The story of Nehemiah, son of Hacaliah, - and it came to pass, in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, when, I, was in Shusan the fortress,

And it came to pass, in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that, wine, was before him, - so I took up the wine, and gave unto the king, and I had never been sad before him.

So I set - on the lower slopes of the place behind the wall in the waste grounds, - yea I set the people, by their families, with their swords, their spears and their bows.

Now, therefore, as is the flesh of our brethren, so is our flesh, as are their children, so are our children. Yet lo! we are putting in subjection our sons and our daughters, for bondservants, yea there are some of our daughters already trodden down, and we are powerless, and, our fields and our vineyards, belong to others.

Also, my lap, shook I out, and said - Thus and thus, may God shake out every man who shall not confirm this promise, out of his house and out of his labour, yea, thus and thus, let him be shaken out and empty, - And all the convocation said, Amen! and praised Yahweh, and the people did according to this promise.

Moreover, from the day I was commanded to become their pasha in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year, even unto the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, twelve years, I and my brethren, pasha's bread, have not eaten;

When, I, came into the house of Shemaiah, son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, he, being shut in, he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, in the midst of the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to slay thee, yea, by night, are they coming to slay thee.

Then said the Levites - Jeshua and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, Pethahiah, Stand up, bless Yahweh your God, from age to age, - Yea let them bless thy glorious Name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

Yea thou sawest the affliction of our fathers, in Egypt, and, their outcry, thou heardest, by the Red Sea;

Yea, although they made them a molten calf, and said, This, is thy God, that brought thee up out of Egypt, - and wrought great insults,

Yea, forty years, didst thou sustain them in the desert, they lacked nothing, - their mantles, waxed not old and, their feet, swelled not.

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.

Also, lots, did we cast, concerning the offering of wood among the priests, the Levites, and the people, to bring it unto the house of our God, by our ancestral houses, at times arranged, year by year, - to burn upon the altar of Yahweh our God, as it is written in the law.

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;

But, throughout all this time , was I not in Jerusalem, - for, in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon, I came unto the king, and, at the end of certain days, obtained I leave of the king;