So we prayed to our God and stationed a guard to protect against them ¹  both day and night.

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 

When they heard the law, they removed from Israel all who were of mixed ancestry.

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.

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.

At that time I instructed ¹  the people, “Let every man and his coworker spend the night in Jerusalem and let them be guards for us by night and workers by day.

Then Nehemiah the governor, ¹  Ezra the priestly scribe, ²  and the Levites who were imparting understanding to the people said to all of them, ³  “This day is holy to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping when they heard the words of the law.

“Then, when they were at rest again, they went back to doing evil before you. Then you abandoned them to ¹  their enemies, and they gained dominion over them. When they again cried out to you, in your compassion you heard from heaven and rescued them time and again.

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.

Adjacent to him Ezer son of Jeshua, head of Mizpah, worked on another section, opposite the ascent to the armory at the buttress.

There were 150 Jews and officials who dined with me routinely, ¹  in addition to those who came to us from the nations ²  all around us.

not counting their 7,337 male and female servants. They also had 245 male and female singers.

Ezra opened the book in plain view ¹  of all the people, for he was elevated above all the people. When he opened the book, ²  all the people stood up.

Zanoah, Adullam and their settlements, in Lachish and its fields, and in Azekah and its villages. So they were encamped from Beer Sheba to the Valley of Hinnom.

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.

I proceeded through the Valley Gate by night, in the direction of the Well of the Dragons ¹  and the Dung Gate, ²  inspecting ³  the walls of Jerusalem that had been breached and its gates that had been destroyed by fire.

This very day return to them their fields, their vineyards, their olive trees, and their houses, along with the interest ¹  that you are exacting from them on the money, the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil.”

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.

A priest of Aaron’s line 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.

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,