Are you pressing claims on loans made to your brothers?’’ Then I raised a large crowd against them 8and said to them,We have done our best to buy back our Jewish brothers who were sold to the nations; will you now sell your brothers so that they must be sold [back] to us?’’ They kept silent, for they found nothing to answer. 9So I continued, What you are doing is not right. You ought to act in a God-fearing way so as not to give our enemies, the nations, room to reproach us. 10I, my brothers, and my servants also have claims of money and grain against them; let us now abandon those claims! 11Give back at once their fields, their vineyards, their olive trees, and their homes, and [abandon] the claims for the hundred pieces of silver, the grain, the wine, and the oil that you have been pressing against them!’’ 12They replied,We shall give them back, and not demand anything of them; we shall do just as you say.’’ Summoning the priests, I put them under oath to keep this promise. 13I also shook out the bosom of my garment and said, So may God shake free of his household and property any man who fails to keep this promise; may he be thus shaken out and stripped.’’ All the assembled answered,Amen,’’ and praised the LORD.The people kept this promise.
14Furthermore, from the day I was commissioned to be governor in the land of Judah—from the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes until his thirty-second year, twelve years in all—neither I nor my brothers ever ate of the governor’s food allowance. 15The former governors who preceded me laid heavy burdens on the people, and took from them for bread and wine more thanb forty shekels of silver. Their servants also tyrannized over the people. But I, out of the fear of God, did not do so. 16I also supported the work on this wall; we did not buy any land, and all my servants were gathered there at the work. 17Although there were at my table, between Jews and prefects, one hundred and fifty men in all, beside those who came to us from surrounding nations; 18and although what was prepared for each day came to one ox, six select sheep, and fowl, all prepared for me, and at ten-day intervals all sorts of wine in abundance— yet I did not resort to the governor’s food allowance, for the [king’s] service lay heavily on the people.
19O my God, remember to my credit all that I have done for this people!
6 When word reached Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a breach remained in it—though at that time I had not yet set up doors in the gateways— 2Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me, saying, Come, let us get together in Kephirim in the Ono valley’’; they planned to do me harm. 3I sent them messengers, saying,I am engaged in a great work and cannot come down, for the work will stop if I leave it in order to come down to you.’’ 4They sent me the same message four times, and I gave them the same answer. 5Sanballat sent me the same message a fifth time by his servant, who had an open letter with him. 6Its text was: `Word has reached the nations, and Geshema too says that you and the Jews are planning to rebel—for which reason you are building the wall—and that you are to be their king. b-Such is the word.-b 7You have also set up prophets in Jerusalem to proclaim about you,There is a king in Judah!’ Word of these things will surely reach the king; so come, let us confer together.’’
8I sent back a message to him, saying, None of these things you mention has occurred; they are figments of your imagination’’—9for they all wished to intimidate us, thinking,They will desist from the work, and it will not get done.’’ Now strengthen my hands!
10Then I visited Shemaiah son of Delaiah son of Mehetabel when he was housebound, and he said,
“Let us meet in the House of God, inside the sanctuary,
And let us shut the doors of the sanctuary, for they are coming to kill you,
By night they are coming to kill you.’’
11I replied, “Will a man like me take flight? Besides, who such as I can go into the sanctuary and live? I will not go in.’’ 12Then I realized that it was not God who sent him, but that he uttered that prophecy about me— Tobiah and Sanballat having hired him—13because he was a hireling, that I might be intimidated and act thus and commit a sin, and so provide them a scandal with which to reproach me.
14“O my God, remember against Tobiah and Sanballat these deeds of theirs,c and against Noadiah the prophetess, and against the other prophets that they wished to intimidate me!’’
15The wall was finished on the twenty-fifth of Elul, after fifty-two days. 16When all our enemies heard it, all the nations round about us were intimidated, and fell very low in their own estimation; they realized that this work had been accomplished by the help of our God.
17Also in those days, the nobles of Judah kept up a brisk correspondence with Tobiah, and Tobiah with them. 18Many in Judah were his confederates, for he was a son-in-law of Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah. 19They would also speak well of him to me, and would divulge my affairs to him. Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.
7 When the wall was rebuilt and I had set up the doors, tasks were assigned to the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites. 2I put Hanani my brother and Hananiah, the captain of the fortress, in charge of Jerusalem, for he was a more trustworthy and God-fearing man than most. 3I said to them, “The gates of Jerusalem are not to be opened until the heat of the day,a and b-before you leave your posts-b let the doors be closed and barred. And assign the inhabitants of Jerusalem to watches, each man to his watch, and each in front of his own house.’’
4The city was broad and large, the people in it were few, and houses were not yet built. 5My God put it into my mind to assemble the nobles, the prefects, and the people, in order to register them by families. I found the genealogical register of those who were the first to come up, and there I found written:
6cThese are the people of the province who came up from among the captive exiles that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had deported, and who returned to Jerusalem and to Judah, each to his own city, 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 sons of Parosh— 2,172; 9the sons of Shephatiah—372; 10the sons of Arah—652; 11the sons of Pahath-moab: the sons of Jeshua and Joab—2,818; 12the sons of Elam—1,254; 13the sons of Zattu—845; 14the sons of Zaccai—760; 15the sons of Binnui—648; 16the sons of Bebai—628; 17the sons of Azgad— 2,322; 18the sons of Adonikam—667; 19the sons of Bigvai—2,067; 20the sons of Adin—655; 21the sons of Ater: Hezekiah—98; 22the sons of Hashum—328; 23the sons of Bezai—324; 24the sons of Hariph—112; 25the sons of Gibeon—95; 26the men of Bethlehem and Netophah—188; 27the men of Anathoth—128; 28the men of Beth-azmaveth—42; 29the men of Kiriath-jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth—743; 30the men of Ramah and Geba—621; 31the men of Michmas—122; 32the men of Bethel and Ai—123; 33the men of the other Nebo—52; 34the sons of the other Elam—1,254; 35the sons of Harim—320; 36the sons of Jericho—345; 37the sons of Lod, Hadid, and Ono—721; 38the sons of Senaah—3,930.
39The priests: the sons of Jedaiah: the house of Jeshua—973; 40the sons of Immer—1,052; 41the sons of Pashhur—1,247; 42the sons of Harim— 1,017.
43The Levites: the sons of Jeshua: Kadmiel, the sons of Hodeiah—74.
44The singers: the sons of Asaph—148.
45The gatekeepers: the sons of Shallum, the sons of Ater, the sons of Talmon, the sons of Akkub, the sons of Hatita, the sons of Shobai—138.
46The temple servants: the sons of Ziha, the sons of Hasupha, the sons of Tabbaoth, 47the sons of Keros, the sons of Siah, the sons of Padon, 48the sons of Lebanah, the sons of Hagabah, the sons of Shalmai, 49the sons of Hanan, the sons of Giddel, the sons of Gahar, 50the sons of Reaiah, the sons of Rezin, the sons of Nekoda, 51the sons of Gazzam, the sons of Uzza, the sons of Paseah, 52the sons of Besai, the sons of Meunim, the sons of Nephishesim, 53the sons of Bakbuk, the sons of Hakupha, the sons of Harhur, 54the sons of Bazlith, the sons of Mehida, the sons of Harsha, 55the sons of Barkos, the sons of Sisera, the sons of Temah, 56the sons of Neziah, the sons of Hatipha.
57The sons of Solomon’s servants: the sons of Sotai, the sons of Sophereth, the sons of Perida, 58the sons of Jala, the sons of Darkon, the sons of Giddel, 59the sons of Shephatiah, the sons of Hattil, the sons of Pochereth-hazzebaim, the sons of Amon.
60The total of temple servants and the sons of Solomon’s servants— 392.
61The following were those who came up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer—they were unable to tell whether their father’s house and descent were Israelite: 62the sons of
