Please remember me for good, O my God, for all that I have done for this people.

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

“You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You provided them with just judgments, true laws, and good statutes and commandments.

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.

They captured fortified cities and fertile land. They took possession of houses full of all sorts of good things – wells previously dug, vineyards, olive trees, and fruit trees in abundance. They ate until they were full ¹  and grew fat. They enjoyed to the full your great goodness.

“So today we are slaves! In the very land you gave to our ancestors to eat its fruit and to enjoy ¹  its good things – we are slaves!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Please remember me for this, O my God, and do not wipe out the kindness that I have done for the temple of my God and for its services!

Then I ¹  said, “The thing that you are doing is wrong! ²  Should you not conduct yourselves ³  in the fear of our God in order to avoid the reproach of the Gentiles who are our enemies?

I was very upset, and I threw all of Tobiah’s household possessions out of the storeroom.

The people from Tyre ¹  who lived there were bringing fish and all kinds of merchandise and were selling it on the Sabbath to the people of Judah – and in Jerusalem, of all places! ² 

The traders and sellers of all kinds of merchandise spent the night outside Jerusalem once or twice.

After him ¹  Hananiah son of Shelemiah, and Hanun, the sixth son of Zalaph, worked on another section. After them Meshullam son of Berechiah worked opposite his quarters.

After them the men of Tekoa worked on another section, from opposite the great protruding tower to the wall of Ophel.

And between the room above the corner and the Sheep Gate the goldsmiths and traders worked.

The sum total of the descendants of Perez who were settling in Jerusalem was 468 exceptional men.

We will not buy ¹  on the Sabbath or on a holy day from the neighboring peoples who bring their wares and all kinds of grain to sell on the Sabbath day. We will let the fields lie fallow every seventh year, and we will cancel every loan. ²