[Sidenote: Neh. 1:4-11b] Now when I heard these statements I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and made supplication before the God of heaven, and I said, 'I beseech thee, O Jehovah, the God of heaven, the great and terrible God, who keepeth the covenant and showeth kindness to them who love and keep his commands; let thine ears now be attentive and thine eyes open, to hear the supplication of thy servant, which I am now making before thee, day and night, for the Israelites thy servants, while I confess the sins of the Israelites, which we have sinned against thee, as I also and my father's house have sinned. We have dealt very wickedly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances, which thou didst command thy servant Moses. Remember, I beseech thee, the word which thou didst command thy servant Moses, saying, "If ye trespass I will scatter you abroad among the peoples; but if ye return to me, and keep my commands and do them, then, though your outcasts were at the ends of the earth, yet will I gather them thence and will bring them to the place that I have chosen, there to cause my name to dwell." Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power and by thy strong hand. O Lord, I beseech thee, let thine ear be attentive to the supplication of thy servant, and to the supplications of thy servants, who delight to fear thy name; and give success to thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
[Sidenote: Neh. 1:11c-2:8] Now I was cupbearer to the king. And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, when I had charge of the wine, that I took up the wine and gave it to the king, and I had not beforetime been sad. And the king said to me, 'Why is your countenance sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart.' Then I was greatly afraid, and I said to the king, 'Let the king live forever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?' And then the king said to me, 'For what do you make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, 'If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may rebuild it.' And the king said to me (and the queen was also sitting by him), 'For how long will your journey be? And when will you return?' Then it pleased the king to send me; for I set him a time. Moreover I said to the king, 'If it please the king, let official letters be given me to the governors of the province beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah, and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's park, that he may give me the timber to make beams for the gates of the castle, which belongs to the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter. And the king granted me this, according to the hand of my God which kindly cared for me.
[Sidenote: Neh. 2:9-16] Then I came to the governors of the province beyond the River, and gave them the king's official letters. Now the king had sent with me military officers and horsemen. And when Sanballat, the Horonite, and Tobiah, the Ammonite slave, heard of it, it troubled them exceedingly, that one had come to seek the welfare of the Israelites. So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days. And I arose in the night, together with a few of my followers, and I told no man what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem, neither was there any beast with me, except the beast upon which I rode. And I went out by night through the Valley Gate, toward the Dragon's Well and to the Dung Gate, and investigated carefully the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and where its gates had been destroyed by fire. Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King's Pool, but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass. Then I went up in the night by the Brook Kidron and investigated carefully the wall; then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. And the rulers did not know where I went or what I did, neither had I as yet told it to the Jews nor to the priests nor to the nobles nor to the rulers nor to the rest who did the work.
[Sidenote: Neh. 2:17-20] Then I said to them, 'You see the bad condition in which we are, how Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates are destroyed by fire. Come and let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more an object of reproach.' And I told them of the hand of my God, which had kindly cared for me, as also of the king's words that he had spoken to me. And they said, 'Let us rise up and build.' So they strengthened their hands for the good work. But when Sanballat, the Horonite, and Tobiah, the Ammonite slave, and Geshem the Arabian heard it, they jeered at us and despised us, and said, 'What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?' Then I answered and said to them, 'The God of heaven, he will give us success, for we his servants will proceed to build; but you shall have no portion nor right nor memorial in Jerusalem.'
[Sidenote: Neh. 3:1, 2] Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his kinsmen the priests and built the Sheep Gate; they laid its beams and set up the doors, even to the Tower of the Hundred, and to the Tower of Hananel. And next to him the men of Jericho built. And next to them Zaccur the son of Imri built.
[Sidenote: Neh. 3:3-5] And the Fish Gate the sons of Hassenaah built; they laid its beams, and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars. And next to them Meremoth and Meshullam and Zadok and the Tekoites repaired the wall; but their nobles did not bend their necks in the service of their lord.
[Sidenote: Neh. 3:6-12] And the Old Gate Joida repaired; they laid its beams, and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars. And next to them Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah, which belongs to the jurisdiction of the governor of the province beyond the River, repaired. Next to him Uzziel, one of the goldsmiths, repaired. And next to him Hananiah, one of those who prepare sweet ointments, repaired. And they fortified Jerusalem even to the broad wall. And next to them Rephaiah, the ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired. And next to them Jedaiah repaired opposite his house. And next to him Hattush and Malchijah and Hasshub repaired another section, even to the Tower of the Furnaces. And next to him Shallum, the ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, together with its dependencies, repaired.
[Sidenote: Neh. 3:13, 14] The Valley Gate Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired; they built it, and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars, and also built a thousand cubits of the wall to the Dung Gate. And the Dung Gate Malchijah, the ruler of the district of Beth-haccherem, together with his sons, repaired.
[Sidenote: Neh. 3:15-27] And the Fountain Gate Shallun, the ruler of the district of Mizpah, repaired; and he built it, and covered it, and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars, and he also built the wall of the Pool of Siloam by the King's Garden, even to the stairs that go down from the city of David. After him Nehemiah, the ruler of half the district of Bethzur, repaired to the place opposite the Sepulchres of David, even to the pool that was made and to the House of the Warriors. After him Rehum the son of Bani repaired. Next to him Hashabiah, the ruler of half the district of Keilah, repaired for his district. After him their kinsmen Bennui, the ruler of half the district of Keilah, repaired. And next to him Ezer, the ruler of Mizpah, repaired another section opposite the ascent to the armory at the bend in the wall. After him Baruch repaired from the bend in the wall to the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest. After him Meremoth repaired another section, from the entrance to the house of Eliashib even to the end of the house of Eliashib. And after him the priests, the men of the Plain of the Jordan, repaired. After them Benjamin and Hasshub repaired opposite their house. After them Azariah repaired beside his own house. After him Binnui repaired another section, from the house of Azariah to the bend in the wall and to the corner. After him Palal repaired opposite the bend and the upper tower that stands out from the royal palace of the king, which is toward the court of the guard. After him Pedaiah repaired, to the place opposite the Water Gate toward the east and the tower that stands out. After him the Tekoites repaired another section, opposite the great tower that stands out and to the wall of Ophel. And the temple servants dwelt in Ophel.
[Sidenote: Neh. 3:28-32]