Nehemiah 3–4

Chapter 3

Builders of the Walls

¹Then ^aEliashib the high priest arose with his brothers the priests and built ^bthe Sheep Gate; they consecrated it and ^chung its doors. They consecrated ¹the wall to ^dthe Tower of the Hundred and ^ethe Tower of Hananel.

²Next to him ^athe men of Jericho built, and next to ¹them Zaccur the son of Imri built.

³Now the sons of Hassenaah built ^athe Fish Gate; they laid its beams and hung its doors with its bolts and bars.

⁴Next to them Meremoth the son of Uriah the son of Hakkoz made repairs. And next to him Meshullam the son of Berechiah the son of Meshezabel made repairs. And next to ¹him Zadok the son of Baana also made repairs.

⁵Moreover, next to ¹him the Tekoites made repairs, but their nobles did not ²support the work of their masters.

⁶Joiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah repaired ^athe Old Gate; they laid its beams and hung its doors with its bolts and its bars.

⁷Next to them Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah, ¹also made repairs for the official seat of the ^agovernor of the province beyond the River.

⁸Next to him Uzziel the son of Harhaiah of the ^agoldsmiths made repairs. And next to him Hananiah, one of the perfumers, made repairs, and they restored Jerusalem as far as ^bthe Broad Wall.

⁹Next to them Rephaiah the son of Hur, ^athe official of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs.

¹⁰Next to them Jedaiah the son of Harumaph made repairs opposite his house. And next to him Hattush the son of Hashabneiah made repairs.

¹¹Malchijah the son of Harim and Hasshub the son of Pahath-moab repaired another section and ^athe Tower of Furnaces.

¹²Next to him Shallum the son of Hallohesh, ^athe official of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs, he and his daughters.

¹³Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired ^athe Valley Gate. They built it and hung its doors with its bolts and its bars, and a thousand cubits of the wall to the ¹Refuse Gate.

¹⁴Malchijah the son of Rechab, the official of the district of ^aBeth-haccherem repaired the ^1bRefuse Gate. He built it and hung its doors with its bolts and its bars.

¹⁵Shallum the son of Col-hozeh, the official of the district of Mizpah, ^arepaired the Fountain Gate. He built it, covered it and hung its doors with its bolts and its bars, and the wall of the Pool of Shelah at ^bthe king’s garden as far as ^cthe steps that descend from the city of David.

¹⁶After him Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, ^aofficial of half the district of Beth-zur, made repairs as far as a point opposite the tombs of David, and as far as ^bthe artificial pool and the house of the mighty men.

¹⁷After him the Levites carried out repairs under Rehum the son of Bani. Next to him Hashabiah, the official of half the district of Keilah, carried out repairs for his district.

¹⁸After him their brothers carried out repairs under Bavvai the son of Henadad, official of the other half of the district of Keilah.

¹⁹Next to him Ezer the son of Jeshua, ^athe official of Mizpah, repaired ¹another section in front of the ascent of the armory ^bat the Angle.

²⁰After him Baruch the son of Zabbai zealously repaired another section, from the Angle to the doorway of the house of ^aEliashib the high priest.

²¹After him Meremoth the son of Uriah the son of Hakkoz repaired another section, from the doorway of Eliashib’s house even as far as the end of ¹his house.

²²After him the priests, ^athe men of the ¹valley, carried out repairs.

²³After ¹them Benjamin and Hasshub carried out repairs in front of their house. After them Azariah the son of Maaseiah, son of Ananiah, carried out repairs beside his house.

²⁴After him Binnui the son of Henadad repaired another section, from the house of Azariah as far as ^athe Angle and as far as the corner.

²⁵Palal the son of Uzai made repairs in front of the Angle and the tower projecting from the upper house of the king, which is by ^athe court of the guard. After him Pedaiah the son of Parosh made repairs.

^26aThe temple servants living in ^bOphel made repairs as far as the front of ^cthe Water Gate toward the east and the projecting tower.

²⁷After ¹them ^athe Tekoites repaired another section in front of the great projecting tower and as far as the wall of Ophel.

²⁸Above ^athe Horse Gate the priests carried out repairs, each in front of his house.

²⁹After ¹them Zadok the son of Immer carried out repairs in front of his house. And after him Shemaiah the son of Shecaniah, the keeper of the East Gate, carried out repairs.

³⁰After him Hananiah the son of Shelemiah, and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph, repaired another section. After him Meshullam the son of Berechiah carried out repairs in front of his own ¹quarters.

³¹After him Malchijah, ¹one of ^athe goldsmiths, carried out repairs as far as the house of the temple servants and of the merchants, in front of the ²Inspection Gate and as far as the upper room of the corner.

³²Between the upper room of the corner and ^athe Sheep Gate the goldsmiths and the merchants carried out repairs.

Chapter 4

Work Is Ridiculed

¹¹Now it came about that when ^aSanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry and mocked the Jews.

²He spoke in the presence of his brothers and ^athe ¹wealthy men of Samaria and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the ^2bdusty rubble even the burned ones?”

³Now Tobiah the Ammonite was near him and he said, “Even what they are building—^aif a fox should ¹jump on it, he would break their stone wall down!”

^4aHear, O our God, how we are despised! ^bReturn their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity.

⁵Do not ^1aforgive their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out before You, for they have ²demoralized the builders.

⁶So we built the wall and the whole wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a ¹mind to work.

⁷¹Now when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the ²repair of the walls of Jerusalem went on, and that the breaches began to be closed, they were very angry.

⁸All of them ^aconspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause a disturbance in it.

Discouragement Overcome

⁹But we prayed to our God, and because of them we ^aset up a guard against them day and night.

¹⁰Thus ¹in Judah it was said,

“The strength of the burden bearers is failing,

Yet there is much ²rubbish;

And we ourselves are unable

To rebuild the wall.”

¹¹Our enemies said, “They will not know or see until we come among them, kill them and put a stop to the work.”

¹²When the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times, “¹They will come up against us from every place where you may turn,”

¹³then I stationed men in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, the ¹exposed places, and I ^astationed the people in families with their swords, spears and bows.

¹⁴When I saw their fear, I rose and spoke to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people: “^aDo not be afraid of them; remember the Lord who is great and awesome, and ^bfight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your houses.”

¹⁵When our enemies heard that it was known to us, and that ^aGod had frustrated their plan, then all of us returned to the wall, each one to his work.

¹⁶From that day on, half of my servants carried on the work while half of them held the spears, the shields, the bows and the breastplates; and the captains were behind the whole house of Judah.

¹⁷Those who were rebuilding the wall and those who carried burdens took their load with one hand doing the work and the other holding a weapon.

¹⁸As for the builders, each wore his sword girded at his side as he built, while ¹the trumpeter stood near me.

¹⁹I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “The work is great and extensive, and we are separated on the wall far from one another.

²⁰“At whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, ¹rally to us there. ^aOur God will fight for us.”

²¹So we carried on the work with half of them holding spears from ¹dawn until the stars ²appeared.

²²At that time I also said to the people, “Let each man with his servant spend the night within Jerusalem so that they may be a guard for us by night and a laborer by day.”

²³So neither I, my brothers, my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us removed our clothes, each took his weapon even to the water.