'I beseech Thee, O Lord, let, I pray Thee, Thine ear be attentive unto the prayer of Thy servant, and unto the prayer of Thy servants, those delighting to fear Thy Name; and give prosperity, I pray Thee, to Thy servant to-day, and give him for mercies before this man;' and I have been butler to the king.

and the king saith to me, 'Wherefore is thy face sad, and thou not sick? this is nothing except sadness of heart;' and I fear very much,

And Sanballat the Horonite heareth, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, and they mock at us, and despise us, and say, 'What is this thing that ye are doing? against the king are ye rebelling?'

And also, I, my brethren, and my servants, are exacting of them silver and corn; let us leave off, I pray you, this usury.

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;

also, my lap I have shaken, and I say, 'Thus doth God shake out every man, who doth not perform this thing, from his house, and from his labour; yea, thus is he shaken out and empty;' and all the assembly say, 'Amen,' and praise Jehovah; and the people do according to this thing.

And also, in the work of this wall I have done mightily, even a field we have not bought, and all my servants are gathered there for the work;

and that which hath been prepared for one day is one ox, six fat sheep, also fowls have been prepared for me, and once in ten days of all wines abundantly, and with this, the bread of the governor I have not sought, for heavy is the service on this people.

Remember for me, O my God, for good, all that I have done for this people.

and they send unto me, according to this word, four times, and I return them word according to this word.

And Sanballat sendeth unto me, according to this word, a fifth time, his servant, and an open letter in his hand;

and it cometh to pass, when all our enemies have heard, and all the nations who are round about us see, that they fall greatly in their own eyes, and know that by our God hath this work been done.

And in the twenty and fourth day of this month have the sons of Israel been gathered, with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth upon them;

and dost give signs and wonders on Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land, for Thou hast known that they have acted proudly against them, and Thou makest to Thee a name as at this day.

Also, when they have made to themselves a molten calf, and say, this is thy god that brought thee up out of Egypt, and do great despisings,

And now, O our God -- God, the great, the mighty, and the fearful, keeping the covenant and the kindness -- let not all the travail that hath found us be little before Thee, for our kings, for our heads, and for our priests, and for our prophets, and for our fathers, and for all Thy people, from the days of the kings of Asshur unto this day;

And for all this we are making a stedfast covenant, and are writing, and over him who is sealed are our heads, our Levites, our priests.'

And before this Eliashib the priest, appointed over chambers of the house of our God, is a relation of Tobiah,

And during all this I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty and second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon did I come unto the king, and at the end of days I have asked of the king,

Be mindful of me, O my God, for this, and do not blot out my kind acts that I have done, for the house of my God, and for its charges.

And I strive with the freemen of Judah, and say to them, 'What is this evil thing that ye are doing, and polluting the sabbath-day?

Thus did not your fathers do? and our God bringeth in on us all this evil, and on this city, and ye are adding fierceness on Israel, to pollute the sabbath.'

And I say to the Levites, that they be cleansed, and, coming in, keeping the gates, to sanctify the sabbath-day. Also, this, remember for me, O my God, and have pity on me, according to the abundance of Thy kindness.

And to you do we hearken to do all this great evil, to trespass against our God, to settle strange women?'