Nehemiah 3–5

Organization of the Work

3Then Eliashib the high priest and his brothers the priests arose and rebuilt the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and erected its doors. They consecrated it up to the Tower of the Hundred and up to the Tower of Hananel. ²And next to him^a the men of Jericho built, and next to him^b Zaccur son of Imri built.

³The sons of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate. They laid its beams and erected its doors, its bolts, and its bars. ⁴Next to them^c Meremoth son of Uriah, son of Hakkoz, repaired. Next to them^d Meshullam son of Berekiah, son of Meshezabel, repaired. Next to them^e Zadok son of Baana repaired. ⁵Next to them^f the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles did not put their neck to the work of their lord.

⁶Jehoiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam repaired the old Yeshanah Gate. They laid its beams and erected its doors, its bolts, and its bars. ⁷Next to them^g Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon and Mizpah who were under the rule of the governor of the province Beyond the River, repaired. ⁸Next to him^h Uzziel son of Harhaiah (goldsmiths) repaired. Next to himⁱ Hananiah son of the perfume-makers repaired. They restored Jerusalem up to the Broad Wall. ⁹Next to them^j Rephaiah son of Hur, commander of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired. ¹⁰Next to them^k Jedaiah son of Harumaph repaired opposite his house. Next to him^l Hattush son of Hashabneiah repaired.

¹¹Malkijah son of Harim and Hasshub son of Pahath-Moab repaired another section and the Tower of the Ovens. ¹²Next to him^m Shallum son of Hallohesh, commander of half of the district of Jerusalem, repaired with his daughters.

¹³Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired the Valley Gate. They rebuilt it and erected its doors, its bolts, and its bars, and a thousand cubits of the wall up to the Dung Gate.

¹⁴Malkijah son of Recab, commander of the district of Beth-haccherem, repaired the Dung Gate. He rebuilt it and erected its doors, its bolts, and its bars.

¹⁵Shallun son of Col-Hozeh, the commander of the district of Mizpah, repaired the Fountain Gate. He rebuilt it and covered it and erected its doors, its bolts, its bars, and he built the wall of the Pool of Shelah of the king’s garden, right up to the steps going down from the city of David. ¹⁶After him Nehemiah son of Azbuk, commander of half of the district of Beth Zur, repaired up to a point opposite the burial sites of David, and up to the artificial pool and to the house of the mighty warriors.

¹⁷After him the Levites repaired; Rehum son of Bani, and next to him Hashabiah, commander of half of the district of Keilah, repaired his district. ¹⁸After him their brothers repaired: Bavvai son of Henadad, commander of half of the district of Keilah, ¹⁹next to himⁿ Ezer son of Jeshua, commander of Mizpah, repaired a second section of a wall opposite of the ascent of the armory at the angle. ²⁰After him Baruch son of Zabbai zealously repaired a second section of a wall from the angle up to the doorway of the house of Eliashib the high priest. ²¹After him Meremoth son of Uriah, son of Hakkoz, repaired a second section of a wall from the doorway of the house of Eliashib up to the end of the house of Eliashib.

²²After him the priests, men from the vicinity, repaired. ²³After them Benjamin and Hasshub repaired opposite their house. After them Azariah son of Maaseiah, son of Ananiah, repaired beside his house. ²⁴After him Binnui son of Henadad repaired a second section of a wall from the house of Azariah up to the angle up to the corner. ²⁵Palal son of Uzai repaired opposite the Angle at the tower that juts out from the upper house of the king, at the courtyard of the guard. After him Pedaiah son of Parosh ²⁶and the temple servants who were living on Ophel repaired up to opposite the Water Gate on the east and the projecting tower. ²⁷After him the Tekoites repaired a second section of a wall opposite the projecting tower that goes out as far as the wall of Ophel.

²⁸Above the Horse Gate the priests repaired, each one opposite his house. ²⁹After them Zadok son of Immer repaired opposite his house. After him Shemaiah son of Shecaniah, keeper of the East Gate, repaired. ³⁰After him Hananiah son of Shelemiah and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph repaired another section. After him Meshullam son of Berekiah repaired the wall opposite his room. ³¹After him Malkijah, one of the goldsmiths,^o repaired up to the house of the temple servants and the merchants, opposite the Enrollment Gate and up to the upper room of the corner. ³²Between the upper room of the corner to the Sheep Gate the goldsmiths and merchants repaired.

Opposition Begins

4^a Now it happened when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he became angry and greatly provoked, and he mocked the Jews. ²Then he said before his brothers and the army of Samaria, “What are the feeble Jews doing? Will they restore these things for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the piles of rubble—even those burned up?”

³Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him and said, “Their wall of stone that they are building would break down if a fox went on it!”

⁴Hear, our God, for we are despised. Turn their scorn on their head and give them over to plunder in the land of captivity. ⁵Do not cover their guilt, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before you. They have provoked the builders to anger.^b

⁶So we rebuilt the wall, and all of the wall was joined up to half its height. For the people had a heart to do it.

Opposition Stopped

⁷Now when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. ⁸So all of them plotted together to come fight against Jerusalem and to make trouble for it. ⁹So we prayed to our God and set up a guard against them day and night.

¹⁰But Judah said, “The strength of the carriers is failing, and there is too much dirt, and we are not able to build at the wall.” ¹¹Then our enemies said, “They will not know nor see until we come upon them and will kill them and stop the work.” ¹²When the Jews who lived beside them came, they said to us ten times, “From all of the places where they live, they will come up against us.” ¹³I stationed the people behind the deepest part of the wall in the open places according to their families, with their swords, spears, and bows. ¹⁴And I looked, got up, and said to the nobles, prefects, and the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.”

¹⁵It happened when our enemies heard that their plan was known to us, that God had frustrated it, and we all returned to the wall—each to his work. ¹⁶From that day, half of my servants were working on craftsmanship, half were holding spears, small shields, bows, and breastplates. The commanders were behind the whole house of Judah. ¹⁷The ones who were building the wall and the ones who carried the materials^c were carrying in one hand while doing the task, and with the other hand were grasping a weapon. ¹⁸Each of the builders had his sword tied to his side while building. And the man who sounded the trumpet was beside me. ¹⁹I said to the nobles, to the prefects, and to the rest of the people, “The work is great and widespread, and we are spread out over the wall far from each other. ²⁰Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, come together to us there. Our God will fight for us.”

²¹So we labored at the work, and half of them were holding the spears from dawn until the stars came out. ²²At the time I also said to the people, “Let each man and his servant spend the night inside Jerusalem, so that they will be a guard for us in the night and work in the day.” ²³So neither I nor my brothers nor my young men nor the men of the guard who were behind me took off our clothes. Each one kept his weapon even in the water.

Nehemiah Deals with Strife

5Now there was a great cry of distress of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. ²There were those who were saying, “Our sons and daughters, we are many. We must get grain so that we may eat and live.” ³There were also those saying, “We have pledged our fields and our vineyards and our houses so that we can get grain in the famine.” ⁴And there were those who were saying, “We have borrowed money on our fields and our vineyards for the tax of the king. ⁵Now our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our sons are like their sons. Look, we are subduing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and there are some from our daughters being molested. We are powerless,^a and our fields and vineyards belong to others.”

⁶I was very angry when I heard their shouts and these words. ⁷I thought over this in my heart, and then I quarreled with the nobles and the prefects. I said to them, “You yourselves are taking interest from your own brother!” So I called the great assembly against them, ⁸and I said to them: “We ourselves have bought back our brothers the Jews who were sold to the nations as we were able. But now you yourselves have sold your brothers so they may be sold to us!” They were silent and could not find a word to say.

⁹So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God to prevent the disgrace from the nations, our enemies? ¹⁰Also, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Please stop taking this interest. ¹¹Please restore to them this day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, their houses, and the interest on the money, the grain, the grape juice, and the olive oil that you have been taking from them.” ¹²So they said, “We will restore it and will not request anything more. So we will do as you say.” Then I called the priests and made…