Nehemiah 1–2

¹Words of Nehemiah son of Hachaliah. And it cometh to pass, in the month of Chisleu, the twentieth year, and I have been in Shushan the palace, ²and come in doth Hanani, one of my brethren, he and men of Judah, and I ask them concerning the Jews, the escaped part that have been left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem; ³and they say to me, ‘Those left, who have been left of the captivity there in the province, are in great evil, and in reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burnt with fire.’ ⁴And it cometh to pass, at my hearing these words, I have sat down, and I weep and mourn for days, and I am fasting and praying before the God of the heavens.

⁵And I say, ‘I beseech thee, O Jehovah, God of the heavens, God, the great and the fearful, keeping the covenant and kindness for those loving Him, and for those keeping His commands, ⁶let Thine ear be, I pray Thee, attentive, and Thine eyes open, to hearken unto the prayer of Thy servant, that I am praying before Thee to-day, by day and by night, concerning the sons of Israel Thy servants, and confessing concerning the sins of the sons of Israel, that we have sinned against Thee; yea, I and the house of my father have sinned; ⁷we have acted very corruptly against Thee, and have not kept the commands, and the statutes, and the judgments, that Thou didst command Moses Thy servant.

⁸‘Remember, I pray Thee, the word that Thou didst command Moses Thy servant, saying, Ye—ye trespass—I scatter you among peoples; ⁹and ye have turned back unto Me, and kept My commands, and done them—if your outcast is in the end of the heavens, thence I gather them, and have brought them in unto the place that I have chosen to cause My name to tabernacle there. ¹⁰And they are Thy servants, and Thy people, whom Thou hast ransomed by Thy great power, and by Thy strong hand.

¹¹‘I beseech Thee, O Lord, let, I pray Thee, Thine ear be attentive unto the prayer of Thy servant, and unto the prayer of Thy servants, those delighting to fear Thy Name; and give prosperity, I pray Thee, to Thy servant to-day, and give him for mercies before this man;’ and I have been butler to the king.

Chapter 2

¹And it cometh to pass, in the month of Nisan, the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, wine is before him, and I lift up the wine, and give to the king, and I had not been sad before him; ²and the king saith to me, ‘Wherefore is thy face sad, and thou not sick? this is nothing except sadness of heart;’ and I fear very much, ³and say to the king, ‘Let the king to the age live! wherefore should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of the graves of my fathers, is a waste, and its gates have been consumed with fire?’ ⁴And the king saith to me, ‘For what art thou seeking?’ and I pray unto the God of the heavens, ⁵and say to the king, ‘If to the king it be good, and if thy servant be pleasing before thee, that thou send me unto Judah, unto the city of the graves of my fathers, and I built it.’ ⁶And the king saith to me (and the queen is sitting near him), ‘How long is thy journey? and when dost thou return?’ and it is good before the king, and he sendeth me away, and I set to him a time. ⁷And I say to the king, ‘If to the king it be good, letters let be given to me for the governors beyond the River, that they let me pass over till that I come in unto Judah: ⁸and a letter unto Asaph, keeper of the paradise that the king hath, that he give to me trees for beams for the gates of the palace that the house hath, and for the wall of the city, and for the house into which I enter;’ and the king giveth to me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

⁹And I come in unto the governors beyond the River, and give to them the letters of the king; and the king sendeth with me heads of a force, and horsemen; ¹⁰and Sanballat the Horonite heareth, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and it is evil to them—a great evil—that a man hath come in to seek good for the sons of Israel. ¹¹And I come in unto Jerusalem, and I am there three days, ¹²and I rise by night, I and a few men with me, and have not declared to a man what my God is giving unto my heart to do for Jerusalem, and there is no beast with me except the beast on which I am riding. ¹³And I go out through the gate of the valley by night, and unto the front of the fountain of the dragon, and unto the gate of the dunghill, and I am measuring about the walls of Jerusalem, that are broken down, and its gates consumed with fire. ¹⁴And I pass over unto the gate of the fountain, and unto the pool of the king, and there is no place for the beast under me to pass over, ¹⁵and I am going up through the brook by night, and am measuring about the wall, and turn back, and come in through the gate of the valley, and turn back. ¹⁶And the prefects have not known whither I have gone, and what I am doing; and to the Jews, and to the priests, and to the freemen, and to the prefects, and to the rest of those doing the work, hitherto I have not declared it; ¹⁷and I say unto them, ‘Ye are seeing the evil that we are in, in that Jerusalem is waste, and its gates have been burnt with fire; come and we build the wall of Jerusalem, and we are not any more a reproach.’ ¹⁸And I declare to them the hand of my God that is good upon me, and also the words of the king that he said to me, and they say, ‘Let us rise, and we have built;’ and they strengthen their hands for good. ¹⁹And Sanballat the Horonite heareth, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, and they mock at us, and despise us, and say, ‘What is this thing that ye are doing? against the king are ye rebelling?’ ²⁰And I return them word, and say to them, ‘The God of the heavens—He doth give prosperity to us, and we His servants rise and have built; and to you there is no portion, and right, and memorial in Jerusalem.’

Chapter 3