<p class="bodytext">Then I<n id="1" /> said, &#8220;The thing that you are doing is wrong!<n id="2" /> Should you not conduct yourselves<n id="3" /> in the fear of our God in order to avoid the reproach of the Gentiles who are our enemies?

<p class="bodytext">There were 150 Jews and officials who dined with me routinely,<n id="1" /> in addition to those who came to us from the nations<n id="2" /> all around us.

I said to them, &#8220;To the extent possible we have bought back our fellow Jews<n id="1" /> who had been sold to the Gentiles. But now you yourselves want to sell your own countrymen,<n id="2" /> so that we can then buy them back!&#8221; They were utterly silent, and could find nothing to say.p>

Written in it were the following words:p> <p class="bodytext">&#8220;Among the nations it is rumored<n id="1" /> (and Geshem<n id="2" /> has substantiated<n id="3" /> this) that you and the Jews have intentions of revolting, and for this reason you are building the wall. Furthermore, according to these rumors<n id="4" /> you are going to become their king.

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

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<n id="1" /> him king over all Israel. But the foreign wives made even him sin!