Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.

Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even unto the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that is, twelve years, I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the governor.

But the former governors that had been before me were chargeable unto the people, and had taken of them bread and wine, beside forty shekels of silver; yea, even their servants bare rule over the people: but so did not I, because of the fear of God.

Now that which was prepared for me daily was one ox and six choice sheep; also fowls were prepared for me, and once in ten days store of all sorts of wine: yet for all this required not I the bread of the governor, because the bondage was heavy upon this people.

When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had completed the wall and that no break remained in it (even though by that time I hadn't yet installed the doors in the gates),

The men of the house of bread and Netophah, a hundred eighty and eight

And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.

for the bread to be set in rows, and for the continual oblation, and for the continual burnt-offering, for that of the sabbaths and of the new moons, for the set feasts and for the holy things, and for the sin-offerings to make an atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.

Because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, that he should curse them: howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing.

Then reproved I the rulers in Judah, and said unto them, "What evil thing is this that ye do, and break the Sabbath day?

Did not our fathers even thus, and our God brought all this plague upon us and upon this city? And ye make the wrath more yet upon Israel, in that ye break the Sabbath."