let Your ear now be open, and Your eyes open, so that You may hear the prayer of Your servant, which I pray before You now, day and night, for the sons of Israel Your servants, and confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both I and my father's house have sinned.

We have acted very wickedly against You, and have not kept the commandments nor the statutes nor the judgments which You commanded Your servant Moses.

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

And the king said to me, Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart. Then I was very much afraid.

And I said to the king, Let the king live forever. Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?

And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me. And I did not tell to a man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem. And there was no animal with me, except the animal that I rode upon.

And I went out by night by the Valley Gate, even before the Jackal Fountain, and to the Dung Gate, and looked at the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down, and its gates which were burned with fire.

And I went up in the night by the brook and looked at the wall, and turned back, and entered by the Valley Gate, and returned.

And the rulers did not know where I had gone, nor what I was doing. Nor had I told the Jews as yet, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work.

And next to them the Tekoites repaired. But their nobles did not put their necks to the work of their Lord.

And do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before You. For they have provoked You to anger before the builders.

But we made our prayer to our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.

And Judah said, The strength of the carriers of burdens is weakening, and there is much rubbish, so that we are not able to build the wall.

And our foes have said, They shall not know, or see, until we come in the middle of them, and kill them, and cause the work to cease.

And I looked and rose up, and said to the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest of the people, Do not be afraid of them. Remember Jehovah, who is great and terrible, and fight for your brothers, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.

Also at the same time I said to the people, Let everyone with his servant stay inside Jerusalem, so that in the night they may be a guard to us, and labor in the day.

And I said to them, According to our ability we have redeemed our brothers, the Jews who were sold to the nations. And will you even sell your brothers? Or shall they be sold to us? And they were silent and did not find an answer.

And I said, What you do is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations our enemies?

Also I shook my lap and said, So let God shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, who does not keep this promise, even may he be shaken out this way and emptied. And all the congregation said, amen, and praised Jehovah. And the people did according to this promise.

And from the time that I was chosen to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, twelve years, I and my brothers have not eaten the bread of the governor.

But the former governors that had been before me were too heavy upon the people, and had taken bread and wine from them, besides forty shekels of silver. Yes, even their servants bore rule over the people. But I did not do this, because of the fear of God.

And that which was prepared daily was one ox and six choice sheep; and birds were prepared; and once in ten days store of all sorts of wine. Yet for all this I did not seek the bread of the governor, because the bondage was heavy upon this people.

And it happened, when Sanballat, and Tobiah and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall, and that there was no break left in it (though at that time I had not set the doors on the gates),

And I sent to him saying, These things which you are saying are not happening, but you pretend them out of your own heart.

For they all were alarmers of us, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work so that it may not be done. And now, O God, make my hands strong.

And 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, inside the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple. For they will come to kill you. Yea, in the night they will come to kill you.

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

And, behold, I understood that God had not sent him, but that he said this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

My God, think upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these works of theirs, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets who would have made me afraid.

And I said to them, Do not let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot. And while they stand by, let them shut and bar the doors. And set guards from the people of Jerusalem, each one in his watch, and each one to be across from his house.

And the city was large and great, but the people in it were few, and the houses not built.

And these were they who went up from Tel-melah, Tel-haresha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer. But they could not show their father's house, nor their seed, whether they were of Israel:

These sought their register among those who were reckoned by genealogy, but it was not found. Therefore they were put out, as defiled from the priesthood.

And the governor said to them that they should not eat of the holy things until there stood up a priest with Urim and Thummim.

And Nehemiah, the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, This day is holy to Jehovah your God. Do not mourn or weep. For all the people wept when they heard the words of the Law.

Then he said to them, Go eat the fat and drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy to our LORD. And do not be sorry, for the joy of Jehovah is your strength.

And the Levites quieted all the people, saying, Be quiet, for the day is holy. And do not be grieved.

And all the congregation of those who had come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths. For since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day, the sons of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness.

And You led them in the day by a cloudy pillar, and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way in which they should go.

But they and our fathers acted proudly and hardened their necks, and did not listen to Your commandments.

And they refused to obey, neither were they mindful of Your wonders which You did among them. But they hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage. But You are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and did not forsake them.

yet You in Your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day to lead them in the way, nor the pillar of fire by night, to show them light and the way in which they should go.

You also gave Your good Spirit to teach them, and did not withhold Your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst.

And forty years You sustained them in the wilderness. They lacked nothing; their clothes did not become old, and their feet did not swell.

and testified against them that You might bring them again to Your Law. But they acted proudly and did not listen to Your commandments, but sinned against Your judgments (which if a man do, he shall live in them), and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.

And many years You had patience with them, and testified against them by Your Spirit, by Your prophets, but they would not give ear. And You gave them into the hand of the people of the lands.

But for Your great mercies, You did not completely destroy them nor forsake them. For You are a gracious and merciful God.

And now, our God, the great, the mighty, and the fearful God, who keeps covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble that has come upon us, on our kings, on our rulers, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all Your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria to this day, seem little before You.

And our kings, our rulers, our priests, and our fathers, have not kept Your Law, nor listened to Your commandments and Your words with which You testified against them.

For they have not served You in their kingdom, and in Your great goodness which You gave them, and in the large and rich land which You gave before them, and they did not turn from their wicked works.

And we swore that we would not give our daughters to the people of the land nor take their daughters for our sons.

And if the people of the land should bring goods or any food on the Sabbath day to sell it, that we would not buy it from them on the Sabbath or on the holy day, and that we would leave the seventh year, and the interest of every debt.

For the sons of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the offering of the grain, of the new wine, and the oil, to the rooms where the vessels of the sanctuary are, and the priests who minister, and the gatekeepers and the singers. And we will not forsake the house of our God.

On that day they read in the book of Moses in the ears of the people. And in it was found written that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God forever,

because they did not meet the sons of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them so that he should curse them. But our God turned the curse into a blessing.

But in all this time I was not at Jerusalem. For in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon, I came to the king. And after some days I was given permission to leave the king.

And I saw that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them; for the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each one to his field.

Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds which I have done for the house of my God, and for the offices of it.

Did not your fathers do this, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us and upon this city? Yet you bring more wrath upon Israel by defiling the Sabbath.

And it happened when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and commanded that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I set some of my servants at the gates, so that there should be no burden brought in on the Sabbath day.

And the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods stayed the night outside Jerusalem once or twice.

And I testified against them, and said to them, Why do you stay around the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath.

And I contended with them, and cursed them, and struck certain of them, and plucked off their hair. And I made them swear by the name of God, saying, You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters to your sons, or for yourselves.

Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, who was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. But women from other lands caused even him to sin.