Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid,

When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.

After him Baruch son of Zabbai zealously repaired another section [toward the hill], from the Angle [in the wall] to the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest.

Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Such is their building that if a fox goes up it, their stone wall will be broken down.

But when I heard their complaint and such words, it displeased me sore,

And they say, 'We give back, and of them we seek nothing; so we do as thou art saying.' And I call the priests, and cause them to swear to do according to this thing;

And from the time forth that it was committed unto me to be a captain in the land of Judah, namely from the twentieth year even unto the two and thirtieth year of king Artaxerxes - that is twelve years - I and my brethren lived not of such sustenance as was given to a captain:

And that which was prepared daily was one ox and six choice sheep; and birds were prepared; and once in ten days store of all sorts of wine. Yet for all this I did not seek the bread of the governor, because the bondage was heavy upon this people.

Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.

And I said, Should such a man as I flee? and who is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.

The children of Zaccai, seven hundred and threescore.

and read therein, before the broad place which was before the water-gate, from the time it was light, until the noon of the day, in presence of the men and the women, and such as had understanding, - and, the ears of all the people, were unto the book of the law.

and gave them bread from the sky for their hunger, and brought forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and commanded them that they should go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them.

You also multiplied their children as the stars of the sky, and brought them into the land concerning which you said to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.

Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God.

Did not Solomon king of Israel sin [greatly against God] regarding these things? Yet among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless the foreign women caused even him to sin [by turning to other gods and so, judged by God, he lost his kingdom].

Thus cleansed I them from all such as were outlandish, and appointed the courses of the priests and Levites, every one to his office,