Please, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I am praying before you by day and by night for your servants, the {Israelites}, and confessing the sins of the {Israelites} that we have sinned against you. I and my father's house have sinned.

I told them of the good hand of my God that was upon me and surely the words of the king that were spoken to me. And they said, "Let us arise and build!" And they strengthened their hands for [this] good work.

Then our enemies said, "They will not know nor see until we come upon them and will kill them and stop the work."

I stationed the people behind the deepest part of the wall in the open places according to their families, with their swords, spears, and bows.

The ones who were building the wall and the ones {who carried the materials} were carrying in one hand while doing the task, and with the other hand were grasping a weapon.

So neither I nor my brothers nor my young men nor the men of the guard who were behind me took off our clothes. Each one [kept] his weapon [even] in the water.

And Sanballat sent his servant with an open letter, [another] word like this to me a fifth time, in his hand.

I said to them, "Do not open the gates of Jerusalem until the sun is hot. While they are standing guard let them shut and fasten the doors. And appoint guards from the inhabitants of Jerusalem, one at his post and another opposite his house."

Then my God put into my heart to assemble the nobles, the prefects, and the people to be enrolled. I found the book of the genealogy of those who first came back, and I found [this] written upon it:

Upon the sealed documents: Nehemiah the governor, son of Hacaliah and Zedekiah;

"We put on ourselves the commandment upon us to yearly give a third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God:

On that day men were appointed for the storehouse rooms, the offerings, the first fruits, and the tithes, in order to gather in them from the fields of the cities the requirements of the law for the priests and Levites; for the joy of Judah [was] upon the priests and Levites standing there.