Study Desk

Rise up, for the matter is on you. We also will be with you. Be strong and act.

Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God and went into the room of Johanan the son of Eliashib. And he went there, and he did not eat food, nor did he drink, for he mourned for the perfidy of the exiles.

But the people are many, and it is a time of heavy rain. And we are not able to stand outside. And the work is not of one or two days. For we have greatly sinned in this thing.

Please let our rulers for all the congregation stand, and let all those who have dwelt with foreign women in our cities come at a set time, and with them the elders of every city, and its judges, until the fierce wrath of our God for thismatter has turned from us.

And they gave their hands that they would put away their women. And being guilty they offered a ram of the flock for their sin.

And it happened, when I heard these words, I sat down and wept, and mourned for days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of Heaven.

let Your ear now be open, and Your eyes open, so that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You today, day and night, for Your servants the sons of Israel; and confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both I and my father's house have sinned.

O Lord, I beg You, let Your ear be open to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who delight to fear Your name. And I beg You, bless Your servant today and grant him mercy before this man. For I was cupbearer to theking.

Then the king said to me, For what do you ask? So I prayed to the God of Heaven,

And the king said to me, the queen also sitting beside him, For until when shall your journey be? And when will you return? So it pleased the king, and he sent me; and I set him a time.

also a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, so that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the temple which is for the house, and for the city wall, and for the house into which I shall enter. And the king granted it to me, according to the good hand of my God on me.

Then I passed on to the Fountain Gate, and to the King's Pool. But there was no place for the animal that was under me to pass.

Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good on me, and also the king's words that he had spoken to me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they made their hands strong for good.

O our God, hear. For we are despised. And turn their curse on their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity.

And do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before You. For they have provoked You to anger before the builders.

So we built the wall, and all the wall was joined together to the half of it. For the people had a heart to work.

And I saw. And I rose up and said to the nobles and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and terrible, and fight for your brothers, your sons, and your daughters, yourwives, and your houses.

For each man of the builders had his sword tied by his side, and built. And he who sounded the ram's horn was beside me.

In whatever place you hear the sound of the ram's horn, gather there to us. Our God will fight for us.

For some were saying, With our sons and our daughters, we are many. Let us take up grain for them, so that we may eat and live.