And the king said unto me, the queen, also sitting beside him, For how long would be thy journey? and when wouldst thou return? So it seemed good before 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 it, they laughed at us, and poured contempt upon us, - and said, What is this thing which ye would do? against the king, would ye rebel?

Now, Tobiah the Ammonite, was beside him, - so he said, Even that which they are building, if a fox should go up, he would break down their stone wall!

Then said I, Should, such a man as I, flee? Who then, being such as I, would enter the temple to save his life? I will not enter.

Have remembrance, O my God, of Tobiah and of Sanballat, according to these their doings, - moreover also, of Noadiah the prophetess, and of the rest of the prophets, who would have put me in fear.

and that we would not give our daughters unto the peoples of the land, - and, their daughters, would we not take for our sons;

and, if the peoples of the land should be bringing in wares, or any corn on the sabbath day, to sell, we would not buy of them on the sabbath, or on a holy day, - and that we would remit the seventh year, and the loan of every hand.

And that we would bring in the firstfruits of our ground, and the firstfruit of all fruit of all trees, year by year, - unto the house of Yahweh;

also that, the firstborn of our sons, and of our cattle, as it is written in the law, - and the firstlings of our herds and of our flocks, we would bring in unto the house of our God, unto the priests who should be in attendance in the house of our God;

and, the first part of our meal and our heave-offerings and the fruit of all trees, new wine and oil, would we bring in unto the priests, into the chambers of the house of our God, and the tithe of our ground unto the Levites, - the Levites themselves, taking the tithes in all our cities of agriculture.

For, into the chambers, should the sons of Israel and the sons of Levi bring in the heave-offering of the corn, the new wine and the oil, since, there, are the utensils of the sanctuary, and the priests who are in attendance, and the doorkeepers, and the singers, - so would we not neglect the house of our God.

Was it not, thus, your fathers did, and our God brought upon us all this calamity, and upon this city? - and, ye, would add indignation against Israel, by profaning the sabbath!