Nehemiah 2–4

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

¹And Eliashib the high priest riseth, and his brethren the priests, and they build the sheep-gate; they have sanctified it, and set up its doors, even unto the tower of Meah they have sanctified it, unto the tower of Hananeel; ²and by his hand have men of Jericho built; and by their hand hath Zaccur son of Imri built; ³and the fish-gate have sons of Hassenaah built, they have walled it, and set up its doors, its locks, and its bars. ⁴And by their hand hath Merimoth son of Urijah, son of Koz, strengthened; and by his hand hath Meshullam son of Berechiah, son of Meshezabeel, strengthened; and by his hand hath Zadok son of Baana strengthened; ⁵and by his hand have the Tekoites strengthened, and their honourable ones have not brought in their neck to the service of their Lord. ⁶And the old gate have Jehoiada son of Paseah, and Meshullam son of Besodeiah, strengthened; they have walled it, and set up its doors, and its locks, and its bars. ⁷And by their hand hath Melatiah the Gibeonite strengthened, and Jadon the Meronothite, men of Gibeon and of Mizpah, to the throne of the governor beyond the River. ⁸By his hand hath Uzziel son of Harhaiah of the refiners strengthened; and by his hand hath Hananiah son of one of the compounders strengthened; and they leave Jerusalem unto the broad wall. ⁹And by their hand hath Rephaiah son of Hur, head of the half of the district of Jerusalem, strengthened. ¹⁰And by their hand hath Jedaiah son of Harumaph strengthened, and over-against his own house; and by his hand hath Hattush son of Hashabniah strengthened. ¹¹A second measure hath Malchijah son of Harim strengthened, and Hashub son of Pahath-Moab, even the tower of the furnaces. ¹²And by his hand hath Shallum son of Halohesh, head of the half of the district of Jerusalem, strengthened, he and his daughters. ¹³The gate of the valley hath Hanun strengthened, and the inhabitants of Zanoah; they have built it, and set up its doors, its locks, and its bars, and a thousand cubits in the wall unto the dung-gate. ¹⁴And the dung-gate hath Malchijah son of Rechab, head of the district of Beth-Haccerem, strengthened; he doth built it, and set up its doors, its locks, and its bars. ¹⁵And the gate of the fountain hath Shallum son of Col-Hozeh, head of the district of Mizpah, strengthened: he doth build it, and cover it, and set up its doors, its locks, and its bars, and the wall of the pool of Siloah, to the garden of the king, and unto the steps that are going down from the city of David. ¹⁶After him hath Nehemiah son of Azbuk, head of the half of the district of Beth-Zur, strengthened, unto over-against the graves of David, and unto the pool that is made, and unto the house of the mighty ones. ¹⁷After him have the Levites strengthened, and Rehum son of Bani: by his hand hath Hashabiah, head of the half of the district of Keilah, strengthened, for his district. ¹⁸After him have their brethren strengthened, and Bavvai son of Henadad, head of the half of the district of Keilah. ¹⁹And Ezer son of Jeshua, head of Mizpah, doth strengthen, by his hand, a second measure, from over-against the ascent of the armoury at the angle. ²⁰After him hath Baruch son of Zabbai hastened to strengthen a second measure from the angle unto the opening of the house of Eliashib the high priest. ²¹After him hath Meremoth son of Urijah, son of Koz, strengthened, a second measure, from the opening of the house of Eliashib even unto the completion of the house of Eliashib. ²²And after him have the priests, men of the circuit, strengthened. ²³After them hath Benjamin strengthened, and Hashub, over-against their house; after him hath Azariah son of Maaseiah, son of Ananiah, strengthened, near his house. ²⁴After him hath Binnui son of Henadad strengthened, a second measure, from the house of Azariah unto the angle, and unto the corner. ²⁵Palal son of Uzai, from over-against the angle, and the tower that is going out from the upper house of the king that is at the court of the prison; after him Pedaiah son of Parosh. ²⁶And the Nethinim have been dwelling in Ophel, unto over-against the water-gate at the east, and the tower that goeth out. ²⁷After him have the Tekoites strengthened, a second measure, from over-against the great tower that goeth out, and unto the wall of Ophel. ²⁸From above the horse-gate have the priests strengthened, each over-against his house. ²⁹After them hath Zadok son of Immer strengthened, over against his house; and after him hath Shemaiah son of Shechaniah, keeper of the east gate, strengthened. ³⁰After him hath Hananiah son of Shelemiah strengthened, and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph, a second measure; after him hath Meshullam son of Berechiah strengthened, over-against his chamber. ³¹After him hath Malchijah son of the refiner strengthened, unto the house of the Nethinim, and of the merchants, over-against the gate of the Miphkad, and unto the ascent of the corner. ³²And between the ascent of the corner and the sheep-gate, have the refiners and the merchants strengthened.

Chapter 4

¹And it cometh to pass, when Sanballat hath heard that we are building the wall, that it is displeasing to him, and he is very angry and mocketh at the Jews, ²and saith before his brethren and the force of Samaria, yea, he saith, ‘What are the weak Jews doing? are they left to themselves? do they sacrifice? do they complete in a day? do they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish?—and they burnt!’ ³And Tobiah the Ammonite is by him and saith, ‘Also, that which they are building—if a fox doth go up, then it hath broken down their stone wall.’ ⁴Hear, O our God, for we have been despised; and turn back their reproach on their own head, and give them for a spoil in a land of captivity; ⁵and do not cover over their iniquity, and their sin from before Thee let not be blotted out, for they have provoked to anger—over-against those building. ⁶And we build the wall, and all the wall is joined—unto its half, and the people have a heart to work.

⁷And it cometh to pass, when Sanballat hath heard, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, that lengthening hath gone up to the walls of Jerusalem, that the breeches have begun to be stopped, then it is very displeasing to them, ⁸and they conspire, all of them together, to come in…