I also shook out my garment, ¹  and I said, “In this way may God shake out from his house and his property every person who does not carry out ²  this matter. In this way may he be shaken out and emptied!” All the assembly replied, “So be it!” and they praised the LORD. Then the people did as they had promised. ³ 

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

Do not cover their iniquity, and do not wipe out their sin from before them. For they have bitterly offended ¹  the builders! ² 

For forty years you sustained them. Even in the desert they never lacked anything. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

Then the Levites – Jeshua, Binnui, ¹  Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kenani – stood on the steps and called out loudly ²  to the LORD their God.

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!

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.

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.

I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “The work is demanding ¹  and extensive, and we are spread out on the wall, far removed from one another.

At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, ¹  they sought out the Levites from all the places they lived ²  to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication joyfully with songs of thanksgiving and songs accompanied by cymbals, harps, and lyres.

So the people went out and brought these things ¹  back and constructed temporary shelters for themselves, each on his roof and in his courtyard and in the courtyards of the temple ²  of God and in the plaza of the Water Gate and the plaza of the Ephraim Gate.

So I entered a complaint with them. I called down a curse on them, and I struck some of the men and pulled out their hair. I had them swear by God saying, “You will not marry off ¹  your daughters to their sons, and you will not take any of their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves!

and their colleagues ¹  who were carrying out work for the temple – 822; and Adaiah son of Jeroham, the son of Pelaliah, the son of Amzi, the son of Zechariah, the son of Pashhur, the son of Malkijah,

“Then, when they were at rest again, they went back to doing evil before you. Then you abandoned them to ¹  their enemies, and they gained dominion over them. When they again cried out to you, in your compassion you heard from heaven and rescued them time and again.

“You are the LORD God who chose Abram and brought him forth from Ur of the Chaldeans. You changed his name to Abraham.

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.

I proceeded through the Valley Gate by night, in the direction of the Well of the Dragons ¹  and the Dung Gate, ²  inspecting ³  the walls of Jerusalem that had been breached and its gates that had been destroyed by fire.

So we worked on, ¹  with half ²  holding spears, from dawn till dusk. ³ 

I sent word back to him, “We are not engaged in these activities you are describing. ¹  All of this is a figment of your imagination.” ² 

You provided bread from heaven for them in their time of hunger, and you brought forth water from the rock for them in their time of thirst. You told them to enter in order to possess the land that you had sworn ¹  to give them.