The history of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah. Now it came about, in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, when I was in Shushan, the king's town,

O Lord, let your ear take note of the prayer of your servant, and of the prayers of your servants, who take delight in worshipping your name: give help, O Lord, to your servant this day, and let him have mercy in the eyes of this man. (Now I was the king's wine-servant.)

And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, when wine was before him, that I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never before been sad when the king was present.

And the king said to me, Why is your face sad, seeing that you are not ill? this is nothing but sorrow of heart. Then I was full of fear;

And the king said to me (the queen being seated by his side), How long will your journey take, and when will you come back? So the king was pleased to send me, and I gave him a fixed time.

And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's park, so that he may give me wood to make boards for the doors of the tower of the house, and for the wall of the town, and for the house which is to be mine. And the king gave me this, for the hand of my God was on me.

So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days.

And in the night I got up, taking with me a small band of men; I said nothing to any man of what God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem: and I had no beast with me but the one on which I was seated.

And I went out by night, through the doorway of the valley, and past the dragon's water-spring as far as the place where waste material was put, viewing the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down, and the doorways which had been burned with fire.

Then I went on to the door of the fountain and to the king's pool: but there was no room for my beast to get through.

And the chiefs had no knowledge of where I had been or what I was doing; and I had not then said anything to the Jews or to the priests or the great ones or the chiefs or the rest of those who were doing the work.

Then I gave them an account of how the hand of my God was on me, helping me; and of the king's words which he had said to me. And they said, Let us get to work on the building. So they made their hands strong for the good work.

By their side Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz, was making good the walls. Then Meshullam, the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabel; and by him, Zadok, the son of Baana.

Near them was working Uzziel, the son of Harhaiah, the gold-worker. And by him was Hananiah, one of the perfume-makers, building up Jerusalem as far as the wide wall.

Near them was working Rephaiah, the son of Hur, the ruler of half Jerusalem.

By his side was Jedaiah, the son of Harumaph, opposite his house. And by him was Hattush, the son of Hashabneiah.

Near them was Shallum, the son of Hallohesh, the ruler of half Jerusalem, with his daughters.

Hanun and the people of Zanoah were working on the doorway of the valley; they put it up and put up its doors, with their locks and rods, and a thousand cubits of wall as far as the doorway where the waste material was placed.

By his side was working Nehemiah, the son of Azbuk, ruler of half the division of Beth-zur, as far as the place opposite the last resting-places of David's family, and the pool which was made and the house of the men of war.

Then came the Levites, Rehum, the son of Bani. By his side was working Hashabiah, ruler of half the division of Keilah, for his division.

And by his side was working Ezer, the son of Jeshua, the ruler of Mizpah, making good another part opposite the way up to the store of arms at the turning of the wall.

After him Baruch, the son of Zabbai, was hard at work on another part, from the turning of the wall to the door of the house of Eliashib, the chief priest.

After him Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz, was working on another part, from the door of the house of Eliashib as far as the end of his house.

After them came Benjamin and Hasshub, opposite their house. After them Azariah, the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ananiah, made good the wall by the house where he himself was living.

After him Binnui, the son of Henadad, was working on another part, from the house of Azariah as far as the turning of the wall and the angle.

Palal, the son of Uzai, made good the wall opposite the angle and the tower which comes out from the higher part of the king's house, by the open space of the watch. After him was Pedaiah, the son of Parosh.

After them Zadok, the son of Immer, was working opposite his house. And after him Shemaiah, the son of Shecaniah, the keeper of the east door.

Now, Sanballat, hearing that we were building the wall, was very angry, and in his wrath made sport of the Jews.

Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Such is their building that if a fox goes up it, their stone wall will be broken down.

So we went on building the wall; and all the wall was joined together half-way up: for the people were working hard.

But when it came to the ears of Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites, that the building of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and the broken places were being made good, they were full of wrath;

Every builder was working with his sword at his side. And by my side was a man for sounding the horn.

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

And on hearing their outcry and what they said I was very angry.

Now from the time when I was made ruler of the people in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year till the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, for twelve years, I and my servants have never taken the food which was the right of the ruler.

Now the food made ready for one day was one ox and six fat sheep, as well as fowls; and once in ten days a store of all sorts of wine: but all the same, I did not take the food to which the ruler had a right, because the people were crushed under a hard yoke.

Now when word was given to Sanballat and Tobiah and to Geshem the Arabian and to the rest of our haters, that I had done the building of the wall and that there were no more broken places in it (though even then I had not put up the doors in the doorways);

Sanballat and Geshem sent to me saying, Come, let us have a meeting in one of the little towns in the lowland of Ono. But their purpose was to do me evil.

And I went to the house of Shemaiah, the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut up; and he said, Let us have a meeting in the house of God, inside the Temple, and let the doors be shut: for they will come to put you to death; truly, in the night they will come to put you to death.

Keep in mind, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat and what they did, and Noadiah, the woman prophet, and the rest of the prophets whose purpose was to put fear into me.

So the wall was complete on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.

For in Judah there were a number of people who had made an agreement by oath with him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah, the son of Arah; and his son Jehohanan had taken as his wife the daughter of Meshullam, the son of Berechiah.

Now when the building of the wall was complete and I had put up the doors, and the door-keepers and the music-makers and the Levites had been given their places,

I made my brother Hanani, and Hananiah, the ruler of the tower, responsible for the government of Jerusalem: for he was a man of good faith, fearing God more than most.

Now the town was wide and great: but the people in it were only a small number, and the houses had not been put up.

All these were the people who went up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer; but because they had no knowledge of their fathers' families or offspring, it was not certain if they were Israelites:

And of the priests: the children of Hobaiah, the children of Hakkoz, the children of Barzillai, who was married to one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and took their name.

The number of all the people together was forty-two thousand, three hundred and sixty;

And that which the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand darics of gold, and two thousand pounds of silver, and sixty-seven priests' robes.

He was reading it in the wide place in front of the water-doorway, from early morning till the middle of the day, in the hearing of all those men and women whose minds were able to take it in; and the ears of all the people were open to the book of the law.

And Ezra took the book, opening it before the eyes of all the people (for he was higher than the people); and when it was open, all the people got to their feet:

And Nehemiah, who was the Tirshatha, and Ezra, the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were the teachers of the people, said to all the people, This day is holy to the Lord your God; let there be no sorrow or weeping; for all the people were weeping on hearing the words of the law.

And they saw that it was recorded in the law that the Lord had given orders by Moses, that the children of Israel were to have tents for their living-places in the feast of the seventh month:

All the people who had been prisoners and had come back, made tents and were living in them: for from the time of Jeshua, the son of Nun, till that day, the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great joy.

And day by day, from the first day till the last, he was reading from the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast for seven days: and on the eighth day there was a holy meeting, as it is ordered in the law.

You saw that his heart was true to you, and made an agreement with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Jebusite and the Girgashite, even to give it to his seed, and you have done what you said; for righteousness is yours:

By you the sea was parted before them, so that they went through the sea on dry land; and those who went after them went down into the deep, like a stone into great waters.

So the children went in and took the land, and you overcame before them the people of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them up into their hands, with their kings and the people of the land, so that they might do with them whatever it was their pleasure to do.

They were united with their brothers, their rulers, and put themselves under a curse and an oath, to keep their steps in the way of God's law, which was given by Moses, the servant of God, and to keep and do all the orders of the Lord, our Lord, and his decisions and his rules;

Now these are the chiefs of the divisions of the country who were living in Jerusalem: but in the towns of Judah everyone was living on his heritage in the towns, that is, Israel, the priests, the Levites, the Nethinim, and the children of Solomon's servants.

And Joel, the son of Zichri, was their overseer; and Judah, the son of Hassenuah, was second over the town.

And their brothers, men of war, a hundred and twenty-eight; and their overseer was Zabdiel, the son of Haggedolim.

And the overseer of the Levites at Jerusalem was Uzzi, the son of Bani, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Mica, of the sons of Asaph, the music-makers, who was over the business of the house of God.

For there was an order from the king about them and a regular amount for the music-makers, for their needs day by day.

And Pethahiah, the son of Meshezabel, of the sons of Zerah, the son of Judah, was the king's servant in everything to do with the people.

And the Levites: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and Mattaniah, who was over the music-makers, he and his brothers.

And Jeshua was the father of Joiakim, and Joiakim was the father of Eliashib, and Eliashib was the father of Joiada,

And Joiada was the father of Jonathan, and Jonathan was the father of Jaddua.

The Levites in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, and Johanan, and Jaddua, were listed as heads of families; and the priests, when Darius the Persian was king.

Then I made the rulers of Judah come up on the wall, and I put in position two great bands of them who gave praise, walking in ordered lines; one went to the right on the wall, in the direction of the doorway where the waste was put;

And his brothers, Shemaiah, and Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel and Judah, Hanani, with the music-instruments of David, the man of God; and Ezra the scribe was at their head;

And on that day certain men were put over the rooms where the things which had been given were stored, for the lifted offerings and the first-fruits and the tenths, and to take into them the amounts, from the fields of every town, fixed by the law for the priests and the Levites: for Judah was glad on account of the priests and the Levites who were in their places.

And they kept the watch of their God, and were responsible for making things clean, and so did the music-makers and the door-keepers, as it was ordered by David and Solomon his son.

For in the days of David and Asaph in the past, there was a master of the music, and songs of blessing and praise to God.

And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah gave what was needed by the music-makers and the door-keepers day by day: and they made the offerings holy for the Levites; and the Levites did the same for the sons of Aaron.

On that day there was a reading from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people; and they saw that it said in the book that no Ammonite or Moabite might ever come into the meeting of God;

Because they did not give the children of Israel bread and water when they came to them, but got Balaam to put a curse on them: though the curse was turned into a blessing by our God.

But all this time I was not at Jerusalem: for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I went to the king; and after some days, I got the king to let me go,

And I came to Jerusalem; and it was clear to me what evil Eliashib had done for Tobiah, in making ready for him a room in the buildings of the house of God.

And it was evil in my eyes: so I had all Tobiah's things put out of the room.

And I saw that the Levites had not been given what was needed for their support; so that the Levites and the music-makers, who did the work, had gone away, everyone to his field.

And I made controllers over the store-houses, Shelemiah the priest and Zadok the scribe, and of the Levites, Pedaiah: and with them was Hanan, the son of Zaccur the son of Mattaniah: they were taken to be true men and their business was the distribution of these things to their brothers.

Was it not in these things that Solomon, king of Israel, did wrong? among a number of nations there was no king like him, and he was dear to his God, and God made him king over all Israel: but even he was made to do evil by strange women.

And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib, the chief priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite: so I sent him away from me.