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

“We will not give our daughters in marriage to the neighboring peoples, and we will not take their daughters in marriage for our sons.

Do not cover their iniquity, and do not wipe out their sin from before them. For they have bitterly offended ¹  the builders! ² 

You are righteous with regard to all that has happened to us, for you have acted faithfully. ¹  It is we who have been in the wrong!

When I heard these things I sat down abruptly, ¹  crying and mourning for several days. I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

I passed on to the Gate of the Well and the King’s Pool, where there was not enough room for my animal to pass with me.

You imparted your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths; you provided water for their thirst.

They searched for their records in the genealogical materials, but none were found. They were therefore excluded ¹  from the priesthood.

Shabbethai and Jozabad, leaders ¹  of the Levites, were in charge of the external work for the temple of God;

I gave myself to the work on this wall, without even purchasing ¹  a field. All my associates were gathered there for the work.

Every day one ox, six select sheep, and some birds were prepared for me, and every ten days all kinds of wine in abundance. Despite all this I did not require the food allotted to the governor, for the work was demanding on this people.

After him the Levites worked – Rehum son of Bani and ¹  after him Hashabiah, head of half the district of Keilah, for his district.

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, “You will not marry off ¹  your daughters to their sons, and you will not take any of their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves!

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.

For forty years you sustained them. Even in the desert they never lacked anything. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

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 ¹  I was riding.

for they had not met the Israelites with food ¹  and water, but instead had hired Balaam to curse them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into blessing.)

I then put in charge over Jerusalem ¹  my brother Hanani and Hananiah ²  the chief of the citadel, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many do.

As for the settlements with their fields, some of the people of Judah settled in Kiriath Arba and its neighboring villages, ¹  in Dibon and its villages, in Jekabzeel and its settlements,

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.