²And said before his brethren, and the multitude of the Samaritans: What are the silly Jews doing? Will the Gentiles let them alone? will they sacrifice and make an end in a day? are they able to raise stones out of the heaps of the rubbish, which are burnt?

³Tobias also the Ammonite who was by him said: Let them build: if a fox go up, he will leap over their stone wall.

⁴Hear thou our God, for we are despised: turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them to be despised in a land of captivity.

⁵Cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thy face, because they have mocked thy builders.

⁶So we built the wall, and joined it all together unto the half thereof: and the heart of the people was excited to work.

⁷And it came to pass, when Sanaballat, and Tobias, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Azotians heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and the breaches began to be closed, that they were exceedingly angry.

⁸And they all assembled themselves together, to come, and to fight against Jerusalem, and to prepare ambushes.

⁹And we prayed to our God, and set watchmen upon the wall day and night against them.

¹⁰And Juda said: The strength of the bearer of burdens is decayed, and the rubbish is very much, and we shall not be able to build the wall.

¹¹And our enemies said: Let them not know, nor understand, till we come in the midst of them, and kill them, and cause the work to cease.

¹²And it came to pass, that when the Jews that dwelt by them came and told us ten times, out of all the places from whence they came to us,

¹³I set the people in the place behind the wall round about in order, with their swords, and spears, and bows.

¹⁴And I looked and rose up: and I said to the chief men and the magistrates, and to the rest of the common people: be not afraid of them. Remember the Lord who is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, and your wives, and your houses.

¹⁵And it came to pass, when our enemies heard that the thing had been told us, that God defeated their counsel. And we returned all of us to the walls, every man to his work.

¹⁶And it came to pass from that day forward, that half of their young men did the work, and half were ready for to fight, with spears, and shields, and bows, and coats of mail, and the rulers were behind them in all the house of Juda.

¹⁷Of them that built on the wall and that carried burdens, and that laded: with one of his hands he did the work, and with the other he held a sword.

¹⁸For every one of the builders was girded with a sword about his reins. And they built, and sounded with a trumpet by me.

¹⁹And I said to the nobles, and to the magistrates, and to the rest of the common people: The work is great and wide, and we are separated on the wall one far from another:

²⁰In what place soever you shall hear the sound of the trumpet, run all thither unto us: our God will fight for us.

²¹And let us do the work: and let one half of us hold our spears from the rising of the morning, till the stars appear.

²²At that time also I said to the people: Let every one with his servant stay in the midst of Jerusalem, and let us take our turns in the night, and by day, to work.

²³Now I and my brethren, and my servants, and the watchmen that followed me, did not put off our clothes: only every man stripped himself when he was to be washed.

Chapter 5

Now there was a great cry of the people, and of their wives against their brethren the Jews.

²And there were some that said: Our sons and our daughters are very many: let us take up corn for the price of them, and let us eat and live.

³And there were some that said: Let us mortgage our lands, and our vineyards, and our houses, and let us take corn because of the famine.

⁴And others said: Let us borrow money for the king’s tribute, and let us give up our fields and vineyards:

⁵And now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren: and our children as their children. Behold we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters, and some of our daughters are bondwomen already, neither have we wherewith to redeem them, and our fields and our vineyards other men possess.

⁶And I was exceedingly angry when I heard their cry according to these words.

⁷And my heart thought with myself: and I rebuked the nobles and magistrates, and said to them: Do you every one exact usury of your brethren? And I gathered together a great assembly against them,

⁸And I said to them: We, as you know, have redeemed according to our ability our brethren the Jews, that were sold to the Gentiles: and will you then sell your brethren, for us to redeem them? And they held their peace, and found not what to answer.

⁹And I said to them: The thing you do is not good: why walk you not in the fear of our God, that we be not exposed to the reproaches of the Gentiles our enemies?

¹⁰Both I and my brethren, and my servants, have lent money and corn to many: let us all agree not to call for it again; let us forgive the debt that is owing to us.

¹¹Restore ye to them this day their fields, and their vineyards, and their oliveyards, and their houses: and the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, which you were wont to exact of them, give it rather for them.

¹²And they said: We will restore, and we will require nothing of them: and we will do as thou sayest. And I called the priests and took an oath of them, to do according to what I had said.

¹³Moreover I shook my lap, and said: So may God shake every man that shall not accomplish this word, out of his house, and out of his labours, thus may he be shaken out, and become empty. And all the multitude said: Amen. And they praised God. And the people did according to what was said.

¹⁴And from the day, in which the king commanded me to be governor in the land of Juda, from the twentieth year even to the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes the king, for twelve years, I and my brethren did not eat the yearly allowance that was due to the governors.

¹⁵But the former governors that had been before me, were chargeable to the people, and took of them in bread, and wine, and in money every day forty sicles: and their officers also oppressed the people. But I did not so for the fear of God.

¹⁶Moreover I built in the work of the wall, and I bought no land, and all my servants were gathered together to the work.

¹⁷The Jews also and the magistrates to the number of one hundred and fifty men, were at my table, besides them that came to us from among the nations that were round about us.

¹⁸And there was prepared for me day be day one ox, and six choice rams, besides fowls, and once in ten days I gave store of divers wines, and many other things: yet I did not require my yearly allowance as governor: for the people were very much impoverished.

¹⁹Remember me, O my God, for good according to all that I have done for this people.

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