How is it that you look bad, though you are not ill? It must be bad thoughts.’’ I was very frightened, 3but I answered the king,May the king live forever! How should I not look bad when the city of the graveyard of my ancestors lies in ruins, and its gates have been consumed by fire?’’ 4The king said to me, What is your request?’’ With a prayer to the God of Heaven, 5I answered the king,If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, send me to Judah, to the city of my ancestors’ graves, to rebuild it.’’ 6With the consort seated at his side, the king said to me, How long will you be gone and when will you return?’’ So it was agreeable to the king to send me, and I gave him a date. 7Then I said to the king,If it please the king, let me have letters to the governors of the province of Beyond the River, directing them to grant me passage until I reach Judah; 8likewise, a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the King’s Park, directing him to give me timber for roofing the gatehouses of the temple fortress and the city walls and for the house I shall occupy.’’ The king gave me these, thanks to my God’s benevolent care for me. 9When I came to the governors of the province of Beyond the River I gave them the king’s letters. The king also sent army officers and cavalry with me.
10When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard, it displeased them greatly that someone had come, intent on improving the condition of the Israelites.
11I arrived in Jerusalem. After I was there three days 12I got up at night, I and a few men with me, and telling no one what my God had put into my mind to do for Jerusalem, and taking no other beast than the one on which I was riding, 13I went out by the Valley Gate, at night, toward the Jackals’ Spring and the Dung Gate; and I surveyed the walls of Jerusalem that were breached, and its gates, consumed by fire. 14I proceeded to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool, where there was no room for the beast under me to continue. 15So I went up the wadi by night, surveying the wall, and, entering again by the Valley Gate, I returned. 16The prefects knew nothing of where I had gone or what I had done, since I had not yet divulged it to the Jews—the priests, the nobles, the prefects, or the rest of the officials.
17Then I said to them, You see the bad state we are in—Jerusalem lying in ruins and its gates destroyed by fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and suffer no more disgrace.’’ 18I told them of my God’s benevolent care for me, also of the things that the king had said to me, and they said,Let us start building!’’ They were encouraged by [His] benevolence.
19When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard, they mocked us and held us in contempt and said, What is this that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?’’ 20I said to them in reply,The God of Heaven will grant us success, and we, His servants, will start building. But you have no share or claim or stakea in Jerusalem!’’
3 Then Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests set to and rebuilt the Sheep Gate; they consecrated it and set up its doors, consecrating it as far as the Hundred’s Tower, as far as the Tower of Hananel. 2Next to him, the men of Jericho built. Next to them,a Zaccur son of Imri. 3The sons of Hassenaah rebuilt the Fish Gate; they roofed it and set up its doors, locks, and bars. 4Next to them, Meremoth son of Uriah son of Hakkoz repaired; and next to him,b Meshullam son of Berechiah son of Meshezabel. Next to him,b Zadok son of Baana repaired. 5Next to him,b the Tekoites repaired, though their nobles would not c-take upon their shoulders-c the work of their lord. 6Joiada son of Paseah and Meshullam son of Besodeiah repaired the Jeshanah Gate; they roofed it and set up its doors, locks, and bars. 7Next to them, Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite repaired, [with] the men of Gibeon and Mizpah, d-under the jurisdiction-d of the governor of the province of Beyond the River. 8Next to them,a Uzziel son of Harhaiah, [of the] smiths, repaired. Next to him, Hananiah, ofe the perfumers. They restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall. 9Next to them, Rephaiah son of Hur, chief of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired. 10Next to him,b Jedaiah son of Harumaph repaired in front of his house. Next to him, Hattush son of Hashabneiah repaired. 11Malchijah son of Harim and Hasshub son of Pahathmoab repaired a second stretch, including the Tower of Ovens. 12Next to them,a Shallum son of Hallohesh,f chief of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired—he and his daughters. 13Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired the Valley Gate; they rebuilt it and set up its doors, locks, and bars. And [they also repaired] a thousand cubits of wall to the Dung Gate. 14Malchijah son of Rechab, chief of the district of Beth-haccherem, repaired the Dung Gate; he rebuilt it and set up its doors, locks, and bars. 15Shallun son of Col-hozeh, chief of the district of Mizpah, repaired the Fountain Gate; he rebuilt it and covered it, and set up its doors, locks, and bars, as well as the wall of the irrigationg pool of the King’s Garden as far as the steps going down from the City of David. 16After him, Nehemiah son of Azbuk, chief of half the district of Beth-zur, repaired, from in front of the graves of David as far as the artificial pool, and as far as the House of the Warriors. 17After him, the Levites repaired: Rehum son of Bani. Next to him, Hashabiah, chief of half the district of Keilah, repaired for his district. 18After him, their brothers repaired: Bavvai son of Henadad, chief of half the district of Keilah. 19Next to him, Ezer son of Jeshua, the chief of Mizpah, repaired a second stretch, from in front of the ascent to the armory [at] the angle [of the wall]. 20After him, Baruch son of Zaccai zealously repaired a second stretch, from the angle to the entrance to the house of Eliashib, the high priest. 21After him, Meremoth son of Uriah son of Hakkoz repaired a second stretch, from the entrance to Eliashib’s house to the end of Eliashib’s house. 22After him, the priests, inhabitants of the plain, repaired. 23After them,a Benjamin and Hasshub repaired in front of their houses. After them,a Azariah son of Maaseiah son of Ananiah repaired beside his house. 24After him, Binnui son of Henadad repaired a second stretch, from the house of Azariah to the angle, to the corner. 25Palal son of Uzai—from in front of the angle and the tower that juts out of the house of the king, the upper [tower] of the prison compound. After him, Pedaiah son of Parosh. (26The temple servants were living on the Ophel, as far as a point in front of the Water Gate in the east, and the jutting tower.) 27After him, the Tekoites repaired a second stretch, from in front of the great jutting tower to the wall of the Ophel. 28Above the Horse Gate, the priests repaired, each in front of his house. 29After them,a Zadok son of Immer repaired in front of his house. After him, Shemaiah son of Shechaniah, keeper of the East Gate, repaired. 30After him, Hananiah son of Shelemiah and Hanun, the sixth son of Zalaph, repaired a second stretch. After them,a Meshullam son of Berechiah repaired in front of his chamber. 31After him, Malchijah of the smiths repaired as far as the house of the temple servants and the merchants, [from] in front of the Muster Gate to the corner loft. 32And between the corner loft to the Sheep Gate the smiths and the merchants repaired.
33When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, it angered him, and he was extremely vexed. He mocked the Jews, 34saying in the presence of his brothers and the Samarian force, What are the miserable Jews doing? Will they restore, offer sacrifice, and finish one day? Can they revive those stones out of the dust heaps, burned as they are?’’ 35Tobiah the Ammonite, alongside him, said,That stone wall they are building— if a fox climbed it he would breach it!’’
36Hear, our God, how we have become a mockery, and return their taunts upon their heads! Let them be taken as spoil to a land of captivity! 37Do not cover up their iniquity or let their sin be blotted out before You, for they hurled provocations at the builders.
38We rebuilt the wall till it was continuous all around to half its height; for the people’s heart was in the work.
4 When Sanballat and Tobiah, and the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that healing had come to the walls of Jerusalem, that the breached parts had begun to be filled, it angered them very much, 2and they all conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to throw it into confusion. 3Because of them we prayed to our
