Study Desk

and I said to the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be said, forasmuch as the city, even the home of the sepulchres of my fathers, has been laid waste, and her gates have been devoured with fire?

And the king said to me, For what dost thou ask thus? So I prayed to the God of heaven.

And the king, and his concubine that sat next to him, said to me, For how long will thy journey be, and when wilt thou return? and the proposal was pleasing before the king, and he sent me away, and I appointed him a time.

and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the garden which belongs to the king, that he may give me timber to cover the gates, and for the wall of the city, and for the house into which I shall enter. And the king gave to me, according as the good hand of God was upon me.

And Sanaballat the Aronite heard it, and Tobia the servant, the Ammonite, and it was grievous to them that a man was come to seek good for the children of Israel.

And I passed on to the fountain gate, and to the king’s pool; and there was no room for the beast to pass under me.

And I told them of the hand of God which was good upon me, also about the words of the king which he spoke to me: and I said, Let us arise and build. And their hands were strengthened for the good work.

Hear, O our God, for we have become a scorn; and return thou their reproach upon their head, and make them a scorn in a land of captivity,

And I looked, and arose, and said to the nobles, and to the captains, and to the rest of the people, Be not afraid of them: remember our great and terrible God, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.

In whatsoever place ye shall hear the sound of the cornet, thither gather yourselves together to us; and our God shall fight for us.

And some said, We have borrowed money for the king’s tributes:—our fields, and our vineyards, and houses are pledged.

And now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children are as their children: yet, behold, we are reducing our sons and our daughters to slavery, and some of our daughters are enslaved: and there is no power of our hands, for our fields and our vineyards belong to the nobles.

But as for the former acts of extortion wherein those who were before me oppressed them, they even took of them their last money, forty didrachms for bread and wine; and the very outcasts of them exercised authority over the people: but I did not so, because of the fear of God.

And there came to me for one day one calf, and I had six choice sheep and a goat; and every ten days wine in abundance of all sorts: yet with these I required not the bread of extortion, because the bondage was heavy upon this people.

Remember me, O God, for good, in all that I have done to this people.

And I sent to him, saying, It has not happened according to these words, even as thou sayest, for thou framest them falsely out of thy heart.

For all were trying to alarm us, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from this work, and it shall not be done. Now therefore I have strengthened my hands.

And I came into the house of Semei the son of Dalaia the Son of Metabeel, and he was shut up; and he said, Let us assemble together in the house of God, in the midst of it, and let us shut the doors of it; for they are coming by night to slay thee.

And I observed, and, behold, God had not sent him, for the prophecy was a fable devised against me:

For many in Juda were bound to him by oath, because he was son-in-law of Sechenias the son of Herae; and Jonan his son had taken the daughter of Mesulam the son of Barachia to wife.