So I sent messengers to them saying, “I am engaged in ¹  an important work, and I am unable to come down. Why should the work come to a halt when I leave it to come down to you?”

So all the people departed to eat and drink and to share their food ¹  with others ²  and to enjoy tremendous joy, ³  for they had gained insight in the matters that had been made known to them.

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

“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!

The men of Jericho ¹  built adjacent to it, and Zaccur son of Imri built adjacent to them. ² 

You multiplied their descendants like the stars of the sky. You brought them to the land you had told their ancestors to enter in order to possess.

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

I said to them, “To the extent possible we have bought back our fellow Jews ¹  who had been sold to the Gentiles. But now you yourselves want to sell your own countrymen, ²  so that we can then buy them back!” They were utterly silent, and could find nothing to say.

You made known to them your holy Sabbath; you issued commandments, statutes, and law to them through ¹  Moses your servant.

I passed on to the Gate of the Well and the King’s Pool, where there was not enough room for my animal to pass with me.

In those days the aristocrats of Judah repeatedly sent letters to Tobiah, and responses from Tobiah were repeatedly coming to them.

So I came to Jerusalem. ¹  When I had been there for three days,

Sanballat and Geshem sent word to me saying, “Come on! Let’s set up a time to meet together at Kephirim ¹  in the plain of Ono.” Now they intended to do me harm.

and said to the king, “If the king is so inclined ¹  and if your servant has found favor in your sight, dispatch me to Judah, to the city with the graves of my ancestors, so that I can rebuild it.”

These are the people ¹  of the province who returned ²  from the captivity of the exiles, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had forced into exile. ³  They returned to Jerusalem and to Judah, each to his own city.

And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen, ¹  and our children are just like their children, ²  still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. ³  Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, ⁴  since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.” ⁵ 

Jedaiah son of Harumaph worked on the section adjacent to them opposite ¹  his house, and Hattush son of Hashabneiah worked on the section adjacent to him.

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,

The people gave their blessing on all the men who volunteered to settle in Jerusalem.

“Nonetheless they grew disobedient and rebelled against you; they disregarded your law. ¹  They killed your prophets who had solemnly admonished them in order to cause them to return to you. They committed atrocious blasphemies.