But if you return to Me and carefully observe My commands, even though your exiles were banished to the ends of the earth, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place where I chose to have My name dwell.”

After I arrived in Jerusalem and had been there three days,

In Judah, it was said:

The strength of the laborer fails,
since there is so much rubble.
We will never be able
to rebuild the wall.

Wherever you hear the trumpet sound, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us!”

There was a widespread outcry from the people and their wives against their Jewish countrymen.

Instead, I devoted myself to the construction of the wall, and all my subordinates were gathered there for the work. We didn’t buy any land.

There were 150 Jews and officials, as well as guests from the surrounding nations at my table.

and have even set up the prophets in Jerusalem to proclaim on your behalf: “There is a king in Judah.” These rumors will be heard by the king. So come, let’s confer together.

Then I replied to him, “There is nothing to these rumors you are spreading; you are inventing them in your own mind.”

The city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and no houses had been built yet.

The governor ordered them not to eat the most holy things until there was a priest who could consult the Urim and Thummim.

The whole community that had returned from exile made booths and lived in them. They had not celebrated like this from the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day. And there was tremendous joy.

Ezra read out of the book of the law of God every day, from the first day to the last. The Israelites celebrated the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day there was an assembly, according to the ordinance.

There was, in fact, a command of the king regarding them, and an ordinance regulating the singers’ daily tasks.

For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there were leaders of the singers and songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.

I ordered that the rooms be purified, and I had the articles of the house of God restored there, along with the grain offering and frankincense.

The Tyrians living there were importing fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah in Jerusalem.

Didn’t King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations. He was loved by his God and God made him king over all Israel, yet foreign women drew him into sin.