Nehemiah 2–4

Nehemiah Goes to Jerusalem

2One day four months later, when Emperor Artaxerxes was dining, I took the wine to him. He had never seen me look sad before, ²so he asked, “Why are you looking so sad? You aren’t ill, so it must be that you’re unhappy.”

I was startled ^3*and answered, “May Your Majesty live for ever! How can I help looking sad when the city where my ancestors are buried is in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

⁴The emperor asked, “What is it that you want?”

I prayed to the God of Heaven, ⁵and then I said to the emperor, “If Your Majesty is pleased with me and is willing to grant my request, let me go to the land of Judah, to the city where my ancestors are buried, so that I can rebuild the city.”

⁶The emperor, with the empress sitting at his side, approved my request. He asked me how long I would be gone and when I would return, and I told him.

⁷Then I asked him to grant me the favour of giving me letters to the governors of West Euphrates Province,^c instructing them to let me travel to Judah. ⁸I asked also for a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal forests, instructing him to supply me with timber for the gates of the fort that guards the Temple, for the city walls, and for the house I was to live in. The emperor gave me all I asked for, because God was with me.

⁹The emperor sent some army officers and a troop of horsemen with me, and I made the journey to West Euphrates. There I gave the emperor’s letters to the governors. ¹⁰But Sanballat, from the town of Beth Horon, and Tobiah, an official in the province of Ammon, heard that someone had come to work for the good of the people of Israel, and they were highly indignant.

¹¹I went on to Jerusalem, and for three days ¹²I did not tell anyone what God had inspired me to do for Jerusalem. Then in the middle of the night I got up and went out, taking a few of my companions with me. The only animal we took was the donkey that I rode on. ¹³It was still night as I left the city through the Valley Gate on the west and went south past Dragon’s Fountain to the Rubbish Gate. As I went, I inspected the broken walls of the city and the gates that had been destroyed by fire. ¹⁴Then on the east side of the city I went north to the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool. The donkey I was riding could not find any path through the rubble, ¹⁵so I went down into the valley of the Kidron and rode along, looking at the wall. Then I returned the way I had come and went back into the city through the Valley Gate.

¹⁶None of the local officials knew where I had been or what I had been doing. So far I had not said anything to any of my fellow-Jews—the priests, the leaders, the officials, or anyone else who would be taking part in the work. ¹⁷But now I said to them, “See what trouble we are in because Jerusalem is in ruins and its gates are destroyed! Let’s rebuild the city walls and put an end to our disgrace.” ¹⁸And I told them how God had been with me and helped me, and what the emperor had said to me.

They responded, “Let’s start rebuilding!” And they got ready to start the work.

¹⁹When Sanballat, Tobiah, and an Arab named Geshem heard what we were planning to do, they laughed at us and said, “What do you think you’re doing? Are you going to rebel against the emperor?”

²⁰I answered, “The God of Heaven will give us success. We are his servants, and we are going to start building. But you have no right to any property in Jerusalem, and you have no share in its traditions.”

Rebuilding the Wall of Jerusalem

3This is how the city wall was rebuilt.^d The High Priest Eliashib and his fellow-priests rebuilt the Sheep Gate, dedicated it, and put the gates in place. They dedicated the wall as far as the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel.

²The men of Jericho built the next section.

Zaccur son of Imri built the next section.

³The clan of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate. They put the beams and the gates in place, and put in the bolts and bars for locking the gate.

⁴Meremoth, the son of Uriah and grandson of Hakkoz, built the next section.

Meshullam, the son of Berechiah and grandson of Meshezabel, built the next section.

Zadok son of Baana built the next section.

⁵The men of Tekoa built the next section, but the leading men of the town refused to do the manual labour assigned to them by the supervisors.

⁶Joiada son of Paseah and Meshullam son of Besodeiah rebuilt Jeshanah Gate.^e They put the beams and the gates in place, and put in the bolts and bars for locking the gate.

⁷Melatiah from Gibeon, Jadon from Meronoth, and the men of Gibeon and Mizpah built the next section, as far as the residence of the governor of West Euphrates.

⁸Uzziel son of Harhaiah, a goldsmith, built the next section.

Hananiah, a maker of perfumes, built the next section, as far as Broad Wall.

⁹Rephaiah son of Hur, ruler of half the Jerusalem District, built the next section.

¹⁰Jedaiah son of Harumaph built the next section, which was near his own house.

Hattush son of Hashabneiah built the next section.

¹¹Malchijah son of Harim and Hasshub son of Pahath Moab built both the next section and the Tower of the Ovens.

¹²Shallum son of Hallohesh, ruler of the other half of the Jerusalem District, built the next section. (His daughters helped with the work.)

¹³Hanun and the inhabitants of the city of Zanoah rebuilt the Valley Gate. They put the gates in place, put in the bolts and the bars for locking the gate, and repaired the wall for 440 metres, as far as the Rubbish Gate.

¹⁴Malchijah son of Rechab, ruler of the Beth Haccherem District, rebuilt the Rubbish Gate. He put the gates in place, and put in the bolts and the bars for locking the gate.

¹⁵Shallum son of Colhozeh, ruler of the Mizpah District, rebuilt the Fountain Gate. He covered the gateway, put the gates in place, and put in the bolts and the bars. At the Pool of Shelah he built the wall next to the royal garden, as far as the steps leading down from David’s City.

¹⁶Nehemiah son of Azbuk, ruler of half the Bethzur District, built the next section, as far as David’s tomb, the pool, and the barracks.

Levites Who Worked on the Wall

¹⁷The following Levites rebuilt the next several sections of the wall:

Rehum son of Bani built the next section;

Hashabiah, ruler of half the Keilah District, built the next section on behalf of his district;

¹⁸Bavvai son of Henadad, ruler of the other half of the Keilah District, built the next section;

¹⁹Ezer son of Jeshua, ruler of Mizpah, built the next section in front of the armoury, as far as the place where the wall turns;

²⁰Baruch son of Zabbai built the next section, as far as the entrance to the house of the High Priest Eliashib;

²¹Meremoth, the son of Uriah and grandson of Hakkoz, built the next section, up to the far end of Eliashib’s house.

Priests Who Worked on the Wall

²²The following priests rebuilt the next several sections of the wall:

Priests from the area around Jerusalem built the next section;

²³Benjamin and Hasshub built the next section, which was in front of their houses;

Azariah, the son of Maaseiah and grandson of Ananiah, built the next section, which was in front of his house;

²⁴Binnui son of Henadad built the next section, from Azariah’s house to the corner of the wall;

^25–26Palal son of Uzai built the next section, beginning at the corner of the wall and the tower of the upper palace near the court of the guard;

Pedaiah son of Parosh built the next section, to a point on the east near the Water Gate and the tower guarding the Temple. (This was near that part of the city called Ophel, where the temple workmen lived.)

Other Builders

²⁷The men of Tekoa built the next section, their second one, from a point opposite the large tower guarding the Temple as far as the wall near Ophel.

²⁸A group of priests built the next section, going north from the Horse Gate, each one building in front of his own house.

²⁹Zadok son of Immer built the next section, which was in front of his house. Shemaiah son of Shecaniah, keeper of the East Gate, built the next section.

³⁰Hananiah son of Shelemiah and Hanun, the sixth son of Zalaph, built the next section, their second one.

Meshullam son of Berechiah built the next section, which was in front of his house.

³¹Malchijah, a goldsmith, built the next section, as far as the building used by the temple workmen and the merchants, which was by the Miphkad^f Gate, near the room on top of the north-east corner of the wall.

³²The goldsmiths and the merchants built the last section, from the room at the corner as far as the Sheep Gate.

Nehemiah Overcomes Opposition to His Work

4When Sanballat heard that we Jews had begun rebuilding the wall, he was furious and began to ridicule us. ²In front of his companions and the Samaritan troops he said, “What do these miserable Jews think they’re doing? Do they intend to rebuild the city? Do they think that by offering sacrifices they can finish the work in one day? Can they make building stones out of heaps of burnt rubble?” ³Tobiah was standing there beside him, and he added, “What kind of wall could they ever build? Even a fox could knock it down!” ⁴I prayed, “Listen to them mocking us, O God! Let their ridicule fall on their own heads. Let them be robbed of everything they have, and let them be taken as prisoners to a foreign land. ⁵Don’t forgive the evil they do and don’t forget their sins, for they have insulted us who are building.”

⁶So we went on rebuilding the wall, and soon it was half its full height, because the people were eager to work.

⁷Sanballat, Tobiah, and the people of Arabia, Ammon, and Ashdod heard that we were making progress in rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem and that the gaps in the wall were being closed, and they were very angry. ⁸So they all plotted together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion, ⁹but we prayed to our God and kept men on guard against them day and night.

¹⁰The people of Judah had a song they sang:

“We grow weak carrying burdens;

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