Moreover I said to the king, If it please the king, let letters be given to me to the governors beyond the River, that they may let me pass through till I come to Judah,

And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come into the midst of them, and kill them, and cause the work to cease.

So we labored in the work, and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared.

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

And it came to pass that, when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut, and commanded that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath. And I set some of my servant