Study Desk

For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work; and they say to us, Do not do the work. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.

Then I went into the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabeel who used to hinder me from work; and he said to me, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple; for they are coming to slay you; yea, in the night they are coming to slay you.

And I said, Should I flee to men like you? God forbid that I should flee and enter into the temple!

And, lo, I perceive that God had not sent him against me; neither has it been said to me by a prophet that he will slay me, for Tobiah and Sanballet and their companions had hired him and sent him to kill me.

Remember, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat and their companions according to these their impious works, and also Jodaiah the prophet and the rest of the prophets who tried to frighten me because of them.

Now when all our enemies heard of it, they were afraid, and all the nations that were round about us trembled exceedingly from our presence; for they perceived that this work was wrought of God.

I gave orders to my brother Hanani and Hananiah the governor of the palace and of Jerusalem, for he was an upright man and feared God and turned away from evil;

And my God put it into my heart, and I gathered together the nobles and the rulers of the people according to their genealogy. And I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up at the first, and I found that the names were written therein,

And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands; and they knelt down and worshipped before the LORD with their faces to the ground.

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

And Nehemiah the high priest and Ezra the priest the scribe and the Levites who ministered to the people said to all the people, This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn nor weep. For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.

And they stood up in their place and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the LORD their God.

Then the chiefs over the Levites, Joshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Heshabiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, stood up and prayed with a loud voice before the LORD their God.

Then the Levites, Joshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Heshabiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless the LORD your God for ever and ever, and blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all creations and praises.

Thou art the LORD, the God who didst choose Abram and brought him forth out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and didst change his name to Abraham;

And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but turned their hearts to their evil works; yet thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and ready to hear petitions, and didst not forsake them.

Yea, when they had made for themselves a molten calf, and said, This is your God, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and they wrought great wickedness;

Nevertheless because of thy great mercy thou didst not utterly destroy them nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God.

Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the holy God, who keepest covenant and truth, let there not be hidden from before thee all the hardship that has come upon us, upon our kings, upon our princes, upon our priests, and upon our prophets, and upon our fathers, and upon all the people, since the day of the kings of Assyria to this day.

Strengthened their brethren, their neighbors, taking oaths and making a covenant to walk in the LORDS law which he gave by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our LORD and his judgments and his statutes;