Nehemiah 1-7

Nehemiah 1

¹The history of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah. Now it came about, in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, when I was in Shushan, the king's town,

²That Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah; and in answer to my request for news of the Jews who had been prisoners and had got away, and of Jerusalem,

³They said to me, The small band of Jews now living there in the land are in great trouble and shame: the wall of Jerusalem has been broken down, and its doorways burned with fire.

⁴Then, after hearing these words, for some days I gave myself up to weeping and sorrow, seated on the earth; and taking no food I made prayer to the God of heaven,

⁵And said, O Lord, the God of heaven, the great God, greatly to be feared, keeping faith and mercy with those who have love for him and are true to his laws:

⁶Let your ear now take note and let your eyes be open, so that you may give ear to the prayer of your servant, which I make before you at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel, your servants, while I put before you the sins of the children of Israel, which we have done against you: truly, I and my father's people are sinners.

⁷We have done great wrong against you, and have not kept the orders, the rules, and the decisions, which you gave to your servant Moses.

⁸Keep in mind, O Lord, the order you gave your servant Moses, saying, If you do wrong I will send you wandering among the peoples:

⁹But if you come back to me and keep my orders and do them, even if those of you who have been forced out are living in the farthest parts of heaven, I will get them from there, and take them back to the place marked out by me for the resting-place of my name.

¹⁰Now these are your servants and your people, whom you have made yours by your great power and by your strong hand.

¹¹O Lord, let your ear take note of the prayer of your servant, and of the prayers of your servants, who take delight in worshipping your name: give help, O Lord, to your servant this day, and let him have mercy in the eyes of this man. (Now I was the king's wine-servant.)

Nehemiah 2

¹And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, when wine was before him, that I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never before been sad when the king was present.

²And the king said to me, Why is your face sad, seeing that you are not ill? this is nothing but sorrow of heart. Then I was full of fear;

³And said to the king, May the king be living for ever: is it not natural for my face to be sad, when the town, the place where the bodies of my fathers are at rest, has been made waste and its doorways burned with fire?

⁴Then the king said to me, What is your desire? So I made prayer to the God of heaven.

⁵And I said to the king, If it is the king's pleasure, and if your servant has your approval, send me to Judah, to the town where the bodies of my fathers are at rest, so that I may take in hand the building of it.

⁶And the king said to me (the queen being seated by his side), How long will your journey take, and when will you come back? So the king was pleased to send me, and I gave him a fixed time.

⁷Further, I said to the king, If it is the king's pleasure, let letters be given to me for the rulers across the river, so that they may let me go through till I come to Judah;

⁸And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's park, so that he may give me wood to make boards for the doors of the tower of the house, and for the wall of the town, and for the house which is to be mine. And the king gave me this, for the hand of my God was on me.

⁹Then I came to the rulers of the lands across the river and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent with me captains of the army and horsemen.

¹⁰And Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, hearing of it, were greatly troubled because a man had come to the help of the children of Israel.

¹¹So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days.

¹²And in the night I got up, taking with me a small band of men; I said nothing to any man of what God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem: and I had no beast with me but the one on which I was seated.

¹³And I went out by night, through the doorway of the valley, and past the dragon's water-spring as far as the place where waste material was put, viewing the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down, and the doorways which had been burned with fire.

¹⁴Then I went on to the door of the fountain and to the king's pool: but there was no room for my beast to get through.

¹⁵Then in the night, I went up by the stream, viewing the wall; then turning back, I went in by the door in the valley, and so came back.

¹⁶And the chiefs had no knowledge of where I had been or what I was doing; and I had not then said anything to the Jews or to the priests or the great ones or the chiefs or the rest of those who were doing the work.

¹⁷Then I said to them, You see what a bad condition we are in; how Jerusalem is a waste, and its doorways burned with fire: come, let us get to work, building up the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer be put to shame.

¹⁸Then I gave them an account of how the hand of my God was on me, helping me; and of the king's words which he had said to me. And they said, Let us get to work on the building. So they made their hands strong for the good work.

¹⁹But Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, hearing of it, made sport of us, laughing at us and saying, What are you doing? will you go against the king?

²⁰Then answering them I said, The God of heaven, he will be our help; so we his servants will go on with our building: but you have no part or right or any name in Jerusalem.

Nehemiah 3

¹Then Eliashib, the chief priest, got up with his brothers the priests, and took in hand the building of the sheep doorway; they made it holy and put its doors in position; as far as the tower of Hammeah they made it holy, even to the tower of Hananel.

²And by his side the men of Jericho were building. And after them, Zaccur, the son of Imri.

³The sons of Hassenaah were the builders of the fish doorway; they put its boards in place and put up its doors, with their locks and rods.

⁴By their side Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz, was making good the walls. Then Meshullam, the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabel; and by him, Zadok, the son of Baana.

⁵Near them, the Tekoites were at work; but their chiefs did not put their necks to the work of their Lord.

⁶Joiada, the son of Paseah, and Meshullam, the son of Besodeiah, made good the old doorway; they put its boards in place and put up its doors, with their locks and rods.

⁷By their side were working Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah from the seat of the ruler across the river.

⁸Near them was working Uzziel, the son of Harhaiah, the gold-worker. And by him was Hananiah, one of the perfume-makers, building up Jerusalem as far as the wide wall.

⁹Near them was working Rephaiah, the son of Hur, the ruler of half Jerusalem.

¹⁰By his side was Jedaiah, the son of Harumaph, opposite his house. And by him was Hattush, the son of Hashabneiah.

¹¹Malchijah, the son of Harim, and Hasshub, the son of Pahath-moab, were working on another part, and the tower of the ovens.

¹²Near them was Shallum, the son of Hallohesh, the ruler of half Jerusalem, with his daughters.

¹³Hanun and the people of Zanoah were working on the doorway of the valley; they put it up and put up its doors, with their locks and rods, and a thousand cubits of wall as far as the doorway where the waste material was placed.

¹⁴And Malchijah, the son of Rechab, the ruler of the division of Beth-haccherem, made good the doorway of the waste, building it up and putting up its doors, with their locks and rods.

¹⁵And Shallun, the son of Col-hozeh, the ruler of the division of Mizpah, made good the doorway of the fountain, building it up and covering it and putting up its doors, with their locks and rods, with the wall of the pool of Shelah by the king's garden, as far as the steps which go down from the town of David.

¹⁶By his side was working Nehemiah, the son of Azbuk, ruler of half the division of Beth-zur, as far as the place opposite the last resting-places of David's family, and the pool which was made and the house of the men of war.

¹⁷Then came the Levites, Rehum, the son of Bani. By his side was working Hashabiah, ruler of half the division of Keilah, for his division.

¹⁸After him were working their brothers, Bavvai, the son of Henadad, ruler of half the division of Keilah.

¹⁹And by his side was working Ezer, the son of Jeshua, the ruler of Mizpah, making good another part opposite the way up to the store of arms at the turning of the wall.

²⁰After him Baruch, the son of Zabbai, was hard at work on another part, from the turning of the wall to the door of the house of Eliashib, the chief priest.

²¹After him Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz, was working on another part, from the door of the house of Eliashib as far as the end of his house.

²²After him were working the priests, the men of the lowland.

²³After them came Benjamin and Hasshub, opposite their house. After them Azariah, the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ananiah, made good the wall by the house where he himself was living.

²⁴After him Binnui, the son of Henadad, was working on another part, from the house of Azariah as far as the turning of the wall and the angle.

²⁵Palal, the son of Uzai, made good the wall opposite the angle and the tower which comes out from the higher part of the king's house, by the open space of the watch. After him was Pedaiah, the son of Parosh.

²⁶(Now the Nethinim were living in the Ophel, as far as the place facing the water doorway to the east, and the tower which comes out.)

²⁷After him the Tekoites were making good another part, opposite the great tower which comes out, and up to the wall of the Ophel.

²⁸Further on, past the horse doorway, the priests were at work, every one opposite his house.

²⁹After them Zadok, the son of Immer, was working opposite his house. And after him Shemaiah, the son of Shecaniah, the keeper of the east door.

³⁰After him Hananiah, the son of Shelemiah, and Hanun, the sixth son of Zalaph, were making good another part. After him Meshullam, the son of Berechiah, made good the wall opposite his room.

³¹After him Malchijah, one of the gold-workers to the Nethinim and the traders, made good the wall opposite the doorway of Hammiphkad and as far as the way up to the angle.

³²And between the way up to the angle and the sheep door, the gold-workers and the traders made good the wall.

Nehemiah 4

¹Now, Sanballat, hearing that we were building the wall, was very angry, and in his wrath made sport of the Jews.

²And in the hearing of his countrymen and the army of Samaria he said, What are these feeble Jews doing? will they make themselves strong? will they make offerings? will they get the work done in a day? will they make the stones which have been burned come again out of the dust?

³Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Such is their building that if a fox goes up it, their stone wall will be broken down.

⁴Give ear, O our God, for we are looked down on: let their words of shame be turned back on themselves, and let them be given up to wasting in a land where they are prisoners:

⁵Let not their wrongdoing be covered or their sin washed away from before you: for they have made you angry before the builders.

⁶So we went on building the wall; and all the wall was joined together half-way up: for the people were working hard.

⁷But when it came to the ears of Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites, that the building of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and the broken places were being made good, they were full of wrath;

⁸And they made designs, all of them together, to come and make an attack on Jerusalem, causing trouble there.

⁹But we made our prayer to God, and had men on watch against them day and night because of them.

¹⁰And Judah said, The strength of the workmen is giving way, and there is much waste material; it is impossible for us to put up the wall.

¹¹And those who were against us said, Without their knowledge and without their seeing us, we will come among them and put them to death, causing the work to come to a stop.

¹²And it came about that when the Jews who were living near them came, they said to us ten times, From all directions they are coming against us.

¹³So in the lowest part of the space at the back of the walls, in the open places, I put the people by families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows.

¹⁴And after looking, I got up and said to the great ones and to the chiefs and to the rest of the people, Have no fear of them: keep in mind the Lord who is great and greatly to be feared, and take up arms for your brothers, your sons, and your daughters, your wives and your houses.

¹⁵And when it came to the ears of those who were against us, that we had knowledge of their designs and that God had made their purpose come to nothing, we all went back to the wall, everyone to his work

¹⁶And from that time, half of my servants were doing their part of the work, and half kept the spears and body-covers and the bows and the metal war-dresses; and the chiefs were at the back of the men of Judah.

¹⁷Those who were building the wall and those who were moving material did their part, everyone working with one hand, with his spear in the other;

¹⁸Every builder was working with his sword at his side. And by my side was a man for sounding the horn.

¹⁹And I said to the great ones and the chiefs and the rest of the people, The work is great and widely spaced and we are far away from one another on the wall:

²⁰Wherever you may be when the horn is sounded, come here to us; our God will be fighting for us.

²¹So we went on with the work: and half of them had spears in their hands from the dawn of the morning till the stars were seen.

²²And at the same time I said to the people, Let everyone with his servant come inside Jerusalem for the night, so that at night they may keep watch for us, and go on working by day.

²³So not one of us, I or my brothers or my servants or the watchmen who were with me, took off his clothing, everyone went armed to the water.

Nehemiah 5

¹Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their countrymen the Jews.

²For there were some who said, We, our sons and our daughters, are a great number: let us get grain, so that we may have food for our needs.

³And there were some who said, We are giving our fields and our vine-gardens and our houses for debt: let us get grain because we are in need.

⁴And there were others who said, We have given up our fields and our vine-gardens to get money for the king's taxes.

⁵But our flesh is the same as the flesh of our countrymen, and our children as their children: and now we are giving our sons and daughters into the hands of others, to be their servants, and some of our daughters are servants even now: and we have no power to put a stop to it; for other men have our fields and our vine-gardens.

⁶And on hearing their outcry and what they said I was very angry.

⁷And after turning it over in my mind, I made a protest to the chiefs and the rulers, and said to them, Every one of you is taking interest from his countryman. And I got together a great meeting of protest.

⁸And I said to them, We have given whatever we were able to give, to make our brothers the Jews free, who were servants and prisoners of the nations: and would you now give up your brothers for a price, and are they to become our property? Then they said nothing, answering not a word.

⁹And I said, What you are doing is not good: is it not the more necessary for you to go in the fear of our God, because of the shame which the nations may put on us?

¹⁰Even I and my servants have been taking interest for the money and the grain we have let them have. So now, let us give up this thing.

¹¹Give back to them this very day their fields, their vine-gardens, their olive-gardens, and their houses, as well as a hundredth part of the money and the grain and the wine and the oil which you have taken from them.

¹²Then they said, We will give them back, and take nothing for them; we will do as you say. Then I sent for the priests and made them take an oath that they would keep this agreement.

¹³And shaking out the folds of my robe, I said, So may God send out from his house and his work every man who does not keep this agreement; even so let him be sent out and made as nothing. And all the meeting of the people said, So be it, and gave praise to the Lord. And the people did as they had said.

¹⁴Now from the time when I was made ruler of the people in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year till the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, for twelve years, I and my servants have never taken the food which was the right of the ruler.

¹⁵But earlier rulers who were before me made the people responsible for their upkeep, and took from them bread and wine at the rate of forty shekels of silver; and even their servants were lords over the people: but I did not do so, because of the fear of God.

¹⁶And I kept on with the work of this wall, and we got no land for ourselves: and all my servants were helping with the work.

¹⁷And more than this, a hundred and fifty of the Jews and the rulers were guests at my table, in addition to those who came to us from the nations round about us.

¹⁸Now the food made ready for one day was one ox and six fat sheep, as well as fowls; and once in ten days a store of all sorts of wine: but all the same, I did not take the food to which the ruler had a right, because the people were crushed under a hard yoke.

¹⁹Keep in mind, O my God, for my good, all I have done for this people.

Nehemiah 6

¹Now when word was given to Sanballat and Tobiah and to Geshem the Arabian and to the rest of our haters, that I had done the building of the wall and that there were no more broken places in it (though even then I had not put up the doors in the doorways);

²Sanballat and Geshem sent to me saying, Come, let us have a meeting in one of the little towns in the lowland of Ono. But their purpose was to do me evil.

³And I sent men to them saying, I am doing a great work, so that it is not possible for me to come down: is the work to be stopped while I go away from it and come down to you?

⁴And four times they sent to me in this way, and I sent them the same answer.

⁵Then Sanballat sent his servant to me a fifth time with an open letter in his hand;

⁶And in it these words were recorded: It is said among the nations, and Geshem says so, that you and the Jews are hoping to make yourselves free from the king's authority; and that this is why you are building the wall: and they say that it is your purpose to be their king;

⁷And that you have prophets preaching about you in Jerusalem, and saying, There is a king in Judah: now an account of these things will be sent to the king. So come now, and let us have a discussion.

⁸Then I sent to him, saying, No such things as you say are being done, they are only a fiction you have made up yourself.

⁹For they were hoping to put fear in us, saying, Their hands will become feeble and give up the work so that it may not get done. But now, O God, make my hands strong.

¹⁰And I went to the house of Shemaiah, the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut up; and he said, Let us have a meeting in the house of God, inside the Temple, and let the doors be shut: for they will come to put you to death; truly, in the night they will come to put you to death.

¹¹And I said, Am I the sort of man to go in flight? what man, in my position, would go into the Temple to keep himself safe? I will not go in.

¹²Then it became clear to me that God had not sent him: he had given this word of a prophet against me himself: and Tobiah and Sanballat had given him money to do so.

¹³For this reason they had given him money, in order that I might be overcome by fear and do what he said and do wrong, and so they would have reason to say evil about me and put shame on me.

¹⁴Keep in mind, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat and what they did, and Noadiah, the woman prophet, and the rest of the prophets whose purpose was to put fear into me.

¹⁵So the wall was complete on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.

¹⁶And when our haters had news of this, all the nations round about us were full of fear and were greatly shamed, for they saw that this work had been done by our God.

¹⁷And further, in those days the chiefs of Judah sent a number of letters to Tobiah, and his letters came to them.

¹⁸For in Judah there were a number of people who had made an agreement by oath with him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah, the son of Arah; and his son Jehohanan had taken as his wife the daughter of Meshullam, the son of Berechiah.

¹⁹And they said much before me of the good he had done, and gave him accounts of my words. And Tobiah sent letters with the purpose of causing me fear.

Nehemiah 7

¹Now when the building of the wall was complete and I had put up the doors, and the door-keepers and the music-makers and the Levites had been given their places,

²I made my brother Hanani, and Hananiah, the ruler of the tower, responsible for the government of Jerusalem: for he was a man of good faith, fearing God more than most.

³And I said to them, Do not let the doors of Jerusalem be open till the sun is high; and while the watchmen are in their places, let the doors be shut and locked: and let the people of Jerusalem be put on watch, every one in his watch, opposite his house.

⁴Now the town was wide and great: but the people in it were only a small number, and the houses had not been put up.

⁵And my God put it into my heart to get together the rulers and the chiefs and the people so that they might be listed by families. And I came across a record of the names of those who came up at the first, and in it I saw these words:

⁶These are the people of the divisions of the kingdom, among those who had been made prisoners by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and taken away by him, who went back to Jerusalem and Judah, every one to his town;

⁷Who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:

⁸The children of Parosh, two thousand, one hundred and seventy-two.

⁹The children of Shephatiah, three hundred and seventy-two.

¹⁰The children of Arah, six hundred and fifty-two.

¹¹The children of Pahath-moab, of the children of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand, eight hundred and eighteen.

¹²The children of Elam, a thousand, two hundred and fifty-four.

¹³The children of Zattu, eight hundred and forty-five.

¹⁴The children of Zaccai, seven hundred and sixty.

¹⁵The children of Binnui, six hundred and forty-eight.

¹⁶The children of Bebai, six hundred and twenty-eight.

¹⁷The children of Azgad, two thousand, three hundred and twenty-two.

¹⁸The children of Adonikam, six hundred and sixty-seven.

¹⁹The children of Bigvai, two thousand and sixty-seven.

²⁰The children of Adin, six hundred and fifty-five.

²¹The children of Ater, of Hezekiah, ninety-eight.

²²The children of Hashum, three hundred and twenty-eight.

²³The children of Bezai, three hundred and twenty-four.

²⁴The children of Hariph, a hundred and twelve.

²⁵The children of Gibeon, ninety-five.

²⁶The men of Beth-lehem and Netophah, a hundred and eighty-eight.

²⁷The men of Anathoth, a hundred and twenty-eight.

²⁸The men of Beth-azmaveth, forty-two.

²⁹The men of Kiriath-jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred and forty-three.

³⁰The men of Ramah and Geba, six hundred and twenty-one.

³¹The men of Michmas, a hundred and twenty-two.

³²The men of Beth-el and Ai, a hundred and twenty-three.

³³The men of the other Nebo, fifty-two.

³⁴The children of the other Elam, a thousand, two hundred and fifty-four.

³⁵The children of Harim, three hundred and twenty.

³⁶The children of Jericho, three hundred and forty-five.

³⁷The children of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred and twenty-one.

³⁸The children of Senaah, three thousand, nine hundred and thirty.

³⁹The priests: the children of Jedaiah, of the family of Jeshua, nine hundred and seventy-three.

⁴⁰The children of Immer, a thousand and fifty-two.

⁴¹The children of Pashhur, a thousand, two hundred and forty-seven.

⁴²The children of Harim, a thousand and seventeen.

⁴³The Levites: the children of Jeshua, of Kadmiel, of the children of Hodevah, seventy-four.

⁴⁴The music-makers: the children of Asaph, a hundred and forty-eight.

⁴⁵The door-keepers: the children of Shallum, the children of Ater, the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub, the children of Hatita, the children of Shobai, a hundred and thirty-eight.

⁴⁶The Nethinim: the children of Ziha, the children of Hasupha, the children of Tabbaoth,

⁴⁷The children of Keros, the children of Sia, the children of Padon,

⁴⁸The children of Lebana, the children of Hagaba, the children of Salmai,

⁴⁹The children of Hanan, the children of Giddel, the children of Gahar,

⁵⁰The children of Reaiah, the children of Rezin, the children of Nekoda,

⁵¹The children of Gazzam, the children of Uzza, the children of Paseah,

⁵²The children of Besai, the children of Meunim, the children of Nephushesim,

⁵³The children of Bakbuk, the children of Hakupha, the children of Harhur,

⁵⁴The children of Bazlith, the children of Mehida, the children of Harsha,

⁵⁵The children of Barkos, the children of Sisera, the children of Temah,

⁵⁶The children of Neziah, the children of Hatipha.

⁵⁷The children of Solomon's servants: the children of Sotai, the children of Sophereth, the children of Perida,

⁵⁸The children of Jaala, the children of Darkon, the children of Giddel,

⁵⁹The children of Shephatiah, the children of Hattil, the children of Pochereth-hazzebaim, the children of Amon.

⁶⁰All the Nethinim and the children of Solomon's servants were three hundred and ninety-two.

⁶¹All these were the people who went up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer; but because they had no knowledge of their fathers' families or offspring, it was not certain if they were Israelites:

⁶²The children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the children of Nekoda, six hundred and forty-two.

⁶³And of the priests: the children of Hobaiah, the children of Hakkoz, the children of Barzillai, who was married to one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and took their name.

⁶⁴They made search for their record among the lists of families, but their names were nowhere to be seen, so they were looked on as unclean and no longer priests.

⁶⁵And the Tirshatha said that they were not to have the most holy things for their food, till a priest came to give decision by the Urim and Thummim.

⁶⁶The number of all the people together was forty-two thousand, three hundred and sixty;

⁶⁷As well as their men-servants and their women-servants, of whom there were seven thousand, three hundred and thirty-seven; and they had two hundred and forty-five men and women to make music.

⁶⁸They had seven hundred and thirty-six horses, two hundred and forty-five transport beasts;

⁶⁹Four hundred and thirty-five camels, six thousand, seven hundred and twenty asses.

⁷⁰And some of the heads of families gave money for the work. The Tirshatha gave into the store a thousand darics of gold, fifty basins, five hundred and thirty priests' robes.

⁷¹And some of the heads of families gave into the store for the work twenty thousand darics of gold, and two thousand, two hundred pounds of silver.

⁷²And that which the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand darics of gold, and two thousand pounds of silver, and sixty-seven priests' robes.

⁷³So the priests and the Levites and the door-keepers and the music-makers and some of the people and the Nethinim, and all Israel, were living in their towns.