Moreover I said to the king, If it please the king, let letters be given to me to the governors beyond the River, that they may let me pass through till I come to Judah,

And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come into the midst of them, and kill them, and cause the work to cease.

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

And I went to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabel, who was shut up, and he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple. For they will come to

And these were those who went up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer, but they could not show their fathers' house, nor their seed, whether they were of Israel:

The sons of Delaiah, the sons of Tobiah, the sons of Nekoda, six hundred forty-two.

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

And they found written in the law how that LORD had commanded by Moses that the sons of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month,

And the rulers of the people dwelt in Jerusalem. The rest of the people also cast lots to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem the holy city, and nine parts in the [other] cities.

And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to dwell in Jerusalem.

And it came to pass that, when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut, and commanded that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath. And I set some of my servant