Now, O Lord, now will thine ear be attending to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, desiring to fear thy name? and prosper now to thy servant this day: and wilt thou give him for compassion before this man? And I was giving drink to the king.

I replied to the king, "O king, live forever! Why would I not appear dejected when the city with the graves of my ancestors lies desolate and its gates destroyed by fire?"

Then the king said to me, “What would you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.

I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, that I may build it."

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

The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, for I had not yet told the Jews, priests, nobles, officials, or the rest of those who would be doing the work.

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?

The men of Tekoa worked on the section adjacent to them, but their town leaders would not assist with the work of their master.

Moreover the old gate repaired Jehoiada the son of Paseah, and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah; they laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, and the locks thereof, and the bars thereof.

And Tobijah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox went up, it would break down their stone wall. --

Hear, O our God; for we were despised: and turn back their reproach upon their head, and wilt thou give them for plunder in the land of captivity?

And thou wilt not cover over their iniquity, and their sin shall not be wiped away before thee: for they provoked before the builders.

And I said unto them, We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, that were sold unto the nations; and would ye even sell your brethren, and should they be sold unto us? Then held they their peace, and found never a word.

Then said they, We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do, even as thou sayest. Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they would do according to this promise.

For the old captains that were before me, had been chargeable unto the people, and had taken of them bread and wine, and forty sicles of silver: yea and their servants had oppressed the people. But so did not I, and that because of the fear of God.

in which was written: It is reported among the nations, and Gashmu says it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel, for which cause thou buildest the wall, and according to these words thou wilt become their king.

For they all would have made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. But now, O God , strengthen thou my hands.

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

For this reason he was hired: to frighten [me] so that I would act and sin, so that they would have a bad report so they could taunt me.

My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear.

The governor ordered them not to eat anything holy until a priest would be installed with Urim and Thummim.

And when the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their towns. And all the people came together like one man into the wide place in front of the water-doorway; and they made a request to Ezra the scribe that he would put before them the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had given to Israel.

and that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and branches of wild olive, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written.

And thou didst find his heart faithful before thee, and thou didst cut out a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perezzites, the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give to his seed: and thou wilt set up thy words, for thou art just:

And thou wilt see the humbling of our fathers in Egypt, and thou heardest their cry upon the sea of sedge:

And thou wilt give signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and upon all his servants, and upon all the people of his land: for thou knewest that they acted proudly against them. And thou wilt make to thee a name as this day.

And upon mount Sinai thou camest down, and speaking with them from the heavens, and thou wilt give to them right judgments, and laws of truth, good laws and commands

And bread from the heavens thou gavest to them for their hunger, and water from the rock thou broughtest forth to them for their thirst; and thou wilt say to them to go in and to inherit the land which thou didst lift up thy hand to give to them.

“But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly;
They became stubborn and would not listen to Your commandments.

And would not do them, and gave no thought to the wonders you had done among them; but made their necks stiff, and turning away from you, made a captain over themselves to take them back to their prison in Egypt: but you are a God of forgiveness, full of grace and pity, slow to wrath and great in mercy, and you did not give them up.

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

Moreover thou gavest them kingdoms and peoples, which thou didst allot after their portions: so they possessed the land of Sihon, even the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.

And their sons thou didst multiply as the stars of the heavens, and thou wilt bring them to the land which thou saidst to their fathers to come in to possess

So the children went in and possessed the land, and thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gavest them into their hands, with their kings, and the people of the land, that they might do with them as they would.

And thou wilt give them into the hand of their adversaries, and they will press upon them: and in the time of their straits they will cry to thee, and thou wilt hear from the heavens; and according to thy many compassion thou wilt give to them saviours, and they will save them from the hand of their adversaries.

And when rest to them they will turn back to do evil before thee: and thou wilt leave them in the hand of their enemies, and they will come down upon them: and they will turn back and cry to thee, and thou from the heavens wilt hear, and wilt deliver them according to thy compassion, many times.

And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, (which if a man do, he shall live in them;) and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.

Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by thy spirit in thy prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the people of the lands.

When they were in their kingdom,
with Your abundant goodness that You gave them,
and in the spacious and fertile land You set before them,
they would not serve You or turn from their wicked ways.

“Its abundant produce is for the kings
Whom You have set over us because of our sins;
They also rule over our bodies
And over our cattle as they please,
So we are in great distress.

and their lords that had rule of them, received it for their brethren. And they came to sware, and to bind themselves with an oath to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, that they would observe and do according unto all the commandments, judgments, and statutes of the LORD our God:

And that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons:

And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals 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 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 that we would take the first of our rough meal, and our lifted offerings, and the fruit of every sort of tree, and wine and oil, to the priests, to the rooms of the house of our God; and the tenth of the produce of our land to the Levites; for they, the Levites, take a tenth in all the towns of our ploughed land.

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.

And from above the gate of Ephraim, and above the old gate, and above the fish gate, and the tower of Hananeel, and the tower of Meah, even unto the sheep gate: and they stood still in the prison gate.

and Maaseiah and Shemaiah and Eleazar and Uzzi and Jehohanan and Malchijah and Elam and Ezer, - and the musicians sounded, aloud with Jezrahiah who was over them.

For in the days of David and Asaph of old there were chief of the singers, and songs of praise and thanksgiving unto God.

Later that day the book of Moses was read aloud so the people could hear it, and a written command was discovered therein permanently prohibiting the Ammonites and Moabites from coming into the congregation of God

and he had prepared for himself a large room where they had in days of old laid the food offering, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of the grain, the new wine, and the oil, which was commanded to be given to the Levites, and the singers, and the gatekeepers, and the offerings of the priests.

Remember to me, O my God, concerning this, and thou wilt not wipe out my kindness which I did in the house of my God, and in its watches.

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!

As the Sabbath approached and it began to get dark at the gates of Jerusalem, I gave word to shut the gates, charging that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. I stationed some of my men at the gates to ensure that no loads would be brought in on the Sabbath day.

Did not Solomon king of Israel sin [greatly against God] regarding these things? Yet among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless the foreign women caused even him to sin [by turning to other gods and so, judged by God, he lost his kingdom].