When I heard this, I sat down and cried, mourning for a number of days while I fasted and prayed in the presence of the God of Heaven.

I said, "Please, LORD, God of Heaven, the great and fearsome God who keeps the covenant, showing gracious love to those who love you and keep your commands,

Please remember what you spoke in commanding your servant Moses. You said,

But when Sanballat the Horonite, his servant Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they jeered at us and despised us when they said, "What is this thing that you're doing? You're rebelling against the king, aren't you?"

In reply to them, I said, "The God of Heaven will prosper us. That's why we're preparing to build. But as far as you're concerned, there exists no ancestral heritage, no legal right, nor any historic claim in Jerusalem.

Tobiah the Ammonite stood to the side, commenting, "If a fox were to jump onto what they're building, it would collapse their stone wall!"

But we prayed to our God. We also set up guards day and night because of them.

Meanwhile, the people of Judah said, "The builders are tired and there's so much rubble that we can't reconstruct the wall!"

Our enemies said, "Before they notice or see us, we'll penetrate their midst, kill them, and stop the work!"

Each builder worked with a sword strapped to his side, while a trumpeter remained beside me to sound an alarm.

So I said, "What you're doing isn't right! Shouldn't you live in the fear of our God to avoid shame from our foreign enemies?

So I called the priests and made them take an oath to fulfill this promise. I also shook my robes, and said, "May God shake out every man from his house and his possessions who does not keep this promise. May he be emptied out and shaken just like this." All the assembly said, "Amen!" and praised the LORD. And the people kept their promise.

Zattu's descendants: 845

The Descendants of Solomon's Servants: Descendants of Sotai, Sophereth, and Perida,

Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people. Because he was visible above all the people there, as he opened it, all the people stood up.

So they circulated a proclamation throughout their towns and in Jerusalem. It said, "Go out to the hill country and bring back olive branches, wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of mature trees, in order to set up tents, as has been written."

Then the descendants of Levi Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah said, "Stand up and bless the LORD your God from eternity to eternity! Blessed be your glorious name! May it be exalted above all blessing and praise!

You found him faithful in your sight; you made a covenant with him and you gave the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Girgashites to his descendants. And you have kept your word, because you are righteous.

Moreover, after they had cast a golden calf for themselves, they said, "This is your god who brought you out of Egypt!" and committed terrible blasphemies.

"Because of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our descendants of Levi, and our priests hereby set their seals upon it."

The leaders of the people included Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani,

for the bread set out on the table, for the daily grain offering, for the continual burnt offering, for the Sabbath offerings, for the New Moon festivals, for the appointed festivals, for the holy offerings, for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the service of the Temple of our God.

All Israel in the time of Zerubbabel and in the time of Nehemiah gave allotments to each of the singers and gate keepers on a daily basis, setting them apart to benefit the descendants of Levi. And the descendants of Levi set them apart to benefit the descendants of Aaron.