Aug 16th

Now there were those who were saying, “We, with our sons and our daughters, are many; therefore let us get grain that we may eat and live.”

There were others who were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses, that we might get grain because of the famine.”

Also there were those who were saying, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards.

But now our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our children like their children. Yet behold, we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters are forced into subjugation, and we have no power in our hands to help, and our fields and vineyards belong to others.”

Then I was very angry when I had heard their outcry and these words.

I consulted within my own heart and contended with the nobles and the officials and said to them, “You are exacting usury, each from his brother!” Therefore, I held a great assembly against them.

I said to them, “We, according to our ability, have bought back our Jewish brothers who were sold to the nations; and now would you also sell your brothers that they may be sold to us?” Then they were silent and could not find a word to say.

And I said, “The thing which you are doing is not good; should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies?

And likewise I, my brothers, and my young men are lending them money and grain. Please, let us forsake this usury.

Please, give back to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money and of the grain, the new wine and the oil that you are exacting from them.”

Then they said, “We will give it back and will require nothing from them; we will do exactly as you are saying.” So I called the priests and made them swear that they would do according to this word.

I also shook out the front of my garment and said, “Thus may God shake out every man from his house and from his possessions who does not establish this word; even thus may he be shaken out and emptied.” And all the assembly said, “Amen!” And they praised Yahweh. Then the people did according to this word.

Moreover, from the day that I was put in command to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, for twelve years, neither I nor my relatives have eaten the governor’s food allowance.

But the former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them bread and wine besides forty shekels of silver; even their young men exerted their power over the people. But I did not do so because of the fear of God.

I also took hold of the work on this wall; we did not buy any land, and all my young men were gathered there for the work.

Moreover, there were at my table 150 Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us.

Now that which was prepared for each day was one ox and six choice sheep, also birds were prepared for me; and once in ten days all sorts of wine were furnished in abundance. Yet for all this I did not require the governor’s food allowance, because the slavery was heavy on this people.

Remember me, O my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people.

Now it happened when it was heard by Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall, and that no breach remained in it, although at that time I had not made the doors to stand in the gates,

that Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together at Chephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they were planning to do me harm.

So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?”

And they sent messages to me four times in this manner, and I responded to them in the same manner.

Then Sanballat sent his young man to me in the same manner a fifth time with an open letter in his hand.

In it was written,

“It is heard among the nations, and Gashmu says, that you and the Jews are planning to rebel; therefore you are rebuilding the wall. And you are to be their king, according to these words.

You have also set up prophets to call out in Jerusalem concerning you, ‘A king is in Judah!’ So now it will be heard by the king according to these words. So now, come, let us take counsel together.”

Then I sent a message to him, saying,

“Such words as you are saying have not been done, but you are devising them in your own heart.”

For all of them were trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will become limp in doing the work, and it will not be done.” But now, O God, strengthen my hands.

Now I entered the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined at home, and he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you, and they are coming to kill you at night.”

But I said, “Should a man like me flee? And could one such as I go into the temple just to live? I will not go in.”

Then I recognized that surely God had not sent him, but he spoke his prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

He was hired for this reason, that I might become afraid and act accordingly and sin, so that they could give me a bad name in order that they could reproach me.

Remember, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat according to these works of theirs, and also Noadiah the prophetess and the rest of the prophets who were trying to make me afraid.

So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.

Now it happened that when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations surrounding us saw it, their confidence fell. And they knew that it was from our God that this work had been accomplished.

Also in those days many letters went from the nobles of Judah to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them.

For many in Judah were sworn by oath to him because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as a wife.

Moreover, they were speaking about his good deeds in my presence and bringing my words to him. Then Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.

Now it happened when the wall was rebuilt and I had made the doors to stand, and the gatekeepers and the singers and the Levites were appointed,

that I commanded Hanani my brother and Hananiah the commander of the fortress, to be over Jerusalem, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many.

Then I said to them, “The gates of Jerusalem must not be opened until the sun is hot; and until they are there standing guard, they must shut and bolt the doors. Also have guards from the inhabitants of Jerusalem stand, each at his post, and each in front of his own house.”

Now the city was large and spacious, but the people in it were few and the houses were not rebuilt.

Then my God put it into my heart, and I gathered the nobles, the officials, and the people to be recorded by genealogies. Then I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up first, and in it I found written:

These are the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had taken away into exile, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his city,

who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah.

The number of men of the people of Israel:

the sons of Parosh, 2,172;

the sons of Shephatiah, 372;

the sons of Arah, 652;

the sons of Pahath-moab of the sons of Jeshua and Joab, 2,818;

the sons of Elam, 1,254;

the sons of Zattu, 845;

the sons of Zaccai, 760;

the sons of Binnui, 648;

the sons of Bebai, 628;

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

For the anxious longing of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope

that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

For in hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he already sees?

But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we eagerly wait for it.

And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;

and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.

Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers;

and those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

He who indeed did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?

Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies;

who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction, or turmoil, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Just as it is written,

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.