5 Then there arose a great outcry from the common people and their wives against their brothers the [wealthier] Judeans. ² Some of them said, “Counting our sons and daughters, there are a lot of us! Allow us to get grain for them, so that we can eat and stay alive.” ³ There were also some who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, vineyards and homes in order to buy grain, because of the famine.” ⁴ Yet others said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s taxes against our fields and vineyards. ⁵ Now our flesh is no different from the flesh of our kinsmen, and our children are the same as their children; yet we are bringing our sons and daughters into bondage as slaves. Some of our daughters have gone into slavery already, and it’s beyond our power to do anything about it, because other men have our fields and vineyards.”

⁶ When I heard their outcry and the reasons for it, I became very angry. ⁷ I thought the matter over and then took issue with the nobles and rulers. I charged them, “You are lending against pledges, everyone to his brother”; and I summoned a great assembly to deal with them. ⁸ I said to them, “We, to the limit of our ability, have redeemed our brothers the Judeans who sold themselves to the pagans. Now you are selling your own brothers, and we will have to buy them back!” They stayed silent; they couldn’t think of anything to say. ⁹ I also said, “What you are doing is not good! You should be living in fear of our God, so that our pagan enemies won’t have grounds for deriding us. ¹⁰ Moreover, my brothers and my servants, I too have loaned them money and grain. Please, let’s stop making it so burdensome to go into debt. ¹¹ Please! Today! Give them back their fields, vineyards, olive groves and homes; also the hundred pieces of silver and the grain, wine and olive oil you demand from them as interest.”

¹² They answered, “We will give it back. We will require nothing from them. Yes, we will do it, just as you say.” Then I called the cohanim and took an oath from them that they would do as they had promised. ¹³ Shaking out the fold in my garment, I said, “May God thus shake every man from his house and from his work who fails to live up to this promise — may he be shaken out like this and made empty.” The whole assembly said, “Amen!” and praised Adonai; and the people did as they had promised.

¹⁴ Besides that, from the time I was appointed their governor in the land of Y’hudah, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of Artach’shashta the king — that is, for twelve years — neither I nor my colleagues drew on the governor’s living allowance. ¹⁵ The earlier governors, before me, had burdened the people, taxing them more than one-and-a-half pounds of silver shekels for food and wine; and even their servants lorded it over the people. But I didn’t, because I feared God. ¹⁶ Moreover, I put all my energy into working on this wall. We didn’t buy any land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work.

¹⁷ There were 150 leaders and other Judeans who ate at my table, besides those who came to us from the surrounding nations. ¹⁸ Every day one ox, six choice sheep, and fowl were prepared for me, and every ten days a supply of all kinds of wine. Yet in spite of all this, I never claimed the governor’s allowance, because the people were already bearing the heavy burden of their labor. ¹⁹ My God, remember favorably everything I have done for this people!

6 When it was reported to Sanvalat, Toviyah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and that not a single gap was left in it — although up to that time I hadn’t yet set up the doors in the gateways — ² Sanvalat and Geshem sent me a message which said, “Come, let’s meet together in one of the villages of the Ono Valley.” But they were planning to do me harm; ³ so I sent them messengers with this message: “I’m too busy with important work to come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it to come down to you?” ⁴ They kept sending this sort of message to me — four times — and I answered them the same way.

⁵ The fifth time, with the same purpose, Sanvalat sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand, ⁶ in which was written: “It is reported among the nations, and Geshem says it too, that you and the Judeans are planning a revolt, that this is why you are rebuilding the wall, and that you intend to be their king,” and similar words; ⁷ “moreover, that you have also appointed prophets to proclaim about you in Yerushalayim, ‘There is a king in Y’hudah!’ A report along these lines is now going to be made to the king. Come now, therefore, and let’s discuss this.” ⁸ I sent him this answer; “Nothing like what you are saying is being done. You’re making it all up in your head.” ⁹ They were all just trying to scare us, thinking, “This will sap their strength and keep them from working.” But now, [God,] increase my strength!

¹⁰ One day, when I went to the house of Sh’ma‘yah the son of D’layah, the son of M’heitav’el, where he was confined, he said, “Let’s meet together in the house of God, inside the temple, and let’s shut the doors of the temple. For they are going to come and try to assassinate you; yes, they will come at night to kill you.” ¹¹ I replied, “Should a man like me run away? Can a man like me go into the temple to save his life? I refuse to go in.” ¹² Then I realized that God had not sent him, that he was making this prophecy against me, and that Toviyah and Sanvalat had bribed him to say it. ¹³ He had been hired to frighten me into following his suggestion and thus sin, so that they would have material for their unfavorable report about me and could taunt me with it. ¹⁴ My God, remember Toviyah and Sanvalat according to their deeds, also the prophet No‘adyah and the other prophets trying to intimidate me.

¹⁵ So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. ¹⁶ When all our enemies heard about it and the surrounding nations became afraid, our enemies’ self-esteem fell severely; because they realized that this work had been accomplished by our God.

¹⁷ During this same period of time, the nobles of Y’hudah sent many letters to Toviyah, and Toviyah kept sending them replies. ¹⁸ For there were many in Y’hudah who had sworn allegiance to him, because he was the son-in-law of Sh’khanyah the son of Arach, and his son Y’hochanan had taken as his wife the daughter of Meshulam the son of Berekhyah. ¹⁹ They would even praise his good deeds in my presence, and they passed on my words to him. And Toviyah kept sending letters to intimidate me.