Nehemiah 2–4

Nehemiah Sent to Judah

2And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of ^aKing ¹Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that ^bI took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before. ²Therefore the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but ^csorrow of heart.”

So I became ²dreadfully afraid, ³and said to the king, ^d“May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when ^ethe city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with ^ffire?”

⁴Then the king said to me, “What do you request?”

So I ^gprayed to the God of heaven. ⁵And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.”

⁶Then the king said to me (the queen also sitting beside him), “How long will your journey be? And when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him ^ha time.

⁷Furthermore I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the ⁱgovernors of the region beyond ³the River, that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah, ⁸and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the ⁴citadel which pertains ^jto the ⁵temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy.” And the king granted them to me ^kaccording to the good hand of my God upon me.

⁹Then I went to the governors in the region beyond the River, and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. ¹⁰When ^lSanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite ⁶official heard of it, they were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel.

Nehemiah Views the Wall of Jerusalem

¹¹So I ^mcame to Jerusalem and was there three days. ¹²Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem; nor was there any animal with me, except the one on which I rode. ¹³And I went out by night ⁿthrough the Valley Gate to the Serpent Well and the ⁷Refuse Gate, and ⁸viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were ^obroken down and its gates which were burned with fire. ¹⁴Then I went on to the ^pFountain Gate and to the ^qKing’s Pool, but there was no room for the animal under me to pass. ¹⁵So I went up in the night by the ^rvalley, ⁹and ¹viewed the wall; then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. ¹⁶And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done; I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the others who did the work.

¹⁷Then I said to them, “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies ²waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be ^sa reproach.” ¹⁸And I told them of ^tthe hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me.

So they said, “Let us rise up and build.” Then they ^uset ³their hands to this good work.

¹⁹But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us, and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? ^vWill you rebel against the king?”

²⁰So I answered them, and said to them, “The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build, ^wbut you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem.”

Rebuilding the Wall

3Then ^aEliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests ^band built the Sheep Gate; they consecrated it and hung its doors. They built ^cas far as the Tower of ¹the Hundred, and consecrated it, then as far as the Tower of ^dHananel. ²²Next to Eliashib ^ethe men of Jericho built. And next to them Zaccur the son of Imri built.

³Also the sons of Hassenaah built ^fthe Fish Gate; they laid its beams and ^ghung its doors with its bolts and bars. ⁴And next to them ^hMeremoth the son of Urijah, the son of ³Koz, made repairs. Next to them ⁱMeshullam the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabel, made repairs. Next to them Zadok the son of Baana made repairs. ⁵Next to them the Tekoites made repairs; but their nobles did not put their ⁴shoulders to ^jthe work of their Lord.

⁶Moreover Jehoiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah repaired ^kthe Old Gate; they laid its beams and hung its doors, with its bolts and bars. ⁷And next to them Melatiah the Gibeonite, Jadon the Meronothite, the ^lmen of Gibeon and Mizpah, repaired the ^mresidence ⁵of the governor of the region ⁶beyond the River. ⁸Next to him Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs. Also next to him Hananiah, ⁷one of the perfumers, made repairs; and they ⁸fortified Jerusalem as far as the ⁿBroad Wall. ⁹And next to them Rephaiah the son of Hur, leader of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs. ¹⁰Next to them Jedaiah the son of Harumaph made repairs in front of his house. And next to him Hattush the son of Hashabniah made repairs.

¹¹Malchijah the son of Harim and Hashub the son of Pahath-Moab repaired another section, ^oas well as the Tower of the Ovens. ¹²And next to him was Shallum the son of Hallohesh, leader of half the district of Jerusalem; he and his daughters made repairs.

¹³Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired ^pthe Valley Gate. They built it, hung its doors with its bolts and bars, and repaired a thousand cubits of the wall as far as ^qthe Refuse Gate.

¹⁴Malchijah the son of Rechab, leader of the district of ^rBeth Haccerem, repaired the Refuse Gate; he built it and hung its doors with its bolts and bars.

¹⁵Shallun the son of Col-Hozeh, leader of the district of Mizpah, repaired ^sthe Fountain Gate; he built it, covered it, hung its doors with its bolts and bars, and repaired the wall of the Pool of ^tShelah ⁹by the ^uKing’s Garden, as far as the stairs that go down from the City of David. ¹⁶After him Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, leader of half the district of Beth Zur, made repairs as far as the place in front of the ¹tombs of David, to the ^vman-made pool, and as far as the House of the Mighty.

¹⁷After him the Levites, under Rehum the son of Bani, made repairs. Next to him Hashabiah, leader of half the district of Keilah, made repairs for his district. ¹⁸After him their brethren, under ²Bavai the son of Henadad, leader of the other half of the district of Keilah, made repairs. ¹⁹And next to him Ezer the son of Jeshua, the leader of Mizpah, repaired another section in front of the Ascent to the Armory at the ^wbuttress. ³²⁰After him Baruch the son of ⁴Zabbai carefully repaired the other section, from the ⁵buttress to the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest. ²¹After him Meremoth the son of Urijah, the son of ⁶Koz, repaired another section, from the door of the house of Eliashib to the end of the house of Eliashib.

²²And after him the priests, the men of the plain, made repairs. ²³After him Benjamin and Hasshub made repairs opposite their house. After them Azariah the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ananiah, made repairs by his house. ²⁴After him ^xBinnui the son of Henadad repaired another section, from the house of Azariah to ^ythe ⁷buttress, even as far as the corner. ²⁵Palal the son of Uzai made repairs opposite the ⁸buttress, and on the tower which projects from the king’s upper house that was by the ^zcourt of the prison. After him Pedaiah the son of Parosh made repairs.

²⁶Moreover ^athe Nethinim who dwelt in ^bOphel made repairs as far as the place in front of ^cthe Water Gate toward the east, and on the projecting tower. ²⁷After them the Tekoites repaired another section, next to the great projecting tower, and as far as the wall of Ophel.

²⁸Beyond the ^dHorse Gate the priests made repairs, each in front of his own house. ²⁹After them Zadok the son of Immer made repairs in front of his own house. After him Shemaiah the son of Shechaniah, the keeper of the East Gate, made 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 made repairs in front of his ⁹dwelling. ³¹After him Malchijah, ¹one of the goldsmiths, made repairs as far as the house of the Nethinim and of the merchants, in front of the ²Miphkad Gate, and as far as the upper room at the corner. ³²And between the upper room at the corner, as far as the ^eSheep Gate, the goldsmiths and the merchants made repairs.

The Wall Defended Against Enemies

4But it so happened, ^awhen Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, that he was furious and very indignant, and mocked the Jews. ²And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish—stones that are burned?”

³Now ^bTobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Whatever they build, if even a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall.”

^4cHear, O our God, for we are despised; ^dturn their reproach on their own heads, and give them as plunder to a land of captivity! ^5eDo not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before You; for they have provoked You to anger before the builders.

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

⁷Now it happened, ^fwhen Sanballat, Tobiah, ^gthe Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and the ¹gaps were beginning to be closed, that they became very angry, ⁸and all of them ^hconspired together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion. ⁹Nevertheless ⁱwe made our prayer to our God, and because of them we set a watch against them day and night.

¹⁰Then…