Nehemiah Deals with Oppression

5 And there was a great aoutcry of the people and their wives against their bJewish brethren. 2 For there were those who said, “We, our sons, and our daughters are many; therefore let us get grain, that we may eat and live.”

3 There were also some who said, “We have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.”

4 There were also those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our lands and vineyards. 5 Yet now cour flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and indeed we dare forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been brought into slavery. It is not in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards.”

6 And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. 7 After serious thought, I rebuked the nobles and rulers, and said to them, e“Each of you is 1exacting usury from his brother.” So I 2called a great assembly against them. 8 And I said to them, “According to our ability we have fredeemed our Jewish brethren who were sold to the nations. Now indeed, will you even sell your brethren? Or should they be sold to us?”

Then they were silenced and found nothing to say. 9 Then I said, “What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk gin the fear of our God hbecause of the reproach of the nations, our enemies? 10 I also, with my brethren and my servants, am lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop this 3usury! 11 Restore now to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain, the new wine and the oil, that you have charged them.”

12 So they said, “We will restore it, and will require nothing from them; we will do as you say.”

Then I called the priests, iand required an oath from them that they would do according to this promise. 13 Then jI shook out 4the fold of my garment and said, “So may God shake out each man from his house, and from his property, who does not perform this promise. Even thus may he be shaken out and emptied.”

And all the assembly said, “Amen!” and praised the Lord. kThen the people did according to this promise.

The Generosity of Nehemiah

14 Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year luntil the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers mate the governor’s provisions. 15 But the former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people, and took from them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver. Yes, even their servants bore rule over the people, but nI did not do so, because of the ofear of God. 16 Indeed, I also continued the pwork on this wall, and 5we did not buy any land. All my servants were gathered there for the work.

17 And qat my table were one hundred and fifty Jews and rulers, besides those who came to us from the nations around us. 18 Now that rwhich was prepared daily was one ox and six choice sheep. Also fowl were prepared for me, and once every ten days an abundance of all kinds of wine. Yet in spite of this sI did not demand the governor’s provisions, because the bondage was heavy on this people.

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

Conspiracy Against Nehemiah

6 Now it happened awhen Sanballat, Tobiah, 1Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall, and that there were no breaks left in it b(though at that time I had not hung the doors in the gates), 2 that Sanballat and 2Geshem csent to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together 3among the villages in the plain of dOno.” But they ethought to do me harm.

3 So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?”

4 But they sent me this message four times, and I answered them in the same manner.

5 Then Sanballat sent his servant to me as before, the fifth time, with an open letter in his hand. 6 In it was written:

It is reported among the nations, and 4Geshem says, that you and the Jews plan to rebel; therefore, according to these rumors, you are rebuilding the wall, fthat you may be their king. 7 And you have also appointed prophets to proclaim concerning you at Jerusalem, saying, “There is a king in Judah!” Now these matters will be reported to the king. So come, therefore, and let us consult together.

8 Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say are being done, but you invent them in your own heart.”

9 For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, “Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done.”

Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.

10 Afterward I came to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was a secret informer; and he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the 5temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you; indeed, at night they will come to kill you.”

11 And I said, “Should such a man as I flee? And who is there such as I who would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in!” 12 Then I perceived that God had not sent him at all, but that ghe pronounced this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 13 For this reason he was hired, that I should be afraid and act that way and sin, so that they might have cause for an evil report, that they might reproach me.

14 hMy God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat, according to these their works, and the iprophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who would have made me afraid.

The Wall Completed

15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 And it happened, jwhen all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things, that they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for kthey perceived that this work was done by our God.

17 Also in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came to them. 18 For many in Judah were pledged to him, because he was the lson-in-law of Shechaniah the son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of mMeshullam the son of Berechiah. 19 Also they reported his good deeds before me, and reported my 6words to him. Tobiah sent letters to frighten me.

7 Then it was, when the wall was built and I had ahung the doors, when the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed, 2 that I gave the charge of Jerusalem to my brother bHanani, and Hananiah the leader cof the 1citadel, for he was a faithful man and dfeared God more than many.

3 And I said to them, “Do not let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot; and while they stand guard, let them shut and bar the doors; and appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, one at his watch station and another in front of his own house.”

The Captives Who Returned to Jerusalem

4 Now the city was large and spacious, but the people in it were efew, and the houses were not rebuilt. 5 Then my God put it into my heart to gather the nobles, the rulers, and the people, that they might be registered by genealogy. And I found a register of the genealogy of those who had come up in the first return, and found written in it:

6 fThese are the people of the province who came back from the captivity, of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, everyone to his city.

7 Those who came with gZerubbabel were Jeshua, Nehemiah, 2Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, 3Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, and Baanah.

The number of the men of the people of Israel: 8 the sons of Parosh, two thousand one hundred and seventy-two;

9 the sons of Shephatiah, three hundred and seventy-two;

10 the sons of Arah, six hundred and fifty-two;

11 the sons of Pahath-Moab, of the sons of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand eight hundred and eighteen;

12 the sons of Elam, one thousand two hundred and fifty-four;

13 the sons of Zattu, eight hundred and forty-five;

14 the sons of Zaccai, seven hundred and sixty;

15 the sons of 4Binnui, six hundred and forty-eight;

16 the sons of Bebai, six hundred and twenty-eight;

17 the sons of Azgad, two thousand three hundred and twenty-two;

18 the sons of Adonikam, six hundred and sixty-seven;

19 the sons of Bigvai, two thousand and sixty-seven;

20 the sons of Adin, six hundred and fifty-five;

21 the sons of Ater of Hezekiah, ninety-eight;

22 the sons of Hashum, three hundred and twenty-eight;

23 the sons of Bezai, three hundred and twenty-four;

24 the sons of 5Hariph, one hundred and twelve;

25 the sons of 6Gibeon, ninety-five;

26 the men of Bethlehem and Netophah, one hundred and eighty-eight;

27 the men of Anathoth, one hundred and twenty-eight;

28 the men of 7Beth Azmaveth, forty-two;

29 the men of 8Kirjath Jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred and forty-three;

30 the men of Ramah and Geba, six hundred and twenty-one;

31 the men of Michmas, one hundred and twenty-two;

32 the men of Bethel and Ai, one hundred and twenty-three;

33 the men of the other Nebo, fifty-two;

34 the sons of the other hElam, one thousand two hundred and fifty-four;

35 the sons of Harim, three hundred and twenty;

36 the sons of Jericho, three hundred and forty-five;

37 the sons of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred and twenty-one;

38 the sons of Senaah, three thousand nine hundred and thirty.

39 The priests: the sons of iJedaiah, of the house of Jeshua, nine hundred and seventy-three;

40 the sons of jImmer, one thousand and fifty-two;

41 the sons of kPashhur, one thousand two hundred and forty-seven;

42 the sons of lHarim, one thousand and seventeen.

43 The Levites: the sons of Jeshua, of Kadmiel,

and of the sons of 9Hodevah, seventy-four.

44 The singers: the sons of Asaph, one hundred and forty-eight.

45 The gatekeepers: the sons of Shallum,

the sons of