Study Desk

So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.

So we prayed to our God and set watchmen against them day and night, because of them.

So I set men in the lowest part of the place behind the wall in the lurking-places, I even set the people according to their families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows.

And the builders wrought each man having his sword girt upon his loins, and so they built: and the trumpeter with his trumpet next to him.

So we continued labouring at the work: and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning until the stars appeared.

And some said, We are numerous with our sons and our daughters; so we will take corn, and eat, and live.

And I said, The thing which ye do is not good; ye will not so walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the Gentiles our enemies.

And I shook out my garment, and said, So may God shake out every man who shall not keep to this word, from his house, and from his labours, he shall be even thus shaken out, as an outcast and empty. And all the congregation said, Amen, and they praised the Lord: and the people did this thing.

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.

So I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work, and I shall not be able to come down, lest the work should cease: as soon as I shall have finished it, I will come down to you.

So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.

So Esdras the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and every one who had understanding was present to hearken, on the first day of the seventh month.

So all the people departed to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, for they understood the words which he made known to them.

And all the congregation who had returned from the captivity, made booths, and dwelt in booths: for the children of Israel had not done so from the days of Jesus the son of Naue until that day: and there was great joy.

And they took lofty cities, and inherited houses full of all good things, wells dug, vineyards, and oliveyards, and every fruit tree in abundance: so they ate, and were filled, and grew fat, and rioted in thy great goodness.

But when they rested, they did evil again before thee: so thou leftest them in the hands of their enemies, and they ruled over them: and they cried again to thee, and thou heardest them from heaven, and didst deliver them in thy great compassions.

Yet thou didst bear long with them many years, and didst testify to them by thy Spirit by the hand of thy prophets: but they hearkened not; so thou gavest them into the hand of the nations of the land.

For so was the king�s commandment concerning them.

And it appeared very evil to me: so I cast forth all the furniture of the house of Tobias from the treasury.

So all the merchants lodged, and carried on traffic without Jerusalem once or twice.