They said to me, "The remnant that remains from the exile there in the province are experiencing considerable adversity and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem lies breached, and its gates have been burned down!"

But if you repent and obey my commandments and do them, then even if your dispersed people are in the most remote location, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen for my name to reside.'

So I came to Jerusalem. When I had been there for three days,

I got up during the night, along with a few men who were with me. But I did not tell anyone what my God was putting on my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no animals with me, except for the one I was riding.

I passed on to the Gate of the Well and the King's Pool, where there was not enough room for my animal to pass with me.

Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, gather there with us. Our God will fight for us!"

Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.

There were those who said, "With our sons and daughters, we are many. We must obtain grain in order to eat and stay alive."

There were others who said, "We are putting up our fields, our vineyards, and our houses as collateral in order to obtain grain during the famine."

Then there were those who said, "We have borrowed money to pay our taxes to the king on our fields and our vineyards.

I gave myself to the work on this wall, without even purchasing a field. All my associates were gathered there for the work.

There were 150 Jews and officials who dined with me routinely, in addition to those who came to us from the nations all around us.

Now the city was spread out and large, and there were not a lot of people in it. At that time houses had not been rebuilt.

The governor instructed them not to eat any of the sacred food until there was a priest who could consult the Urim and Thummim.

For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors for the singers and for the songs of praise and thanks to God.

The people from Tyre who lived there were bringing fish and all kinds of merchandise and were selling it on the Sabbath to the people of Judah -- and in Jerusalem, of all places!

Was it not because of things like these that King Solomon of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. But the foreign wives made even him sin!