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And they gave their hand to send away their wives; and they offered a ram of the flock, as trespass-offering for their guilt.

And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat and wept, and mourned for days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of the heavens,

and said, I beseech thee, Jehovah, God of the heavens, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and keep his commandments.

Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, to hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, confessing the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned.

And I said to the king, Let the king live for ever! Why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lies waste, and its gates are consumed with fire?

And the king said to me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of the heavens.

And the king said to me—the queen also sitting by him,—For how long shall thy journey be, and when wilt thou return? And it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.

and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which [appertains] to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me—but I told no man what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem—and there was no beast with me, except the beast that I rode upon.

And I went on to the fountain-gate, and to the king's pool; and there was no place for the beast under me to pass.

And the rulers did not know whither I went or what I did, for I had not as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work.

And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me; as also of the king's words which he had said unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. And they strengthened their hands for the good [work].

After him repaired the Levites, Rehum the son of Bani. Next to him repaired Hashabiah, the chief of the half district of Keilah, for his district.

Hear, our God, for we are despised, and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in a land of captivity!

And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee; for they have provoked the builders.

But we built the wall; and all the wall was joined together to the half thereof; for the people had a mind to work.

And I looked, and rose up, and said to the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not afraid of them: remember the Lord who is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your houses.

in what place ye hear the sound of the trumpet, thither shall ye assemble to us; our God will fight for us.

Likewise at the same time I said to the people, Let every one with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, that in the night they may be a guard to us, and [be for] labour in the day.

And there were that said, We have borrowed money for the king's tribute upon our fields and vineyards;