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.

I also provided for ¹  the wood offering at the appointed times and also for the first fruits. Please remember me for good, O my God.

Then in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought to me, ¹  I took the wine and gave it to the king. Previously ²  I had not been depressed ³  in the king’s presence. ⁴ 

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 

Adjacent to them worked Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite, who were men of Gibeon and Mizpah. These towns were under the jurisdiction ¹  of the governor of Trans-Euphrates.

We did not change clothes ¹  – not I, nor my relatives, nor my workers, nor the watchmen who were with me. Each had his weapon, even when getting a drink of water. ² 

These are the ones who came up from Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Kerub, Addon, and Immer (although they were unable to certify ¹  their family connection ²  or their ancestry, ³  as to whether they were really from Israel):

And from among the priests: the descendants of Hobaiah, the descendants of Hakkoz, and the descendants of Barzillai (who had married a woman from the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite and was called by that name).

“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.

Its abundant produce goes to the kings you have placed over us due to our sins. They rule over our bodies and our livestock as they see fit, ¹  and we are in great distress!

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.

may your ear be attentive and your eyes be open to hear the prayer of your servant that I am praying to you today throughout both day and night on behalf of your servants the Israelites. I am confessing the sins of the Israelites that we have committed ¹  against you – both I myself and my family ²  have sinned.

for the loaves of presentation and for the regular grain offerings and regular burnt offerings, for the Sabbaths, for the new moons, for the appointed meetings, for the holy offerings, for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the temple of our God.

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.

Was it not because of things like these that King Solomon of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made ¹  him king over all Israel. But the foreign wives made even him sin!

and a letter for Asaph the keeper of the king’s nature preserve, ¹  so that he will give me timber for beams for the gates of the fortress adjacent to the temple and for the city wall ²  and for the house to which I go.” So the king granted me these requests, ³  for the good hand of my God was on me.