I pray You, remember the Word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, If you sin, I will scatter you among the nations,

but if you turn to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though you were cast out to the outermost part of the heavens, yet I will gather you from there and will bring you to the place that I have chosen to set My name there.

And the king said to me (the queen also sitting by him), For how long shall your journey be? And when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me, and I set him a time.

But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us. And they said, What is this that you do? Will you rebel against the king?

And I answered them and said to them, The God of Heaven, He will bless us, and we, His servants, will arise and build. But you have no portion or right or memorial in Jerusalem.

And 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 make an end in a day? Will they bring to life the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?

And it happened when the Jews who lived near them came in, they said to us ten times, From all places where you shall turn to us, they will be against us.

In whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, gather there to us. Our God will fight for us.

And I said to them, According to our ability we have redeemed our brothers, the Jews who were sold to the nations. And will you even sell your brothers? Or shall they be sold to us? And they were silent and did not find an answer.

And they said, We will restore, and will ask nothing from them. So we will do as you say. Then I called the priests and took an oath from them that they should do according to this promise.

And I came to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up. And he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple. For they will come to kill you. Yea, in the night they will come to kill you.

And I said, Should such a man as I flee? And who, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.

For the sons of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the offering of the grain, of the new wine, and the oil, to the rooms where the vessels of the sanctuary are, and the priests who minister, and the gatekeepers and the singers. And we will not forsake the house of our God.

And 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.