In the month Nisan in the twentieth year of king Artaxerxes, when the wine stood before him, I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king and I was heavy in his presence.

I gat me up in the night season, and a few men with me: for I told no man what God had given me in my heart to do at Jerusalem. And there was not one beast with me, save it that I rode upon.

And I said unto them, "Ye see the misery that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and how the gates thereof are burnt with fire. Come, let us build up the walls of Jerusalem, that we be no more a rebuke."

And I told them of the good hand of my God which was upon me; and the king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, "Then let us get up and build," and strengthened their hands to good.

Then answered I them, and said, "The God of heaven, he it is that causeth us to prosper: and we be his servants. Let us get up and build. As for you: ye have no portion, nor right, nor remembrance in Jerusalem."

And Eliashib the high priest gat him up with his brethren the priests, and builded the Sheep-gate. They hallowed it, and set up the doors of it: even unto the tower of Meah hallowed they it, namely unto the tower of Hananel.

And Tobiah the Ammonite beside him said, "Let them build on: if a fox go up, he shall break down their stony wall."

But when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and Ammonites, and Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that they had begun to stop up the gaps, they were very wroth;

and looked, and gat me up, and said unto the chief men and rulers, and to the other people, "Be not ye afraid of them, but think rather upon the great LORD, which ought to be feared; and fight for your brethren, sons, daughters, wives, and houses."

Some said, "Let us set our lands, vineyards, and houses, to pledge, and take up corn in the dearth."

And my God gave me in my heart, that I gathered together the principal men and the people to number them. And I found a register of the number of them, which came up afore out of the captivity: and found written therein:

"These are the sons of the land that went up from the captivity of the carrying away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had brought away, and came again to Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city;

And these went up also, Telmelah, Telharsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer: but they could not show their father's house, nor their seed, whether they were of Israel.

And Hathirsatha said unto them that they should not eat of the most holy, till there came up a Priest with light and perfectness.

And Ezra opened the book before all the people, for he stood above all the people. And when he opened it, all the people stood up.

And Ezra praised the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, "Amen, Amen," with their hands up, and bowed themselves, and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground.

And Nehemiah - which is Hathirsatha - and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites that caused the people to take heed, said unto all the people, "This day is holy unto the LORD your God: be not ye sorry therefore, and weep not." For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.

And so they caused it be declared and proclaimed in all their cities, and at Jerusalem, saying, "Go up unto the mount and fetch Olive branches, and Pine branches, Myrtle branches, Palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written."

And the people went up, and fetched them, and made them 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 street by the Watergate, and in the street by port Ephraim.

and they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God four times on the day; and they acknowledged, and worshipped the LORD their God four times on the day.

And the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, "Stand up praise the LORD your God forever: and let thanks be given unto the name of thy glory, which exceedeth all thanksgiving and praise.

and gavest them bread from heaven when they were hungry, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock when they were thirsty: and promised them, that they should go in, and take possession of the land, over which thou hadst lift up thine hand for to give them.

And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall with the Levites have also of the tithes of the Levites, so that the Levites shall bring up the tithes of their tithes unto the house of our God to the chest in the treasure house.

For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring up the heave offerings of the corn, wine, and oil unto the chests. And there shall be the vessels of the sanctuary, and the priests that minister, and the porters, and singers, that we forsake not the house of our God.

These are the priests and Levites that went up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and with Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,

And I caused the princes of Judah to go up upon the wall, and appointed two great choirs of thanksgiving, which went on the righthand of the wall toward the Dung gate,

toward the Wellgate, and they went up over against them upon the steps of the city of David at the going up of the wall to the house of David, unto the Watergate Eastward.

Think upon me, O my God, herein, and wipe not out my mercy, that I have showed on the house of my God, and on the officers thereof!

And I reproved them, and cursed them, and smote certain men of them, and plucked them up, and took an oath of them by God, "Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, neither shall ye take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves.

And shall we then obey unto you, to do all this great evil, and to transgress against our God, and marry strange wives?"