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But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, that they could not cause them to cease, till the matter came to Darius: and then they returned answer by letter concerning this [matter].

But after that our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to wrath, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house, and carried the people away into Babylon.

But in the first year of Cyrus the king of Babylon, [the same] king Cyrus made a decree to build this house of God.

For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken to the king, saying, The hand of our God [is] upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath [is] against all them that forsake him.

For we [were] bond-men; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy to 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 of it, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.

But the people [are] many, and [it is] a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand abroad, neither [is this] a work of one day or two: for we are many that have transgressed in this thing.

But [if] ye turn to me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you driven to the uttermost part of the heaven, [yet] will I gather them from thence, and will bring them to the place that I have chosen to set my name there.

Wherefore the king said to me, Why [is] thy countenance sad, seeing thou [art] not sick? this [is] nothing but sorrow of heart. Then I was very greatly afraid,

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.

But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard [it], they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What [is] this thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king?

Then I answered them, and said to them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.

But the fish-gate did the sons of Hassenaah build, who [also] laid its beams, and set up its doors, its locks and its bars.

And next to them the Tekoites repaired; but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord.

But the dung-gate repaired Malchiah the son of Rechab, the ruler of part of Beth-haccerem; he built it, and set up its doors, its locks, and its bars.

But the gate of the fountain repaired Shallun the son of Col-hozeh, the ruler of part of Mizpah; he built it, and covered it, and set up its doors, its locks, and its bars, and the wall of the pool of Siloah by the king's garden, and to the stairs that go down from the city of David.

But it came to pass that when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews.

But it came to pass, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were set up, [and] that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth,

But the former governors, that [had been] before me were chargeable to the people, and had taken of them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver; yes, even their servants bore rule over the people: but so did not I, because of the fear of God.

That Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, Come, let us meet together in [some one of] the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief.

Then I sent to him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thy own heart.