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.

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

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

even when they made a cast image of a calf for themselves and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up from Egypt,’ or when they committed atrocious ¹  blasphemies.

We accept responsibility for fulfilling ¹  the commands to give ²  one third of a shekel each year for the work of the temple ³  of our God,

However, due to your abundant mercy you did not do away with them altogether; you did not abandon them. For you are a merciful and compassionate God.

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

The governor ¹  instructed them not to eat any of the sacred food until there was a priest who could consult ²  the Urim and Thummim.

But I replied, “Should a man like me run away? Would someone like me flee to the temple in order to save his life? ¹  I will not go!”

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,

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

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.

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.

After him their relatives ¹  worked – Binnui ²  son of Henadad, head of a half-district of Keilah.

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.

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.

Now the city was spread out ¹  and large, and there were not a lot of people in it. ²  At that time houses had not been rebuilt.

Then Tobiah the Ammonite, who was close by, said, “If even a fox were to climb up on what they are building, it would break down their wall of stones!”

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