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.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.<n id="1" />

So we prayed to our God and stationed a guard to protect against them<n id="1" /> both day and night.

even when they made a cast image of a calf for themselves and said, &#8216;This is your God who brought you up from Egypt,&#8217; or when they committed atrocious<n id="1" /> blasphemies.p>

We accept responsibility for fulfilling<n id="1" /> the commands to give<n id="2" /> one third of a shekel each year for the work of the temple<n id="3" /> 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.p>

<p class="bodytext">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<n id="1" /> instructed them not to eat any of the sacred food until there was a priest who could consult<n id="2" /> the Urim and Thummim.p>

<p class="bodytext">But I replied, &#8220;Should a man like me run away? Would someone like me flee to the temple in order to save his life?<n id="1" /> I will not go!&#8221;

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.<n id="1" /> But you are a God of forgiveness, merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and unfailing in your loyal love.<n id="2" /> 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<n id="1" /> against Jerusalem and to create a disturbance in it.

I considered these things carefully<n id="1" /> and then registered a complaint with the wealthy<n id="2" /> and the officials. I said to them, &#8220;Each one of you is seizing the collateral<n id="3" /> from your own countrymen!&#8221;<n id="4" /> Because of them I called for<n id="5" /> a great public assembly.

A priest of Aaron&#8217;s line<n id="1" /> 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<n id="1" /> worked &#8211; Binnui<n id="2" /> son of Henadad, head of a half-district of Keilah.

I then put in charge over Jerusalem<n id="1" /> my brother Hanani and Hananiah<n id="2" /> 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<n id="1" /> and large, and there were not a lot of people in it.<n id="2" /> At that time houses had not been rebuilt.

<p class="bodytext">Then Tobiah the Ammonite, who was close by, said, &#8220;If even a fox were to climb up on what they are building, it would break down their wall of stones!&#8221;p>

You have also established prophets to announce<n id="1" /> in Jerusalem<n id="2" /> on your behalf, &#8216;We have a king in Judah!&#8217; Now the king is going to hear about these rumors. So come on! Let&#8217;s talk about this.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>