And the king will say to me, For what this thou seekest? And I shall pray to the God of the heavens.

And I shall rise in the night, I and a few men with me; and I announced not to man what my God gave into my heart to do at Jerusalem: and no beast with me but the beast that I rode upon it

And the prefects knew not whither I went and what I was doing: and to the Jews and to the priests and to the nobles and to the prefects, and to the rest doing the work, even thus I announced not

And Sanballat the Horonite will hear, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, and they will mock to us and despise us, and say, What this word that ye do? are ye bearing rule against the king?

And he will say before his brethren and the strength of Shomeron, and he will say, What are the feeble Jews doing? will they leave to themselves? will they sacrifice? will they finish in a day? will they give life to the stones of the heaps of dust, and they being burnt?

And what was done for one day, one ox, six choice sheep; and birds were done for me, and within ten days with every wine for abundance: and with this, the bread of the prefect I sought not for the servitude was heavy upon this people

And what the rest of the people gave was gold, two myriads of drachmas, and silver, two thousand portions, and priests' tunics, sixty and seven.

And I shall contend with the nobles of Judah, and say to them, What this evil word that ye are doing, and profaning the day of the Sabbath?