that our God may lighten our, in affinity with the people of eyes, and give us a little reviv- these abominations ? wouldest ing in our bondage. not thou be angry with us till 9 For we were bondmen; thou hadst consumed us, so yet our God hath not forsaken that there should be no remus in our bondage, but hath ex- nant nor escaping? tended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. 10 And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments, 11 Which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their unclean ness. 12 Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever: that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever. 15 O LORD God of Israel, thou art righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before thee in our trespasses for we cannot stand before thee because of this. CHAP. X. NOW when Ezra had pray ed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept very sore. 2 And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We have trespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of the land: yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. 3 Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put 13 And after all that is come away all the wives, and such as upon us for our evil deeds, and are born of them, according to for our great trespass, seeing the counsel of my lord, and that thou our God hast punish- of those that tremble at the ed us less than our iniquities commandment of our God; deserve, and hast given us such and let it be done according to deliverance as this; the law. 14 Should we again break thy commandments, and join 4 Arise; for this matter belongeth unto thee: we also will be with thee: be of good cou- from the congregation of those rage, and do it. that had been carried away. 5 Then arose Ezra, and made the chief priests, the Levites, and all Israel, to swear that they should do according to this word. And they sware. 6 Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of Johanan the son of Eliashib and when he came thither, he did eat no bread, nor drink water: for he mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carried away. 7 And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together unto Jerusalem; 8 And that whosoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his substance should be for feited, and himself separated 9 Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month and the twentieth day of the month; and all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain. 10 And Ezra the priest stood up, and said unto them, Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of Israel. 11 Now therefore make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives. 12 Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said, so must we do. THE CHAP. I. NEHEMIAH. HE words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. 3 And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and 2 That Hanani, one of my reproach: the wall of Jerusabrethren, came, he and certain lem also is broken down, and men of Judah; and I asked the gates thereof are burned them concerning the Jews that with fire. 4 And it came to pass thou hast redeemed by thy when I heard these words, that great power, and by thy strong I sat down and wept, and hand. mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven, 11 O LORD, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, 5 And said, I beseech thee, and to the prayer of thy serO LORD God of heaven, the vants, who desire to fear thy great and terrible God, that name: and prosper, I pray keepeth covenant and mercy thee, thy servant this day, and for them that love him and ob-grant him mercy in the sight of serve his commandments: this man. For I was the king's CHAP. II. 6 Let thine ear now be at- cupbearer. tentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and AND it came to pass in the night, for the children of Israel month Nisan, in the twenthy servants, and confess the tieth year of Artaxerxes the sins of the children of Israel, king, that wine was before which we have sinned against him: and I took up the wine, thee both I and my father's and gave it unto the king. house have sinned. Now I had not been beforetime 7 We have dealt very cor- sad in his presence. ruptly against thee, and have 2 Wherefore the king said not kept the commandments, unto me, Why is thy countenor the statutes, nor the judg-nance sad, seeing thou art not ments, which thou commaud- sick? this is nothing else but edst thy servant Moses. sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid, 8 Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou command- 3 And said unto the king, edst thy servant Moses, saying, Let the king live for ever: If ye transgress, I will scatter why should not my counteyou abroad among the nations: nance be sad, when the city, 9 But if ye turn unto me, the place of my fathers' sepuland keep my commandments, chres, lieth waste, and the and do them; though there gates thereof are consumed were of you cast out unto the with fire? uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there. 10 Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom 4 Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it. 6 And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me and I set him a time. with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon. 13 And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates fire. 7 Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let thereof were consumed with letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah; 8 And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me. 9 Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. 10 When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. 11 So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days. 12 And I arose in the night, I and some few men 14 Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king's pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass. 15 Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned. 16 And the rulers knew not whither I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work. 17 Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. 18 Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for he that sounded the trumpet this good work. was by me. CHAP. IV. 6 So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work. 19 ¶ And I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall, one far from another. 20 In what place therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us : our God shall fight for us. 21 So we laboured in the 7 ¶ But it came to pass, that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ash- work: and half of them held dodites, heard that the walls of the spears from the rising of Jerusalem were made up, and the morning till the stars apthat the breaches began to be peared. stopped, then they were very wroth, 8 And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it. 9 Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them. 16 And it came to pass from that time forth, that the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the the spears, shields, and the bows, and the habergeous; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah. 22 Likewise at the same time said I unto the people, Let every one with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, that in the night they may be a guard to us, and labour on the day. 23 So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard which followed me, none of us put off our clothes, saving that every one put them off for washing. CHAP. VI. 15 So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days. 17 They which builded on the wall, and they that bare 16 And it came to pass, burdens, with those that laded, that when all our enemies every one with one of his hands heard thereof, and all the heawrought in the work, and with then that were about us saw the other hand held a weapon. these things, they were much 18 For the builders, every cast down in their own eyes: one had his sword girded by for they perceived that this his side, and so builded. And work was wrought of our God. |