Please remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, the covenant of the priesthood, ¹  and the Levites.

“Nonetheless they grew disobedient and rebelled against you; they disregarded your law. ¹  They killed your prophets who had solemnly admonished them in order to cause them to return to you. They committed atrocious blasphemies.

But if you repent ¹  and obey ²  my commandments and do them, then even if your dispersed people are in the most remote location, ³  I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen for my name to reside.’

And you solemnly admonished them in order to return them to your law, but they behaved presumptuously and did not obey your commandments. They sinned against your ordinances – those by which an individual, if he obeys them, ¹  will live. They boldly turned from you; ²  they rebelled ³  and did not obey.

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

So I purified them of everything foreign, and I assigned specific ¹  duties to the priests and the Levites.

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

The temple attendants were living on Ophel, and Ziha and Gishpa were over them. ¹ 

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.)

In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath, bringing in heaps of grain and loading them onto donkeys, along with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, and bringing them to Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them on the day that they sold these provisions.

All of them conspired together to move with armed forces ¹  against Jerusalem and to create a disturbance in it.

I considered these things carefully ¹  and then registered a complaint with the wealthy ²  and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is seizing the collateral ³  from your own countrymen!” ⁴  Because of them I called for ⁵  a great public assembly.

Even when they were in their kingdom and benefiting from your incredible ¹  goodness that you had lavished ²  on them in the spacious and fertile land you had set ³  before them, they did not serve you, nor did they turn from their evil practices.

Their descendants ¹  entered and possessed the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites who were the inhabitants of the land. You delivered them into their hand, together with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with as they pleased.

In those days the aristocrats of Judah repeatedly sent letters to Tobiah, and responses from Tobiah were repeatedly coming to them.

Even I and my relatives ¹  and my associates ²  are lending them money and grain. But let us abandon this practice of seizing collateral! ³ 

You multiplied their descendants like the stars of the sky. You brought them to the land you had told their ancestors to enter in order to possess.

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. ¹  But you are a God of forgiveness, merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and unfailing in your loyal love. ²  You did not abandon them,

The men of Tekoa worked on the section adjacent to them, but their town leaders ¹  would not assist ²  with the work of their master. ³ 

Jedaiah son of Harumaph worked on the section adjacent to them opposite ¹  his house, and Hattush son of Hashabneiah worked on the section adjacent to him.