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 on to the Fountain Gate, and to the King's Pool. But there was no place for the animal that was under me to pass.

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 I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me, and also the king's words that he had spoken to me. And they said, Let us rise up to build. So they made their hands strong for good.

And I answered them and said to them, The God of Heaven, He will bless us, and we, His servants, will arise and build. But you have no portion or right or memorial in Jerusalem.

Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the Sheep Gate. They sanctified it and set up its doors, even to the Tower of Meah they sanctified it, to the Tower of Hananeel.

But the sons of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate, who laid its beams and set up its doors, its locks, and its bars.

And the Old Gate was repaired by Jehoiada the son of Paseah, and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah. They laid its beams and set up its doors and its locks and its bars.

Hanun, and the people of Zanoah, repaired the Valley Gate. They built it, and set up its doors, its locks, and its bars, and a thousand cubits on the wall to the Dung Gate.

But the Dung Gate was repaired by Malchiah the son of Rechab, the ruler of part of Beth-haccerem. He built it and set up its doors, its locks, and its bars.

And the Fountain Gate was repaired by Shallum the son of Colhozeh, the ruler of part of Mizpah. He built it and covered it, and set up its doors, its locks, and its bars, and the wall of the Pool of Shelah by the King's Garden, and to the stairs that go down from the City of David.

And the temple-slaves who lived in Ophel repaired across from the Water Gate toward the east, and the tower that sticks out.

The priests repaired from above the Horse Gate, every one across from his house.

After them Zadok the son of Immer repaired across from his house. After him Shemaiah the son of Shechaniah, the keeper of the East Gate, repaired.

After him Malchiah the goldsmith's son repaired to the place of the temple-slaves, and of the merchants, across from the Miphkad Gate, and to the going up of the corner.

And between the going up of the corner to the Sheep Gate the goldsmiths and the merchants repaired.

Oh our God, hear, for we are despised. And turn their curse upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity.

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

And it happened when our enemies heard that it was known to us, and that God had brought their counsel to nothing, all of us returned to the wall, each one to his work.

In whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, gather there to us. Our God will fight for us.

For certain ones said, We, our sons, and our daughters, are many. Let us get grain for them, so that we may eat and live.

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.

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.

Think upon me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people.

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, 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 it happened when all our enemies heard, and all the nations around us saw, they were very much lowered in their own eyes. For they saw that this work was done by our God.

Also they reported his good deeds before me, and told my words to him. Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.

I gave my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the ruler of the palace, charge over Jerusalem. For he was a faithful man, and feared God above many.

And my God put into my heart to gather together the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, so that they might be counted by genealogy. And I found a register of the genealogy of those who came up at the first. And I found written in it:

And all the people gathered themselves as one man into the street before the water gate. And they spoke to Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which Jehovah had commanded to Israel.

And he read in it before the street in front of the Water Gate from the morning until noon, in front of the men and the women, and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people listened to the Book of the Law.

And Ezra blessed Jehovah, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, amen, lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped Jehovah with their faces to the ground.

And they read in the Book of the Law of God, clearly. And they gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

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.

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

And the people went out and brought in, and made themselves booths, each one upon his roof, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the Water Gate, and in the street of the Gate of Ephraim.

Also day by day, from the first day until the last day, he read in the Book of the Law of God. And they kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth was an assembly, according to the Law.

And they stood up in their place, and read in the Book of the Law of Jehovah their God a fourth part of the day. And another fourth part they confessed and worshiped Jehovah their God.

And stood upon the stairs, of the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Chenani, and cried with a loud voice to Jehovah their God.

And the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless Jehovah your God forever and ever. And blessed be Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

You are Jehovah, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gave him the name of Abraham,

and gave out signs and wonders upon Pharaoh and upon all his servants and upon all the people of his land. For You knew that they were acting proudly against them. So You got Yourself a name, as today.

And You came down on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from Heaven, and gave them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and 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.

Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt, and had worked great blasphemies,

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.

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.

Behold, we are servants today. And the land that You gave to our fathers to eat its fruit, and its good, behold, we are servants in it.

And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple-slaves, and all those who had separated from the people of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters (everyone who had knowledge, and who had understanding),

were holding fast to their brothers, their honored ones. And they entered into a curse and into an oath, to walk in God's Law which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to be careful to do all the commandments of Jehovah our Lord, and His judgments and His statutes.

Also we put commands upon ourselves, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God,

for the showbread, and for the continual meal offering, and for the continual burnt offering, of the sabbaths, 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.

And we cast the lots among the priests, and the Levites, and the people, for the wood offering, to bring into the house of our God, according to the houses of our fathers, at times appointed year by year, to burn upon the altar of Jehovah our God, as it is written in the Law

and to bring the first-born of our sons, and of our cattle, as it is written in the Law, and the firstlings of our herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God;

and that we should bring the firstfruits of our dough, and our offerings, and the fruit of all kinds of trees, of wine and of oil, to the priests, to the rooms of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground to the Levites, and they, the Levites, might have the tithes in all the cities we farmed.

And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites, when the Levites take tithes, and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the rooms, into the treasure house.

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.

Seraiah, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the ruler of the house of God.

And Shabbethai and Jozabad, of the chief of the Levites, were over the outward business of the house of God.

And the overseer of the Levites at Jerusalem was Uzzi the son of Bani, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Micha. Of the sons of Asaph, the singers were over the business of the house of God.

And the chief of the Levites were Hashabiah, Sherebiah; and Jeshua the son of Kadmiel, with their brothers next to them, to praise and to give thanks, according to the command of David the man of God, watch by watch.

Then I brought up the rulers of Judah on the wall, and chose two great choirs of praise. One went to the right upon the wall toward the Dung Gate.

and his brothers, Shemaiah, and Azareel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethaneel, and Judah, Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God, and with Ezra the scribe before them.

And at the Fountain Gate, across from them, they went up by the stairs of the city of David, at the going up of the wall, above the house of David, even to the Water Gate eastward.

and from above the Gate of Ephraim, and above the Old Gate, and above the Fish Gate, and the Tower of Hananeel, and the Tower of Meah, even to the Sheep Gate. And they stood still in the Prison Gate.

And stood the two praise choirs to give thanks in the house of God, and I, and half of the rulers with me.

And that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced. For God had made them rejoice with great joy. And the wives and the sons rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.

And both the singers and the gatekeepers kept the charge of their God, and the charge of the cleansing, according to the command of David and of Solomon his son.

For in the days of David and Asaph of old there were chief of the singers, and songs of praise and thanksgiving to 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.

And before this, Eliashib the priest, who was set over the rooms of the house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah.

And I came to Jerusalem, and understood the evil which Eliashib did for Tobiah in preparing him a room in the courts of the house of God.

Then I commanded, and they purified the rooms. And I brought there again the vessels of the house of God, with the food offering and the frankincense.

And I contended with the rulers and said, Why is the house of God forsaken? And I gathered them together and set them in their place.

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 I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the Sabbath day. Remember me, O my God, concerning this also, and spare me according to the greatness of Your mercy.

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.

Shall we then listen to you, to do all this great evil, to sin against our God in living with foreign women?

Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.

and for the wood offering, at chosen times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good!

And when the virgins were gathered the second time, then Mordecai sat in the king's gate.

In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, of those who kept the door, were angry and tried to lay a hand on King Ahasuerus.

And all the king's servants in the king's gate bowed and worshiped Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai did not bow nor worship.

And the king's servants in the king's gate said to Mordecai, Why do you transgress the king's command?

And the king said to Haman, The silver is given to you, the people also, to do with them as seems good to you.

And he even came before the king's gate for none might enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.

And Hatach went forth to Mordecai, to the street of the city in front of the king's gate.

And it happened on the third day, Esther put on royal clothing, and stood in the inner court of the king's house, across from the king's house. And the king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, across from the gate of the house.

And Esther answered, If it is good to the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet which I have prepared for him.

And Haman went forth that day joyful and with a glad heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he did not stand up nor move for him, he was full of fury against Mordecai.

Yet all this avails me nothing as long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate.