Study Desk

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

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

Then I went up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and [so] returned.

Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king's words that he had spoken to me. And they said, Let us rise and build. So they strengthened their hands for [this] good [work].

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

And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and [there is] much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.

For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and [so] built. And he that sounded the trumpet [was] by me.

So we labored in the work: and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared.

So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us put off our clothes, [saving that] every one put them off for washing.

Then said they, We will restore [them], and will require nothing of them; so will we do as thou sayest. Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they would do according to this promise.

Also I shook my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, that performeth not this promise, even thus be he shaken out, and emptied. And all the congregation said, Amen, and praised the LORD. And the people did according to this promise.

But the former governors, that [had been] before me were chargeable to the people, and had taken of them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver; yes, even their servants bore rule over the people: but so did not I, because of the fear of God.

And I sent messengers to them, saying, I [am] doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?

Therefore [was] he hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and [that] they might have [matter] for an evil report, that they might reproach me.

So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth [day] of [the month] Elul, in fifty and two days.

So the priests, and the Levites, and the porters, and the singers, and [some] of the people, and the Nethinims, and all Israel, dwelt in their cities; and when the seventh month came, the children of Israel [were] in their cities.

So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused [them] to understand the reading.

So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day [is] holy; neither be ye grieved.

So the people went forth, and brought [them], and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water-gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim.

And all the congregation of them that had returned from the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day, had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness.