Study Desk

For we are bondmen; yet our God has not forsaken us in our bondage, but our God has granted mercy in the sight of the kings of Persia, and has cared for us today, to set up the house of our God and to repair its ruins and to give us a secure place in Judah and in Jerusalem.

And yet we have been perverse and have broken thy commandments and have gone and joined ourselves with these filthy peoples and have done according to their works, but thou art merciful; be not thou angry with us, but forgive our sins in thy sight; for thou art compassionate. Leave us a remnant in the world, for there is no one like thee, that we may not perish.

Then Ezra the scribe rose up from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Johanan the son of Elisha; and he sat there, but he neither ate bread nor drank water; for he was sorrowful because of the transgression of the people.

But now the people are many, and it is the rainy season, and we are not able to stand in the street, neither is this a work of one day or two; for our sins are many in this matter.

But if you turn to me and keep my laws and do them, then though your scattered ones were in the uttermost part of heaven, vet I will gather you from thence and bring you to the place that I have chosen to set my name there.

Wherefore the king said to me, Why is your countenance sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of the heart. Then I was exceedingly afraid,

But 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.

Then I went on to the gate of the valley and to the kings pool; but there was no place for the beast that I was riding 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 mocked us, saying, What is this thing that you do? Perhaps you are rebelling against the king?

Then I answered them and said, The God of heaven has delivered us: therefore we are working, standing firm, and building; but you have no right nor memorial nor portion in Jerusalem.

But the fish gate did the sons of Senaah build, who also laid its beams and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars.

And next to them the Tekoites repaired; but their chiefs did not burden themselves with the work of their Lord.

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

But the gate of the fountain Shallum the son of Colhozah the ruler of Mizpeh repaired; he built it and covered it and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars, and the wall of the pool of Siloah by the kings garden, as far as the stairs that go down from the city of David.

BUT when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was grieved and very angry, and he mocked the Jews.

But as for us, we shall continue to build the wall; and the people are building it, and all the wall is completed to the half thereof; for the people have a mind to work.

But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that a time was set to complete the walls of Jerusalem, and the breaches began to be closed, then they were exceedingly grieved,

But I was patient, and I consulted with the elders and with the rulers, and said to them,

Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even to the thirty-second year of Artakhshisht the king, that is, twelve years, I and my brothers were leaders over them, but I never took by force even a donkey of one of them nor did I bother any one of them.

But the former governors who had been before me had enslaved the people and taken from them wine and bread, besides forty shekels of silver; also their servants bore rule over the people, and they were subject to them and were tormented by them; but I did not do so, because of the fear of God.