Study Desk

I pray thee, let thine eares be attet, & thine eies open, to heare the praier of thy seruat, which I pray before thee dayly, day & night for ye childre of Israel thy seruats, & confesse the sinnes of the children of Israel, which we haue sinned against thee, both I and my fathers house haue sinned:

O Lord, I beseech thee, let thine eare now hearken to the prayer of thy seruant, and to the prayer of thy seruants, who desire to feare thy Name, & I pray thee, cause thy seruant to prosper this day, and giue him fauour in the presence of this man: for I was the Kings butler.

And I said to the King, God saue the King for euer: why should not my countenance be sad, when the citie & house of the sepulchres of my fathers lieth waste, and the gates thereof are deuoured with fire?

And the King said vnto me, For what thing doest thou require? Then I prayed to the God of heauen,

And letters vnto Asaph the keeper of the Kings parke, that hee may giue me timber to buylde the gates of the palace (which apperteined to the house) and for the walles of the citie, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the King gaue me according to the good hand of my God vpon me.

And I rose in the night, I, and a fewe men with me: for I told no man, what God had put in mine heart to do at Ierusalem, & there was not a beast with me, saue the beast whereon I rode.

Then I went foorth vnto the gate of the fountaine, and to the Kings fishpoole, and there was no rowme for the beast that was vnder me to passe.

Then answered I them, and sayd to them, The God of heauen, he will prosper vs, and we his seruants will rise vp and buylde: but as for you, ye haue no portion nor right, nor memoriall in Ierusalem.

Heare, O our God (for we are despised) and turne their shame vpon their owne head, and giue them vnto a pray in the lande of their captiuitie,

And couer not their iniquitie, neither let their sinne be put out in thy presence: for they haue prouoked vs before the builders.

But when Sanballat, & Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodims heard that the walles of Ierusalem were repayred, (for the breaches began to be stopped) then they were very wroth,

Then I behelde, and rose vp, and said vnto the Princes, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not afrayde of them: remember the great Lorde, and fearefull, and fight for your brethren, your sonnes, and your daughters, your wiues, and your houses.

For euery one of the buylders had his sworde girded on his loynes, and so buylded: and he that blewe the trumpet, was beside me.

In what place therefore ye heare the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither vnto vs: our God shall fight for vs.

And at the same time said I vnto the people, Let euery one with his seruant lodge within Ierusalem, that they may be a watch for vs in the night, and labour in the day.

So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my seruants, nor the men of the warde, (which followed me) none of vs did put off our clothes, saue euery one put them off for washing.

For there were that said, We, our sonnes & our daughters are many, therefore we take vp corne, that we may eate and liue.

And there were that saide, We must gage our landes, and our vineyardes, and our houses, and take vp corne for the famine.

There were also that said, We haue borowed money for the Kings tribute vpon our landes and our vineyardes.

And nowe our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, and our sonnes as their sonnes: and lo, we bring into subiection our sonnes and our daughters, as seruants, and there be of our daughters nowe in subiection, and there is no power in our handes: for other men haue our landes and our vineyardes.