And I said to the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it.

Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah;

Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king's pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass.

And Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests, and they built the sheep-gate. They hallowed it, and set up its doors; and they hallowed it even to the tower of Meah, to the tower of Hananeel.

Each builder worked with a sword strapped to his side, while a trumpeter remained beside me to sound an alarm.

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 I sent men to them saying, I am doing a great work, so that it is not possible for me to come down: is the work to be stopped while I go away from it and come down to you?

Therefore took he the money, that through fear I should do so, and sin: that they might have an evil report of me, to blaspheme me.

Remember, O my God, to Tobiah and to Sanballat, according to these his works, and also to Noadiah the prophetess, and to the rest of the prophets who were causing me to fear.

Also his good things were said before me, and my words were brought forth to him. Tobiah sent letters to cause me to fear.