You guided them with a pillar of cloud by day and with a pillar of fire by night to illumine for them the path they were to travel.

Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.

So we prayed to our God and stationed a guard to protect against them both day and night.

even when they made a cast image of a calf for themselves and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up from Egypt,’ or when they committed atrocious blasphemies.

We accept responsibility for fulfilling the commands to give one third of a shekel each year for the work of the temple of our God,

However, due to your abundant mercy you did not do away with them altogether; you did not abandon them. For you are a merciful and compassionate God.

Hear, O our God, for we are despised! Return their reproach on their own head! Reduce them to plunder in a land of exile!

The governor instructed them not to eat any of the sacred food until there was a priest who could consult the Urim and Thummim.

But I replied, “Should a man like me run away? Would someone like me flee to the temple in order to save his life? I will not go!”

They refused to obey and did not recall your miracles that you had performed among them. Instead, they rebelled and appointed a leader to return to their bondage in Egypt. But you are a God of forgiveness, merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and unfailing in your loyal love. You did not abandon them,

Rephaiah son of Hur, head of a half-district of Jerusalem, worked on the section adjacent to them.

All of them conspired together to move with armed forces against Jerusalem and to create a disturbance in it.

I considered these things carefully and then registered a complaint with the wealthy and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is seizing the collateral from your own countrymen!” Because of them I called for a great public assembly.

A priest of Aaron’s line will be with the Levites when the Levites collect the tithes, and the Levites will bring up a tenth of the tithes to the temple of our God, to the storerooms of the treasury.

After him their relatives worked – Binnui son of Henadad, head of a half-district of Keilah.

I then put in charge over Jerusalem my brother Hanani and Hananiah the chief of the citadel, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many do.

and I returned to Jerusalem. Then I discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah by supplying him with a storeroom in the courts of the temple of God.

Now the city was spread out and large, and there were not a lot of people in it. At that time houses had not been rebuilt.

Then Tobiah the Ammonite, who was close by, said, “If even a fox were to climb up on what they are building, it would break down their wall of stones!”

You have also established prophets to announce in Jerusalem on your behalf, ‘We have a king in Judah!’ Now the king is going to hear about these rumors. So come on! Let’s talk about this.”