The entire group numbered 42,360,

When the evening shadows ¹  began to fall on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered ²  the doors to be closed. I further directed that they were not to be opened until after the Sabbath. I positioned ³  some of my young men at the gates so that no load could enter on the Sabbath day.

all the people gathered together ¹  in the plaza which was in front of the Water Gate. They asked ²  Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the LORD had commanded Israel.

some of the priests ¹  with trumpets, Zechariah son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Micaiah, the son of Zaccur, the son of Asaph,

of Joiarib, Mattenai; of Jedaiah, Uzzi;

The officials did not know where I had gone or what I had been doing, for up to this point I had not told any of the Jews or the priests or the nobles or the officials or the rest of the workers.

I responded to them by saying, “The God of heaven will prosper us. We his servants will start the rebuilding. ¹  But you have no just or ancient right in Jerusalem.” ² 

Uzziel son of Harhaiah, a member of the goldsmiths’ guild, worked on the section adjacent to him. Hananiah, a member of the perfumers’ guild, worked on the section adjacent to him. They plastered ¹  the city wall of Jerusalem ²  as far as the Broad Wall.

Then I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel. He was confined to his home. ¹  He said, “Let’s set up a time to meet in the house of God, within the temple. Let’s close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. It will surely be at night that they will come to kill you.”

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!”

For many in Judah had sworn allegiance to him, ¹  because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah son of Arah. His son Jonathan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah.

So the leaders of the people settled in Jerusalem, ¹  while the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of every ten to settle in Jerusalem, the holy city, while the other nine ²  remained in other cities.

On that day the book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing ¹  of the people. They found ²  written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite may ever enter the assembly of God,

The priests: the descendants of Jedaiah (through the family ¹  of Jeshua), 973;

The sum total of the Levites in the holy city was 284.

They discovered written in the law that the LORD had commanded through ¹  Moses that the Israelites should live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month,

Now one of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. So I banished him from my sight.

The second choir was proceeding ¹  in the opposite direction. I followed them, along with half the people, on top of the wall, past the Tower of the Ovens to the Broad Wall,

After them the men of Tekoa worked on another section, from opposite the great protruding tower to the wall of Ophel.

the descendants of Gibeon, 95;