The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,

And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it to the king. Now I had not before been sad in his presence.

Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even to the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that is, twelve years, I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the governor.

Yea, also I continued in the work of this wall, neither bought we any land: and all my servants were gathered thither to the work.

Afterward 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, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to slay thee; yea, in the night will they come to slay thee.

Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy God that brought thee out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations;

Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes grew not old, and their feet swelled not.

And if the people of the land should bring wares or any provisions on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day: and that we would leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt.

And we cast the lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood-offering, to bring it into the house of our God, after the houses of our fathers, at times appointed year by year, to burn upon the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the law:

And to bring the first-fruits of our ground, and the first-fruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, to the house of the LORD:

But in all this time I was not at Jerusalem: for in the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I came to the king, and after certain days I obtained leave of the king: