Study Desk

So neither I, nor my brothers, nor my attendants, nor the men of the guard that followed me, none of us put off our clothes, every one [went with] his weapon [to] the water.

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

Also I shook out my lap, and said, So may God shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, that does not perform this promise; even thus shall he be shaken out, and emptied. And all the assembly said, Amen, and praised Yahweh. And the people did according to this promise.

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

And I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I can't come down: why should the work cease, while I leave it, and come down to you?

And you have also appointed prophets to preach of you at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah: and now it shall be reported to the king according to these words. So now, come and let us take counsel together.

For they all would have made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it will not be done. So now, strengthen my hands.

For this cause he was 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 those given [to temple service], and all Israel, dwelt in their cities. And when the seventh month came, the sons of Israel were in their cities.

And they read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly; and they gave the sense, so that they understood the reading.

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

So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, every one on the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the broad place of the water gate, and in the broad place of the gate of Ephraim.

And all the assembly of those that had come again out of the captivity made booths, and dwelt in the booths; for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day the sons of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness.

And you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their pursuers you cast into the depths, as a stone into the mighty waters.

Moreover you gave them kingdoms and peoples, which you allotted after their portions: so they possessed the land of Sihon, even the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.

So the sons went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings, and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would.

And they took fortified cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all good things, cisterns cut out, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit-trees in abundance: so they ate, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness.

But after they had rest, they did evil again before you; therefore you left them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them: yet when they returned, and cried to you, you heard from heaven; and many times you delivered them according to your mercies,

Zanoah, Adullam, and their villages, Lachish and the fields thereof, Azekah and the towns thereof. So they encamped from Beer-sheba to the valley of Hinnom.