Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou
mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now,
day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess
the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee:
both I and my father's house have sinned.
O LORD, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the
prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire
to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and
grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's
cupbearer.
And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he
may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which
appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the
house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to
the good hand of my God upon me.
But the gate of the fountain repaired Shallun the son of
Colhozeh, the ruler of part of Mizpah; he built it, and covered it,
and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof,
and the wall of the pool of Siloah by the king's garden, and unto the
stairs that go down from the city of David.
And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and
said, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will
they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the
stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?
And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the
rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them:
remember the LORD, which is great and terrible, and fight for your
brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.
Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children
as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our
daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought unto
bondage already: neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other
men have our lands and vineyards.
Also I shook my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from
his house, and from his labour, 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.
Now that which was prepared for me daily was one ox and six
choice sheep; also fowls were prepared for me, and once in ten days
store of all sorts of wine: yet for all this required not I the bread
of the governor, because the bondage was heavy upon this people.
Afterward I came unto the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah
the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up; and he said, Let us meet
together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the
doors of the temple: for they will come to slay thee; yea, in the
night will they come to slay thee.
And I said unto them, Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened
until the sun be hot; and while they stand by, let them shut the
doors, and bar them: and appoint watches of the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, every one in his watch, and every one to be over against
his house.
And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had
made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and
Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right hand; and
on his left hand, Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchiah, and Hashum, and
Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Meshullam.
And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the
scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the
people, This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep.
For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.
And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities,
and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive
branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches,
and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written.
Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah,
Sherebiah, Hodijah, 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 blessing and praise.
Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the
heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that
are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest
them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.
And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a
covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites,
the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the
Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed thy
words; for thou art righteous:
And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and
broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and
promisedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou
hadst sworn to give them.
And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that
thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their
rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art
a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of
great kindness, and forsookest them not.
Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the
wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to
lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew
them light, and the way wherein they should go.
So the children went in and possessed the land, and thou
subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and
gavest them into their hands, with their kings, and the people of the
land, that they might do with them as they would.
And they took strong cities, and a fat land, and possessed
houses full of all goods, wells digged, vineyards, and oliveyards, and
fruit trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became
fat, and delighted themselves in thy great goodness.
Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies,
who vexed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto
thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and according to thy manifold
mercies thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of
their enemies.
But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee:
therefore leftest thou them in the land of their enemies, so that they
had the dominion over them: yet when they returned, and cried unto
thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and many times didst thou
deliver them according to thy mercies;
And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them
again unto thy law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy
commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, (which if a man do, he
shall live in them;) and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their
neck, and would not hear.
Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible
God, who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem
little before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our
princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers,
and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto
this day.
And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the
porters, the singers, the Nethinims, and all they that had separated
themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, their
wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge,
and having understanding;
They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a
curse, and into an oath, to walk in God's law, which was given 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;
For the shewbread, and for the continual meat offering, and for
the continual burnt offering, of the sabbaths, of the new moons, for
the set feasts, and for the holy things, and for the sin offerings to
make an atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our
God.
And we cast the lots among the priests, the Levites, and the
people, for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God,
after the houses of our fathers, at times appointed year by year, to
burn upon the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the law:
And that we should bring the firstfruits of our dough, and our
offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and of oil,
unto the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and the
tithes of our ground unto the Levites, that the same Levites might
have the tithes in all the cities of our tillage.
For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring
the offering of the corn, of the new wine, and the oil, unto the
chambers, where are the vessels of the sanctuary, and the priests that
minister, and the porters, and the singers: and we will not forsake
the house of our God.
And at Jerusalem dwelt certain of the children of Judah, and of
the children of Benjamin. Of the children of Judah; Athaiah the son
of Uzziah, the son of Zechariah, the son of Amariah, the son of
Shephatiah, the son of Mahalaleel, of the children of Perez;
And at that time were some appointed over the chambers for the
treasures, for the offerings, for the firstfruits, and for the tithes,
to gather into them out of the fields of the cities the portions of
the law for the priests and Levites: for Judah rejoiced for the
priests and for the Levites that waited.
And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel, and in the days of
Nehemiah, gave the portions of the singers and the porters, every day
his portion: and they sanctified holy things unto the Levites; and the
Levites sanctified them unto the children of Aaron.
And he had prepared for him a great chamber, where aforetime they
laid the meat offerings, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the
tithes of the corn, the new wine, and the oil, which was commanded to
be given to the Levites, and the singers, and the porters; and the
offerings of the priests.
And I made treasurers over the treasuries, Shelemiah the priest,
and Zadok the scribe, and of the Levites, Pedaiah: and next to them
was Hanan the son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah: for they were
counted faithful, and their office was to distribute unto their
brethren.
In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the
sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine,
grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into
Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day
wherein they sold victuals.
And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to
be dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut,
and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and
some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be
brought in on the sabbath day.