the priests, and cause them to swear to do according to this thing;

also, my lap I have shaken, and I say, 'Thus doth God shake out every man, who doth not perform this thing, from his house, and from his labour; yea, thus is he shaken out and empty;' and all the assembly say, 'Amen,' and praise Jehovah; and the people do according to this thing.

Also, from the day that he appointed me to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even unto the thirty and second year of Artaxerxes the king -- twelve years -- I, and my brethren, the bread of the governor have not eaten:

and that which hath been prepared for one day is one ox, six fat sheep, also fowls have been prepared for me, and once in ten days of all wines abundantly, and with this, the bread of the governor I have not sought, for heavy is the service on this people.

And it cometh to pass, when it hath been heard by Sanballat, and Tobiah, and by Geshem the Arabian, and by the rest of our enemies, that I have builded the wall, and there hath not been left in it a breach, (also, till that time the doors I had not set up in the gates,)

that Sanballat sendeth, also Geshem, unto me, saying, 'Come and we meet together in the villages, in the valley of Ono;' and they are thinking to do to me evil.

And I send unto them messengers, saying, 'A great work I am doing, and I am not able to come down; why doth the work cease when I let it alone, and have come down unto you?'

and they send unto me, according to this word, four times, and I return them word according to this word.

And Sanballat sendeth unto me, according to this word, a fifth time, his servant, and an open letter in his hand;

it is written in it, 'Among the nations it hath been heard, and Gashmu is saying: Thou and the Jews are thinking to rebel, therefore thou art building the wall, and thou hast been to them for a king -- according to these words!

And also, prophets thou hast appointed to call for thee in Jerusalem, saying, A king is in Judah, and now it is heard by the king according to these words; and now come, and we take counsel together.'

And I send unto him, saying, 'It hath not been according to these words that thou art saying, for from thine own heart thou art devising them;'

for all of them are making us afraid, saying, 'Their hands are too feeble for the work, and it is not done;' and now, strengthen Thou my hands.

And I have entered the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabeel -- and he is restrained -- and he saith, 'Let us meet at the house of God, at the inside of the temple, and we shut the doors of the temple, for they are coming in to slay thee -- yea, by night they are coming in to slay thee.'

And I say, 'A man such as I -- doth he flee? and who as I, that doth go in unto the temple, and live? -- I do not go in.'

so that he is an hireling, that I may fear and do so, and I had sinned, and it had been to them for an evil name that they may reproach me.

Be mindful, O my God, of Tobiah, and of Sanballat, according to these his works, and also, of Noadiah the prophetess, and of the rest of the prophets who have been making me afraid.

And the wall is completed in the twenty and fifth of Elul, on the fifty and second day;

and it cometh to pass, when all our enemies have heard, and all the nations who are round about us see, that they fall greatly in their own eyes, and know that by our God hath this work been done.

for many in Judah are sworn to him, for he is son-in-law to Shechaniah son of Arah, and Jehohanan his son hath taken the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah;

also, his good deeds they have been saying before me, and my words they have been taking out to him; letters hath Tobiah sent to make me afraid.

And it cometh to pass, when the wall hath been built, that I set up the doors, and the gatekeepers are appointed, and the singers, and the Levites,

and I say to them, 'Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened till the heat of the sun, and while they are standing by let them shut the doors, and fasten, and appoint guards of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, each in his guard, and each over-against his house.'

These are sons of the province, those coming up of the captives of the removal that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon removed -- and they turn back to Jerusalem and to Judah, each to his city --

Sons of Parosh: two thousand a hundred and seventy and two.

Sons of Shephatiah: three hundred seventy and two.

Sons of Arah: six hundred fifty and two.

Sons of Pahath-Moab, of the sons of Jeshua and Joab: two thousand and eight hundred and eighteen.

Sons of Elam: a thousand two hundred fifty and four.

Sons of Azgad: two thousand three hundred twenty and two.

Sons of Bigvai: two thousand sixty and seven.

Men of Beth-Azmaveth: forty and two.

Men of Michmas: a hundred and twenty and two.

Men of the other Nebo: fifty and two.

Sons of the other Elam: a thousand two hundred fifty and four.

sons of Immer: a thousand fifty and two;

sons of Pashur: a thousand two hundred forty and seven;

All the Nethinim and the sons of the servants of Solomon are three hundred ninety and two.

And these are those coming up from Tel-Melah, Tel-Harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer -- and they have not been able to declare the house of their fathers, and their seed, whether they are of Israel --

sons of Delaiah, sons of Tobiah, sons of Nekoda, six hundred forty and two.

and the Tirshatha saith to them that they eat not of the most holy things till the standing up of the priest with Urim and Thummim.

All the assembly together is four myriads two thousand three hundred and sixty,

apart from their servants and their handmaids -- these are seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven; and of them are singers and songstresses, two hundred forty and five.

Their horses are seven hundred thirty and six; their mules, two hundred and forty and five;

And from the extremity of the heads of the fathers they have given to the work; the Tirshatha hath given to the treasure, of gold, drams a thousand, bowls fifty, priests' coats thirty and five hundred.

And of the heads of the fathers they have given to the treasure of the work, of gold, drams two myriads, and of silver, pounds two thousand and two hundred.

And that which the rest of the people have given is of gold, drams two myriads, and of silver, pounds two thousand, and of priests coats, sixty and seven.

And all the people are gathered as one man unto the broad place that is before the water-gate, and they say to Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, that Jehovah commanded Israel.

And Ezra the priest bringeth the law before the assembly, both of men and women, and every one intelligent to hear, on the first day of the seventh month,

and he readeth in it before the broad place that is before the water-gate, from the light till the middle of the day, over-against the men, and the women, and those intelligent, and the ears of all the people are unto the book of the law.

and Ezra blesseth Jehovah, the great God, and all the people answer, 'Amen, Amen,' with lifting up of their hands, and they bow and do obeisance to Jehovah -- faces to the earth.

and they read in the book, in the law of God, explaining -- so as to give the meaning, and they give understanding to the convocation.

And Nehemiah -- he is the Tirshatha -- saith (and Ezra the priest, the scribe, and the Levites who are instructing the people) to all the people, 'To-day is holy to Jehovah your God, do not mourn, nor weep:' for all the people are weeping at their hearing the words of the law.

And he saith to them, 'Go, eat fat things, and drink sweet things, and sent portions to him for whom nothing is prepared, for to-day is holy to our Lord, and be not grieved, for the joy of Jehovah is your strength.'

And the Levites are keeping all the people silent, saying, 'Be silent, for to-day is holy, and be not grieved.'

And all the people go to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great joy, because they have understood concerning the words that they made known to them.