Nehemiah 3-5

New King James Version

Rebuilding the Wall

3 Then ^(A)Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests ^(B)and built the Sheep Gate; they consecrated it and hung its doors. They built ^(C)as far as the Tower of ^[a]the Hundred, and consecrated it, then as far as the Tower of ^(D)Hananel. ²^[b]Next to Eliashib ^(E)the men of Jericho built. And next to them Zaccur the son of Imri built.

³Also the sons of Hassenaah built ^(F)the Fish Gate; they laid its beams and ^(G)hung its doors with its bolts and bars. ⁴And next to them ^(H)Meremoth the son of Urijah, the son of ^[c]Koz, made repairs. Next to them ^(I)Meshullam the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabel, made repairs. Next to them Zadok the son of Baana made repairs. ⁵Next to them the Tekoites made repairs; but their nobles did not put their ^[d]shoulders to ^(J)the work of their Lord.

⁶Moreover Jehoiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah repaired ^(K)the Old Gate; they laid its beams and hung its doors, with its bolts and bars. ⁷And next to them Melatiah the Gibeonite, Jadon the Meronothite, the ^(L)men of Gibeon and Mizpah, repaired the ^(M)residence^[e] of the governor of the region ^[f]beyond the River. ⁸Next to him Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs. Also next to him Hananiah, ^[g]one of the perfumers, made repairs; and they ^[h]fortified Jerusalem as far as the ^(N)Broad Wall. ⁹And next to them Rephaiah the son of Hur, leader of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs. ¹⁰Next to them Jedaiah the son of Harumaph made repairs in front of his house. And next to him Hattush the son of Hashabniah made repairs.

¹¹Malchijah the son of Harim and Hashub the son of Pahath-Moab repaired another section, ^(O)as well as the Tower of the Ovens. ¹²And next to him was Shallum the son of Hallohesh, leader of half the district of Jerusalem; he and his daughters made repairs.

¹³Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired ^(P)the Valley Gate. They built it, hung its doors with its bolts and bars, and repaired a thousand cubits of the wall as far as ^(Q)the Refuse Gate.

¹⁴Malchijah the son of Rechab, leader of the district of ^(R)Beth Haccerem, repaired the Refuse Gate; he built it and hung its doors with its bolts and bars.

¹⁵Shallun the son of Col-Hozeh, leader of the district of Mizpah, repaired ^(S)the Fountain Gate; he built it, covered it, hung its doors with its bolts and bars, and repaired the wall of the Pool of ^(T)Shelah^[i] by the ^(U)King’s Garden, as far as the stairs that go down from the City of David. ¹⁶After him Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, leader of half the district of Beth Zur, made repairs as far as the place in front of the ^[j]tombs of David, to the ^(V)man-made pool, and as far as the House of the Mighty.

¹⁷After him the Levites, under Rehum the son of Bani, made repairs. Next to him Hashabiah, leader of half the district of Keilah, made repairs for his district. ¹⁸After him their brethren, under ^[k]Bavai the son of Henadad, leader of the other half of the district of Keilah, made repairs. ¹⁹And next to him Ezer the son of Jeshua, the leader of Mizpah, repaired another section in front of the Ascent to the Armory at the ^(W)buttress.^[l] ²⁰After him Baruch the son of ^[m]Zabbai carefully repaired the other section, from the ^[n]buttress to the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest. ²¹After him Meremoth the son of Urijah, the son of ^[o]Koz, repaired another section, from the door of the house of Eliashib to the end of the house of Eliashib.

²²And after him the priests, the men of the plain, made repairs. ²³After him Benjamin and Hasshub made repairs opposite their house. After them Azariah the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ananiah, made repairs by his house. ²⁴After him ^(X)Binnui the son of Henadad repaired another section, from the house of Azariah to ^(Y)the ^[p]buttress, even as far as the corner. ²⁵Palal the son of Uzai made repairs opposite the ^[q]buttress, and on the tower which projects from the king’s upper house that was by the ^(Z)court of the prison. After him Pedaiah the son of Parosh made repairs.

²⁶Moreover ^(AA)the Nethinim who dwelt in ^(AB)Ophel made repairs as far as the place in front of ^(AC)the Water Gate toward the east, and on the projecting tower. ²⁷After them the Tekoites repaired another section, next to the great projecting tower, and as far as the wall of Ophel.

²⁸Beyond the ^(AD)Horse Gate the priests made repairs, each in front of his own house. ²⁹After them Zadok the son of Immer made repairs in front of his own house. After him Shemaiah the son of Shechaniah, the keeper of the East Gate, made repairs. ³⁰After him Hananiah the son of Shelemiah, and Hanun, the sixth son of Zalaph, repaired another section. After him Meshullam the son of Berechiah made repairs in front of his ^[r]dwelling. ³¹After him Malchijah, ^[s]one of the goldsmiths, made repairs as far as the house of the Nethinim and of the merchants, in front of the ^[t]Miphkad Gate, and as far as the upper room at the corner. ³²And between the upper room at the corner, as far as the ^(AE)Sheep Gate, the goldsmiths and the merchants made repairs.

The Wall Defended Against Enemies

4 But it so happened, ^(AF)when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, that he was furious and very indignant, and mocked the Jews. ²And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish—stones that are burned?”

³Now ^(AG)Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Whatever they build, if even a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall.”

⁴^(AH)Hear, O our God, for we are despised; ^(AI)turn their reproach on their own heads, and give them as plunder to a land of captivity! ⁵^(AJ)Do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before You; for they have provoked You to anger before the builders.

⁶So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

⁷Now it happened, ^(AK)when Sanballat, Tobiah, ^(AL)the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and the ^[u]gaps were beginning to be closed, that they became very angry, ⁸and all of them ^(AM)conspired together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion. ⁹Nevertheless ^(AN)we made our prayer to our God, and because of them we set a watch against them day and night.

¹⁰Then Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is failing, and there is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall.”

¹¹And our adversaries said, “They will neither know nor see anything, till we come into their midst and kill them and cause the work to cease.”

¹²So it was, when the Jews who dwelt near them came, that they told us ten times, “From whatever place you turn, they will be upon us.”

¹³Therefore I positioned men behind the lower parts of the wall, at the openings; and I set the people according to their families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. ¹⁴And I looked, and arose and said to the nobles, to the leaders, and to the rest of the people, ^(AO)“Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, ^(AP)great and awesome, and ^(AQ)fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.”

¹⁵And it happened, when our enemies heard that it was known to us, and ^(AR)that God had brought their plot to nothing, that all of us returned to the wall, everyone to his work. ¹⁶So it was, from that time on, that half of my servants worked at construction, while the other half held the spears, the shields, the bows, and wore armor; and the leaders ^[v]were behind all the house of Judah. ¹⁷Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon. ¹⁸Every one of the builders had his sword girded at his side as he built. And the one who sounded the trumpet was beside me.

¹⁹Then I said to the nobles, the rulers, and the rest of the people, “The work is great and extensive, and we are separated far from one another on the wall. ²⁰Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. ^(AS)Our God will fight for us.”

²¹So we labored in the work, and half of ^[w]the men held the spears from daybreak until the stars appeared. ²²At the same time I also said to the people, “Let each man and his servant stay at night in Jerusalem, that they may be our guard by night and a working party by day.” ²³So neither I, my brethren, my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me took off our clothes, except that everyone took them off for washing.

Nehemiah Deals with Oppression

5 And there was a great ^(AT)outcry of the people and their wives against their ^(AU)Jewish brethren. ²For there were those who said, “We, our sons, and our daughters are many; therefore let us get grain, that we may eat and live.”

³There were also some who said, “We have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.”

⁴There were also those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our lands and vineyards. ⁵Yet now ^(AV)our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and indeed we ^(AW)are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been brought into slavery. It is not in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards.”

⁶And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. ⁷After serious thought, I rebuked the nobles and rulers, and said to them, ^(AX)“Each of you is ^[x]exacting usury from his brother.” So I ^[y]called a great assembly against them. ⁸And I said to them, “According to our ability we have ^(AY)redeemed our Jewish brethren who were sold to the nations. Now indeed, will you even sell your brethren? Or should they be sold to us?”

Then they were silenced and found nothing to say. ⁹Then I said, “What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk ^(AZ)in the fear of our God ^(BA)because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies? ¹⁰I also, with my brethren and my servants, am lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop this ^[z]usury! ¹¹Restore now to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain, the new wine and the oil, that you have charged them.”

¹²So they said, “We will restore it, and will require nothing from them; we will do as you say.”

Then I called the priests, ^(BB)and required an oath from them that they would do according to this promise. ¹³Then ^(BC)I shook out ^[aa]the fold of my garment and said, “So may God shake out each man from his house, and from his property, who does not perform this promise. Even thus may he be shaken out and emptied.”

And all the assembly said, “Amen!” and praised the Lord. ^(BD)Then the people did according to this promise.

The Generosity of Nehemiah

¹⁴Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year ^(BE)until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ^(BF)ate the governor’s provisions. ¹⁵But the former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people, and took from them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver. Yes, even their servants bore rule over the people, but ^(BG)I did not do so, because of the ^(BH)fear of God. ¹⁶Indeed, I also continued the ^(BI)work on this wall, and ^[ab]we did not buy any land. All my servants were gathered there for the work.

¹⁷And ^(BJ)at my table were one hundred and fifty Jews and rulers, besides those who came to us from the nations around us. ¹⁸Now that ^(BK)which was prepared daily was one ox and six choice sheep. Also fowl were prepared for me, and once every ten days an abundance of all kinds of wine. Yet in spite of this ^(BL)I did not demand the governor’s provisions, because the bondage was heavy on this people.