let Your ear now be open, and Your eyes open, so that You may hear the prayer of Your servant, which I pray before You now, day and night, for the sons of Israel Your servants, and confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both I and my father's house have sinned.

O Jehovah, I pray You, let now Your ear be open to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name. And I pray You, bless Your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. (For I was the king's cupbearer.)

And the king said to me, For what do you ask? So I prayed to the God of Heaven,

and I said to the king, If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I pray that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, so that I may build it.

And the king said to me (the queen also sitting by him), For how long shall your journey be? And when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me, and I set him a time.

And I said to the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors Beyond the River, so that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah,

and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, so that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which belong to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house into which I shall enter. And the king granted me what I asked, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

And I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River and gave them the king's letters. And the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.

And I went on to the Fountain Gate, and to the King's Pool. But there was no place for the animal that was under me to pass.

And I said to them, You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem is wasted, and the gates of it are burned with fire. Come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no more be a reproach.

And I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me, and also the king's words that he had spoken to me. And they said, Let us rise up to build. So they made their hands strong for good.

And the Fountain Gate was repaired by Shallum the son of Colhozeh, the ruler of part of Mizpah. He built it and covered it, and set up its doors, its locks, and its bars, and the wall of the Pool of Shelah by the King's Garden, and to the stairs that go down from the City of David.

Palal the son of Uzai repaired across from the corner, and the tower which lies out from the king's high house, by the court of the prison. After him Pedaiah the son of Parosh repaired.

After him Malchiah the goldsmith's son repaired to the place of the temple-slaves, and of the merchants, across from the Miphkad Gate, and to the going up of the corner.

So we built the wall, and all the wall was joined together to the half of it. For the people had a mind to work.

And Judah said, The strength of the carriers of burdens is weakening, and there is much rubbish, so that we are not able to build the wall.

And our foes have said, They shall not know, or see, until we come in the middle of them, and kill them, and cause the work to cease.

Also at the same time I said to the people, Let everyone with his servant stay inside Jerusalem, so that in the night they may be a guard to us, and labor in the day.

For certain ones said, We, our sons, and our daughters, are many. Let us get grain for them, so that we may eat and live.

And some said, We have borrowed money on our lands and vineyards for the king's tax.

And they said, We will restore, and will ask nothing from them. So we will do as you say. Then I called the priests and took an oath from them that they should do according to this promise.

Also I shook my lap and said, So let God shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, who does not keep this promise, even may he be shaken out this way and emptied. And all the congregation said, amen, and praised Jehovah. And the people did according to this promise.

And I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work, so I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you?

It is reported among the nations, and Gashmu says it, that you and the Jews are thinking of rebelling, for this reason you build the wall, so that you may be their king, according to these words.

For they all were alarmers of us, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work so that it may not be done. And now, O God, make my hands strong.

Therefore he was hired that I should be afraid, and do so, and I should sin, and be for them an evil name, with which they might reproach me.

And it happened when all our enemies heard, and all the nations around us saw, they were very much lowered in their own eyes. For they saw that this work was done by our God.

And in those days the nobles of Judah were increasing their letters going to Tobiah; and Tobiah's came to them.

And my God put into my heart to gather together the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, so that they might be counted by genealogy. And I found a register of the genealogy of those who came up at the first. And I found written in it:

the sons of Keros, the sons of Sia, the sons of Padon,

The sons of Solomon's servants: the sons of Sotai, the sons of Sophereth, the sons of Perida,

All the temple-slaves, and the sons of Solomon's servants, three hundred and ninety-two.

And these were they who went up from Tel-melah, Tel-haresha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer. But they could not show their father's house, nor their seed, whether they were of Israel:

And some of the chiefs of the fathers gave to the work. The governor gave to the treasury a thousand darics of gold, fifty basins, and five hundred and thirty priest's garments.

And all the congregation of those who had come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths. For since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day, the sons of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness.

And You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the Red Sea,

and gave out signs and wonders upon Pharaoh and upon all his servants and upon all the people of his land. For You knew that they were acting proudly against them. So You got Yourself a name, as today.

And You divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land. And their pursuers You threw into the deep, like a stone into the mighty waters.

And the sons went in and possessed the land, and You humbled the people of the land before them, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings and the people of the land, so that they might do with them as they would.

But after they had rest, they did evil again before You, and You left them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the rule over them. But they returned and cried to You, and You heard from Heaven. And many times You delivered them according to Your mercies,

were holding fast to their brothers, their honored ones. And they entered into a curse and into an oath, to walk in God's Law which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to be careful to do all the commandments of Jehovah our Lord, and His judgments and His statutes.

And these are the rulers of the province who lived in Jerusalem. But in the cities of Judah everyone lived in his possession in their cities: Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the temple-slaves, and the sons of Solomon's servants.

For it was the king's commandment concerning them that a certain portion should be for the singers, due for every day.

And Pethahiah the son of Meshezabeel, of the sons of Zerah the son of Judah, was at the king's hand in all matters concerning the people.

And that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced. For God had made them rejoice with great joy. And the wives and the sons rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.

because they did not meet the sons of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them so that he should curse them. But our God turned the curse into a blessing.

And I saw that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them; for the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each one to his field.

In those days I saw in Judah some treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and loading asses and also wine, grapes, and figs, and all kinds of burdens which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I testified against them in the day in which they sold food.

And it happened when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and commanded that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I set some of my servants at the gates, so that there should be no burden brought in on the Sabbath day.

And I testified against them, and said to them, Why do you stay around the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath.

In those days I also saw Jews who lived with women from Ashdod, Ammon, and from Moab.

And their sons spoke half Ashdod's speech, and there was no caring to speak Jewish, but according to the language of each people.

So I cleansed them from all strangers, and appointed charges to the priests and the Levites, every one in his business,