So I entered a complaint with them. I called down a curse on them, and I struck some of the men and pulled out their hair. I had them swear by God saying, &#8220;You will not marry off<n id="1" /> your daughters to their sons, and you will not take any of their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves!

and said to the king, &#8220;If the king is so inclined<n id="1" /> and if your servant has found favor in your sight, dispatch me to Judah, to the city with the graves of my ancestors, so that I can rebuild it.&#8221;

So the king said to me, &#8220;Why do you appear to be depressed when you aren&#8217;t sick? What can this be other than sadness of heart?&#8221; This made me very fearful.p>

<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>

<p class="bodytext">These are the ones who came up from Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Kerub, Addon, and Immer (although they were unable to certify<n id="1" /> their family connection<n id="2" /> or their ancestry,<n id="3" /> as to whether they were really from Israel):p>

But if you repent<n id="1" /> and obey<n id="2" /> my commandments and do them, then even if your dispersed people are in the most remote location,<n id="3" /> I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen for my name to reside.&#8217;

I said to the king, &#8220;If the king is so inclined, let him give me letters for the governors of Trans-Euphrates<n id="1" /> that will enable me to travel safely until I reach Judah,

I got up during the night, along with a few men who were with me. But I did not tell anyone what my God was putting on my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no animals with me, except for the one<n id="1" /> I was riding.

But I warned them and said,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you repeat this, I will forcibly remove you!&#8221;<n id="2" /> From that time on they did not show up on the Sabbath.<n id="3" />