They replied to me, "The survivors in the province who have survived the captivity are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned in the fire."

But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, even though all of your outcasts are at the furthest parts of heaven, I will gather them and bring them to the place which I have chosen to make my name dwell.'

They are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand.

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

I said to the king, "May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad when the city of my ancestors' burial site is ruined and her gates are consumed by fire?"

Then I said to them, "You see the misery that we are in, that Jerusalem is ruined and its gates burned by the fire. Come, build the walls of Jerusalem and we shall no longer be a disgrace."

But Sanballat the Horonite, the Ammonite servant Tobiah, and Geshem the Arab heard it, and they mocked and despised us, saying, "What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?"

Then he said before his brothers and the army of Samaria, "What are the feeble Jews doing? Will they restore [these things] for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the piles of rubble--even those burned up?"

Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him and said, "Their wall of stone that they are building would break down if a fox went on it!"

Hear, our God, for we are despised. Turn their scorn on their head and give them over to plunder in the land of captivity.

But Judah said, "The strength of the carriers is failing, and there is too much dirt, and we are not able to build at the wall."

I said to the nobles, to the prefects, and to the rest of the people, "The work is great and widespread, and we are spread out over the wall far from each other.

There were those who were saying, "Our sons and daughters, we are many. We must get grain so that we may eat and live."

Now our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our sons are like their sons. Look, we are subduing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and there are some from our daughters being molested. {We are powerless}, and our fields and vineyards [belong] to others."

I thought over this in my heart, and then I quarreled with the nobles and the prefects. I said to them, "You yourselves are taking interest from your own brother!" So I called the great assembly against them,

So I said, "The thing that you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God [to prevent] the disgrace from the nations, our enemies?

Also, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Please stop [taking] this interest.

In it was written, "It has been reported among the nations, and Gashmu also is saying it, that you and the Jews are considering rebellion. Therefore, truly you are building the wall and you are becoming their king, according to these words.

So I sent to him saying, "None of these words you have spoken has happened. You are indeed saying [things] created in your own mind"--

Now I went into the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined [at home], and he said, "Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple; for they are coming to kill you--during the night they are coming to kill you."

I said to them, "Do not open the gates of Jerusalem until the sun is hot. While they are standing guard let them shut and fasten the doors. And appoint guards from the inhabitants of Jerusalem, one at his post and another opposite his house."

These are the people of the province who came up from captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried into exile. They returned to Jerusalem and to Judah, each one to his city.

"You alone are Yahweh. You alone have made the heavens, the heavens of the heavens, and all of their army, the earth and all that is in it, the waters and all that is in them. You give life to all of them, and the army of the heavens worship you.

You are Yahweh, the God who chose Abram and brought him from Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham.

You found his heart faithful before you and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite and the Girgashite--to give [it] to his seed. And you have kept your word because you are righteous.

They refused to listen and did not remember your wonders that you did among them. They stiffened their neck and in their rebellion {determined} to return to their slavery. But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, {slow to anger}, abundant in loyal love, so you did not abandon them.

But in your great compassions you did not put an end to them, and you did not abandon them. For you are a gracious and compassionate God.

You are righteous in everything that has come on us, for you dealt faithfully, and we have acted wickedly.

Behold, we are slaves to this day, and the land that you have given to our ancestors to eat its fruits and [enjoy] its goodness--behold, we are slaves in it!

Its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have given over us because of our sins, and [they are] ruling over our dead bodies and our livestock at their pleasure. We are in great trouble.

"Now because of all of this we make a binding written agreement and are writing on the sealed documents [the names of] our commanders, our Levites, and our priests."

Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah--these are the priests.

[are] helping their brothers, their nobles, and entering into a solemn oath to walk in the law of God which was given by the hand of Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all of the commandments of Yahweh our Lord and his judgments and regulations.

For the {Israelites} and the {Levites} will bring to the storerooms the offering of grain, new wine, and olive oil. These are the objects of the sanctuary and the priests who minister and the gatekeepers and singers. We will not neglect the house of our God."

These are the heads of the province who lived in Jerusalem, but in the cities of Judah each one lived on his property in their cities: Israel, the priests, the Levites, the temple servants, and the descendants of Solomon's servants.

These are the descendants of Benjamin: Sallu son of Meshullam, son of Joed, son of Pedaiah, son of Kolaiah, son of Maaseiah, son of Ithiel, son of Jeshaiah.

These [are] the priests and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,

Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah. These [are] the heads of the priests and their brothers in the days of Jeshua.

So I quarreled with the nobles of Judah and said to them, "What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the day of the Sabbath?

Did not your ancestors do this also, and our God brought on us all of this disaster and on this city [too]? Now you are adding fierce wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath!"

But I warned them and said to them, "Why are you spending the night opposite the wall? If you do [it again], I will lay hands against you." From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath.