And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? shall they be permitted to go on? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, when they are burned?

And I sent to him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine 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 who came again to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one to his city;

And the Tirshatha said to them that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up the priest with Urim and Thummim.

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

Thou art the Same, Jehovah Elohim, who didst choose Abram and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham;

And thou gavest them bread from the heavens for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and didst say to them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.

Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy god that brought thee up out of Egypt! and they had wrought great provocation,

And thou gavest them into the hand of their oppressors, and they oppressed them; and in the time of their distress, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from the heavens, and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their oppressors.

and that if the peoples of the land brought wares or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we would not take it of them on the sabbath, or on any holy day; and that we would leave the land uncultivated the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt.

And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem, to hold the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgivings, and with singing, with cymbals, lutes and harps.

also from Beth-Gilgal, and out of the fields of Geba and Azmaveth; for the singers had built themselves hamlets round about Jerusalem.

And at that time men were appointed over the chambers of the treasures for the heave-offerings, for the first-fruits, and for the tithes, to gather into them, out of the fields of the cities, the portions assigned by the law for the priests and the Levites; for Judah rejoiced over the priests, and over the Levites that waited.

And it grieved me much, and I cast forth all the household stuff of Tobijah out of the chamber.

Men of Tyre also dwelt therein, who brought fish and all manner of ware, and sold it on the sabbath to the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem.