They said to me, "The remnant who are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire."

Moreover I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah;

I told them of the hand of my God which was good on me, as also of the king's words that he had spoken to me. They said, "Let's rise up and build." So they strengthened their hands for the good work.

But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they ridiculed us, and despised us, and said, "What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?"

Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the sheep gate; they sanctified it, and set up its doors; even to the tower of Hammeah they sanctified it, to the tower of Hananel.

The sons of Hassenaah built the fish gate. They laid its beams, and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars.

Joiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah repaired the old gate. They laid its beams, and set up its doors, and its bolts, and its bars.

Next to him, Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, goldsmiths, made repairs. Next to him, Hananiah one of the perfumers made repairs, and they fortified Jerusalem even to the broad wall.

Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired the valley gate. They built it, and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars, and one thousand cubits of the wall to the dung gate.

He spoke before his brothers and the army of Samaria, and said, "What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, since they are burned?"

Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, "What they are building, if a fox climbed up it, he would break down their stone wall."

do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before you; for they have insulted the builders."

But it happened that when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabians, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem went forward, and that the breaches began to be filled, then they were very angry;

and they conspired all of them together to come and fight against Jerusalem, and to cause confusion therein.

Our adversaries said, "They shall not know, neither see, until we come into their midst, and kill them, and cause the work to cease."

It happened that when the Jews who lived by them came, they said to us ten times from all places, "Wherever you turn, they will attack us."

They all built the wall and those who bore burdens loaded themselves; everyone with one of his hands worked in the work, and with the other held his weapon;

Likewise at the same time said I to the people, "Let everyone with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, that in the night they may be a guard to us, and may labor in the day."

I said to them, "We, after our ability, have redeemed our brothers the Jews that were sold to the nations; and would you even sell your brothers, and should they be sold to us?" Then they held their peace, and found never a word.

Then they said, "We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do, even as you say." Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they would do according to this promise.

that Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, "Come, let us meet together at Ha-Kephirim in the plain of Ono." But they intended to harm me.

They sent to me four times after this sort; and I answered them the same way.

For they all would have made us afraid, saying, "Their hands will be weakened from the work, that it not be done. But now, strengthen my hands."

I went to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home; and he said, "Let us meet together in God's house, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple; for they will come to kill you; yes, in the night will they come to kill you."

He hired so that I would be afraid, do so, and sin, and that they might have material for an unfavorable report, that they might taunt me.

It happened, when all our enemies heard of it, that all the nations that were about us were afraid, and were much cast down in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was worked of our God.

Also they spoke of his good deeds before me, and reported my words to him. Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear.

I said to them, "Do not let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot; and while they stand guard, let them shut the doors, and you bar them: and appoint watches of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, everyone in his watch, with everyone near his house."

My God put into my heart to gather together the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, that they might be reckoned by genealogy. I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up at the first, and I found written therein:

These were those who went up from Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer; but they could not show their fathers' houses, nor their seed, whether they were of Israel:

These searched for their genealogical records, but couldn't find them. Therefore were they deemed polluted and put from the priesthood.

The governor said to them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, until there stood up a priest with Urim and Thummim.

besides their male servants and their female servants, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty-seven: and they had two hundred forty-five singing men and singing women.

All the people gathered themselves together as one man into the broad place that was before the water gate; and they spoke to Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel.

Ezra the scribe stood on a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Uriah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand, Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchijah, and Hashum, and Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.

and Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. All the people answered, "Amen, Amen," with the lifting up of their hands. They bowed their heads, and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.

They read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly; and they gave the sense, so that they understood the reading.

Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, "This day is holy to the LORD your God. Do not mourn, nor weep." For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.

All the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.

They found written in the law, how that the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month;

and that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, "Go out to the mountain, and get olive branches, and branches of wild olive, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written."

Also day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. They kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according to the ordinance.

They stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God a fourth part of the day; and a fourth part they confessed, and worshiped the LORD their God.

and showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, and against all his servants, and against all the people of his land; for you knew that they dealt proudly against them, and made a name for yourself, as it is this day.

You divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and you cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into the mighty waters.

Moreover, in a pillar of cloud you led them by day; and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light in the way in which they should go.

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.

"But they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their neck, did not listen to your commandments,

and refused to obey, neither were they mindful of your wonders that you did among them, but hardened their neck, and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and did not forsake them.

Yes, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, 'This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,' and had committed awful blasphemies;

yet you in your manifold mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness: the pillar of cloud did not depart from over them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way in which they should go.

"Yes, forty years you sustained them in the wilderness. They lacked nothing. Their clothes did not grow old, and their feet did not swell.

Moreover you gave them kingdoms and peoples, which you allotted according to their portions. So they possessed the land of Sihon king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.

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.

"So the children went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings, and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they pleased.

They took fortified cities, and a rich land, and possessed houses full of all good things, cisterns dug out, vineyards, and olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate, were filled and became fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness.

"Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their back, and killed your prophets that testified against them to turn them again to you, and they committed awful blasphemies.

Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their adversaries, who distressed them. In the time of their trouble, when they cried to you, you heard from heaven; and according to your manifold mercies you gave them saviors who saved them out of the hand of their adversaries.

But after they had rest, they did evil again before you; therefore left you them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them; yet when they returned, and cried to you, you heard from heaven; and many times you delivered them according to your mercies,

and testified against them, that you might bring them again to your law. Yet they dealt proudly, and did not listen to your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances, (which if a man does, he shall live in them), turned their backs, stiffened their neck, and would not hear.

Yet many years you put up with them, and testified against them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet would they not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

For they have not served you in their kingdom, and in your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and rich land which you gave before them, neither did they turn from their wicked works.

It yields much increase to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins: also they have power over our bodies, and over our livestock, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.

they joined with their brothers, their nobles, and 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 observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, and his ordinances and his statutes;

and that we should bring the first fruits of our dough, and our wave offerings, and the fruit of all kinds of trees, the new wine and the oil, to the priests, to the rooms of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground to the Levites; for they, the Levites, take the tithes in all the cities of our tillage.

Zanoah, Adullam, and their villages, Lachish and its fields, Azekah and its towns. So they encamped from Beersheba to the valley of Hinnom.

At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication with gladness, both with giving thanks, and with singing, with cymbals, stringed instruments, and with harps.

The priests and the Levites purified themselves; and they purified the people, and the gates, and the wall.

By the spring gate, and straight before them, they went up by the stairs of the City of David, at the ascent of the wall, above the house of David, even to the water gate eastward.

and above the gate of Ephraim, and by the old gate, and by the fish gate, and the tower of Hananel, and the tower of Hammeah, even to the sheep gate: and they stood still in the gate of the guard.

They offered great sacrifices that day, and rejoiced; for God had made them rejoice with great joy; and the women also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.

They performed the duty of their God, and the duty of the purification, and so did the singers and the gatekeepers, according to the commandment of David, and of Solomon his son.

All Israel in the days of Zerubbabel, and in the days of Nehemiah, gave the portions of the singers and the gatekeepers, as every day required: and they set apart that which was for the Levites; and the Levites set apart that which was for the sons of Aaron.

On that day they read in the book of Moses in the audience of the people; and therein was found written, that an Ammonite and a Moabite should not enter into the assembly of God forever,

because they did not meet the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, to curse them: however our God turned the curse into a blessing.

It came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude.

had prepared for him a great room, where before they laid the meal offerings, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of the grain, the new wine, and the oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, and the singers, and the gatekeepers; and the wave offerings for the priests.

Then I commanded, and they cleansed the rooms: and there brought I again the vessels of God's house, with the meal offerings and the frankincense.

I made treasurers over the treasuries, Shelemiah the priest, and Zadok the scribe, and of the Levites, Pedaiah: and next to them was Hanan the son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah; for they were counted faithful, and their business was to distribute to their brothers.

In those days I saw in Judah some men treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys; as 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.

It came to pass that, when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut, and commanded that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. I set some of my servants over the gates, that no burden should be brought in on the Sabbath day.

Then 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.

I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the Sabbath day. Remember to me, my God, this also, and spare me according to the greatness of your loving kindness.

Remember them, my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites.