Hanani, who was one of my relatives, ¹  along with some of the men from Judah, came to me, ²  and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped and had survived the exile, and about Jerusalem. ³ 

You have also established prophets to announce ¹  in Jerusalem ²  on your behalf, ‘We have a king in Judah!’ Now the king is going to hear about these rumors. So come on! Let’s talk about this.” ³ 

So it happened that the Jews who were living near them came and warned us repeatedly ¹  about all the schemes ²  they were plotting ³  against us.

They were telling me about his good deeds and then taking back to him the things I said. ¹  Tobiah, on the other hand, sent letters in order to scare ²  me.

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.

When all our enemies heard and all the nations who were around us saw ¹  this, they were greatly disheartened. ²  They knew that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.

The singers ¹  were also assembled from the district around Jerusalem and from the settlements of the Netophathites

and from Beth Gilgal and from the fields of Geba and Azmaveth, for the singers had built settlements for themselves around Jerusalem.

Then I related to them how the good hand of my God was on me and what ¹  the king had said to me. Then they replied, “Let’s begin rebuilding right away!” ²  So they readied themselves ³  for this good project.

When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official ¹  heard all this, they were very displeased that someone had come to seek benefit for the Israelites.

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.

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 

But I warned them and said, ¹  “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you repeat this, I will forcibly remove you!” ²  From that time on they did not show up on the Sabbath. ³ 

(3:33) ¹  Now when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall he became angry and was quite upset. He derided the Jews,

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

Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews. ¹ 

For they were under royal orders ¹  which determined their activity day by day. ² 

Also in those days I saw the men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.

Should we then in your case hear that you do all this great evil, thereby being unfaithful to our God by marrying ¹  foreign wives?”

¹ These are the words of Nehemiah ²  son of Hacaliah: It so happened that in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year, ³  I was in Susa ⁴  the citadel.