Nehemiah 12:27–40

DEDICATION OF THE WALL

²⁷At the dedication of the wall^p of Jerusalem, they sent for the Levites wherever they lived and brought them to Jerusalem to celebrate the joyous dedication with thanksgiving and singing accompanied by cymbals, harps, and lyres.^{q 28}The singers gathered from the region around Jerusalem, from the settlements of the Netophathites,^{r 29}from Beth-gilgal, and from the fields of Geba and Azmaveth, for they had built settlements for themselves around Jerusalem. ³⁰After the priests and Levites had purified themselves, they purified the people, the city gates, and the wall.^s

³¹Then I brought the leaders of Judah up on top of the wall, and I appointed two large processions that gave thanks. One went to the right on the wall, toward the Dung Gate.^{t 32}Hoshaiah and half the leaders of Judah followed, ³³along with Azariah, Ezra, Meshullam, ³⁴Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah, Jeremiah, ³⁵and some of the priests’ sons with trumpets, and Zechariah son of Jonathan, son of Shemaiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Micaiah, son of Zaccur, son of Asaph followed ³⁶as well as his relatives—Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani, with the musical instruments of David, the man of God.^u Ezra the scribe^v went in front of them. ³⁷At the Fountain Gate^w they climbed the steps of the city of David^x on the ascent of the wall and went above the house of David to the Water Gate^y on the east.

³⁸The second thanksgiving procession went to the left, and I followed it with half the people along the top of the wall, past the Tower of the Ovens^a to the Broad Wall,^{b 39}above the Ephraim Gate,^c and by the Old Gate,^d the Fish Gate,^e the Tower of Hananel, and the Tower of the Hundred, to the Sheep Gate.^f They stopped at the Gate of the Guard.^{g 40}The two thanksgiving processions stood in the house of God. So did I and half of the officials accompanying me,