Catholic Public Domain Version

1 The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah. And it happened that, in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, I was in the capital city of Susa.

2 And Hanani, one of my brothers, arrived, he and some men of Judah. And I questioned them about the Jews who had remained and were left behind from the captivity, and about Jerusalem.

3 And they said to me: “Those who have remained and have been left behind from the captivity, there in the province, are in great affliction and in disgrace. And the wall of Jerusalem has been broken apart, and its gates have been burned with fire.”

4 And when I had heard this manner of words, I sat down, and I wept and mourned for many days. I fasted and prayed before the face of the God of heaven.

5 And I said: “I beg you, O Lord, God of heaven, strong, great, and terrible, who keeps covenant and mercy with those who love you and who keep your commandments:

6 may your ears be attentive, and may your eyes be open, so that you may hear the prayer of your servant, which I am praying before you today, night and day, for the sons of Israel, your servants. And I am confessing the sins of the sons of Israel, which they have sinned against you. We have sinned, I and my father’s house.

7 We have been seduced by vanity. And we have not kept your commandments and ceremonies and judgments, which you have instructed to your servant Moses.

8 Remember the word which you commanded to your servant Moses, saying: ‘When you will have transgressed, I will disperse you among the nations.

9 But if you will return to me, and keep my precepts, and do them, even if you will have been led away to the furthest reaches of the heavens, I will gather you from there, and I will lead you back to the place that I have chosen so that my name would dwell there.’

10 And these same are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great strength and by your powerful hand.

11 I beg you, O Lord, may your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who are willing to fear your name. And so, guide your servant today, and grant to him mercy before this man.” For I was the cupbearer of the king.

1 Now it happened that, in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of king Artaxerxes, wine was before him; and I lifted up the wine, and I gave it to the king. And I was like someone languishing before his face.

2 And the king said to me: “Why is your expression sad, though you do not appear to be sick? This is not without cause, but some evil, I know not what, is in your heart.” And I was struck with an exceedingly great fear.

3 And I said to the king: “O king, live forever. Why should my expression not be mournful, since the city of the house of the sepulchers of my father is desolate, and its gates have been burned with fire?”

4 And the king said to me: “What would you request?” And I prayed to the God of heaven.

5 And I said to the king: “If it seems good to the king, and if your servant is pleasing before your face: that you would send me into Judea, to the city of the sepulcher of my father. And I will rebuild it.”

6 And the king said to me, with the queen who was sitting beside him: “Until what time will your journey be, and when will you return?” And it was pleasing before the countenance of the king, and so he sent me. And I established a time for him.

7 And I said to the king: “If it seems good to the king, may he give me letters to the governors of the region beyond the river, so that they may lead me through, until I arrive in Judea,

8 and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, so that he may give me timber, in order that I may be able to cover the gates of the tower of the house, and the walls of the city, and the house that I will enter.” And the king granted to me in accord with the good hand of my God, who is with me.

9 And I went to the governors of the region beyond the river, and I gave them the letters of the king. Now the king had sent with me military leaders and horsemen.

10 And Sanballat, a Horonite, and the servant Tobiah, an Ammonite, heard this. And they were saddened, with a great affliction, that a man had arrived who was seeking the prosperity of the sons of Israel.

11 And I arrived at Jerusalem, and I was there for three days.

12 And I got up in the night, I and a few men with me. And I did not reveal to anyone what God had placed in my heart to do in Jerusalem. And there was no animal with me, except the animal on which I was sitting.

13 And I departed in the night through the gate of the valley, and before the fountain of the dragon, and toward the dung gate. And I considered the wall of Jerusalem, which was broken apart, and its gates, which had been consumed by fire.

14 And I continued on to the gate of the fountain, and to the aqueduct of the king. And there was no room for the beast on which I was sitting to pass through.

15 And so I climbed up in the night along the torrent, and I considered the wall. And turning back, I went by the gate of the valley, and I returned.

16 Now the magistrates did not know where I had gone, or what I had done. For I had revealed nothing, even to that point in time, to the Jews, or to the priests, or to the nobles, or to the magistrates, or to the others who were doing the work.

17 And so I said to them: “You know the affliction in which we are, because Jerusalem is desolate, and its gates have been consumed by fire. Come, and let us rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, and let us no longer be in disgrace.”

18 And I revealed to them how the hand of my God was with me for good, and the words of the king, which he had spoken to me. And I said: “Let us rise up, and build.” And their hands were strengthened for good.

19 But Sanballat, a Horonite, and the servant Tobiah, an Ammonite, and Geshem, an Arab, heard of it. And they ridiculed and disparaged us, and they said: “What is this thing that you are doing? Could you be rebelling against the king?”

20 And I replied to them a word, and I said to them: “The God of heaven himself is helping us, and we are his servants. Let us rise up and build. But there is no portion, or justice, or remembrance in Jerusalem for you.”

1 And Eliashib, the great priest, rose up, with his brothers, the priests, and they built the gate of the flock. They sanctified it, and they set up its double doors, and as far as the tower of one hundred cubits, they sanctified it, even to the tower of Hananel.

2 And beside him, the men of Jericho built. And beside them, Zaccur, the son of Imri, built.

3 But the sons of Hassenaah built the fish gate. They covered it, and they set up its double doors and locks and bars. And beside them, Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz, built.

4 And beside him, Meshullam, the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabel, built. And beside them, Zadok, the son of Baana, built.

5 And beside them, the Tekoites built. But the nobles among them did not put their necks to the work of their Lord.

6 And Joiada, the son of Paseah, and Meshullam, the son of Besodeiah, built the old gate. They covered it, and they set up its double doors and locks and bars.

7 And beside them, Melatiah, a Gibeonite, and Jadon, a Meronothite, men from Gibeon and Mizpah, built, on behalf of the governor who was in the region across the river.

8 And beside him, Uzziel, the son of Harhaiah the goldsmith, built. And beside him, Hananiah, the son of the perfumer, built. And they left aside Jerusalem as far as the wall of the broad street.

9 And beside him, Rephaiah, the son of Hur, leader of a street of Jerusalem, built.

10 And beside him, Jedaiah, the son of Harumaph, built, opposite his own house. And beside him, Hattush, the son of Hashabneiah, built.

11 Malchijah, the son of Harim, and Hasshub, the son of Pahath-moab, built one half part of the street and the tower of the furnaces.

12 And beside him, Shallum, the son of Hallohesh, the leader of one half part of a street of Jerusalem, built, he and his daughters.

13 And Hanun built the gate of the valley, with the inhabitants of Zanoah. They built it, and they set up its double doors and locks and bars, with one thousand cubits of the wall, as far as the gate of the dunghill.

14 And Malchijah, the son of Rechab, the leader of the street of Beth-haccherem, built the gate of the dunghill. He built it, and he set up its double doors and locks and bars.

15 And Shallum, the son of Colhozeh, the leader of the district of Mizpah, built the gate of the fountain. He built it, and he covered it, and he set up its double doors and locks and bars, and the walls of the pool of Shelah at the garden of the king, and as far as the steps that descend from the City of David.

16 After him, Nehemiah, the son of Azbuk, the leader of one half part of the street of Bethzur, built, as far as opposite the sepulcher of David, and even to the pool, which was constructed with great labor, and even to the house of the strong.

17 After him, the Levites, Rehum, the son of Bani, built. After him, Hashabiah, the leader of one half part of the street of Keilah, built, in his own neighborhood.

18 After him, their brothers, Binnui, the son of Henadad, the leader of one half part of Keilah, built.

19 And beside him, Ezer, the son of Jeshua, the leader of Mizpah, built another measure, opposite the ascent to the strongest corner.

20 After him, at the mount, Baruch, the son of Zabbai, built another measure, from the corner even to the door of the house of Eliashib, the great priest.

21 After him, Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz, built another measure, from the door of the house of Eliashib, along the length of the house of Eliashib.

22 And after him, the priests, men from the plains of the Jordan, built.

23 After him, Benjamin and Hasshub built, opposite their own house. And after him, Azariah, the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ananiah, built, opposite his own house.

24 After him, Binnui, the son of Henadad, built another measure, from the house of Azariah, even to the bend and to the corner.

25 Palal, the son of Uzai, built, opposite the bend and the tower that projects from the high house of the king, that is, into the court of the prison. After him, Pedaiah, the son of Parosh, built.

26 And the temple servants, who were living in Ophel, built to a point opposite the water gate, toward the east, and the tower that is prominent.

27 After him, the Tekoites built another measure in the opposite area, from the great and prominent tower to the wall of the temple.

28 Then, upward from the horse gate, the priests built, each one opposite his own house.

29 After them, Zadok, the son of Immer, built, opposite his own house. And after him, Shemaiah, the son of Shecaniah, the keeper of the east gate, built.

30 After him, Hananiah, the son of Shelemiah, and Hanun, the sixth son of Zalaph, built another measure. After him, Meshullam, the son of Berechiah, built, opposite his own storehouse. After him, Malchijah, the son of the goldsmith, built, even up to the house of the temple servants and of the sellers of small items, opposite the judgment gate, and even to the upper room of the corner.

31 And within the upper room of the corner, at the gate of the flock, the goldsmiths and the merchants built.

1 Now it happened that, when Sanballat had heard that we were building the wall, he was very angry. And having been moved exceedingly, he ridiculed the Jews.

2 And he said, before his brothers and a crowd of the Samaritans: “What are the foolish Jews doing? Can it be that the Gentiles will allow them? Will they sacrifice and finish in one day? Do they have the ability to make stones out of piles of dust that have been burned up?”

3 Then too, Tobiah, an Ammonite, his assistant, said: “Let them build. When the fox climbs, he will leap over their stone wall.”

4 Listen, O our God, for we have become an object of contempt. Turn their reproach upon their own head, and grant that they may be despised in a land of captivity.

5 May you not conceal their iniquity, and may their sin not be wiped away, before your face, for they have ridiculed those who are building.

6 And so we built the wall, and we joined it together, even to the unfinished portion. And the heart of the people was stirred up for the work.

7 Now it happened that, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabs, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites had heard that the walls of Jerusalem had been closed, and that the breaches had begun to be repaired, they were exceedingly angry.

8 And they all gathered together, so that they might go forth and fight against Jerusalem, and so that they might prepare ambushes.

9 And we prayed to our God, and we stationed guards upon the wall, day and night, against them.

10 Then Judah said: “The strength of those who carry has diminished, and the amount of material is very great, and so we will not be able to build the wall.”

11 And our enemies said: “Let them neither know, nor realize, until we arrive in their midst, and kill them, and cause the work to cease.”

12 Now it happened that, on ten occasions, some Jews arrived who were living near them, from all the places from which they came to us, and they told us this.

13 So I stationed the people in order, in places behind the wall, all around it, with their swords, and lances, and bows.

14 And I gazed around, and I rose up. And I said to the nobles, and to the magistrates, and to the rest of the common people: “Do not be afraid before their face. Remember the great and terrible Lord, and fight on behalf of your brothers, your sons and your daughters, and your wives and your households.”

15 Then it happened that, when our enemies had heard that it had been reported to us, God defeated their counsel. And we all returned to the walls, each one to his own work.

16 And it happened that, from that day, half of their young men were doing the work, and half were prepared for war with lances, and shields, and bows, and armor. And the leaders were behind them in all the house of Judah.

17 As for those building the wall, and carrying the burdens, and setting things in place: one of his hands was doing the work, and the other was holding a sword.

18 For each one of the builders was girded with a sword at the waist. And they were building, and they were sounding a trumpet beside me.

19 And I said to the nobles, and to the magistrates, and to the rest of the common people: “The work is great and wide, and we are separated on the wall far from one another.

20 At whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, rush to that place for us. Our God will fight on our behalf.

21 And so let us accomplish the work. And let one half part of us hold spears, from the ascent of dawn until the stars come out.”

22 Also at that time, I said to the people: “Let each one with his servant remain in the midst of Jerusalem. And let us take turns, throughout the night and day, in doing the work.”

23 But I and my brothers, and my servants, and the guards who were behind me, we did not take off our clothes; each one only removed his clothes to wash.

1 And there occurred a great outcry of the people and their wives against their brothers, the Jews.

2 And there were those who were saying: “Our sons and our daughters are very many. Let us receive grain as a price for them, and then we may eat and live.”

3 And there were those who were saying: “Let us offer up our fields and vineyards, and our houses, and then we may receive grain during the famine.”

4 And others were saying: “Let us borrow money for the tribute of the king, and let us surrender our fields and vineyards.”

5 “And now, as is the flesh of our brothers, so is our flesh; and as are their sons, so also are our sons. Behold, we have subjugated our sons and our daughters into servitude, and some of our daughters are slaves, nor do we have the ability to redeem them, for others possess our fields and our vineyards.”

6 And when I had heard their outcry in these words, I was exceedingly angry.

7 And my heart considered within me. And I rebuked the nobles and the magistrates, and I said to them, “Have you each been exacting usury from your brothers?” And I gathered together a great assembly against them.

8 And I said to them: “As you know, in accord with what was possible for us, we have redeemed our brothers, the Jews, who had been sold to the Gentiles. And yet you now sell your brothers, and we must redeem them?” And they were silent, nor did they find anything to answer.

9 And I said to them: “The thing that you are doing is not good. Why are you not walking in the fear of our God, so that there may be no reproach against us from our enemies, the Gentiles?

10 Both I and my brothers, with my servants, have lent money and grain to many. Let us agree not to ask for its return. Let us forgive the other money that is owed to us.

11 On this day, restore their fields, and their vineyards, and their olive groves, and their houses to them. Then, too, the hundredth part of the money, and of the grain, wine, and oil, which you usually exact from them, give it to them.”

12 And they said: “We will restore it, and we will require nothing from them. And we will do just as you say.” And I called the priests, and I had them swear an oath, so that they would act in accord with what I had said.

13 Moreover, I shook out my lap, and I said: “So may God shake out every man, who does not fulfill this word. From his house and from his labors, so may he be shaken out and become empty.” And the entire multitude said, “Amen.” And they praised God. Therefore, the people acted in accord with what was said.

14 Now from that day, on which the king had ordered me to be governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even to the thirty-second year of king Artaxerxes, for twelve years, I and my brothers did not eat the yearly allowance that was owed to the governors.

15 But the former governors, the ones who had been before me, were a burden to the people, and they took from them bread and wine, and forty shekels of money each day. And their officials also oppressed the people. But I did not do so, out of fear of God.

16 In fact, I preferred to build in the work of the wall, and I bought no land, and all my servants were gathered to do the work.

17 Likewise, the Jews and the magistrates, one hundred and fifty men, were at my table, with those who came to us from among the Gentiles that are around us.

18 Now there was prepared for me, on each day, one ox and six choice rams, along with poultry. And once every ten days, I distributed diverse wines and many other things. Yet I did not require my yearly allowance as governor. For the people were greatly impoverished.

19 Remember me, O my God, for good, in accord with all that I have done for this people.

1 Now it happened that, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem, an Arab, and our other enemies, had heard that I had built the wall, and that there was no interruption remaining in it, (even though, at that time, I had not set up the double doors at the gates,)

2 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying: “Come, and let us strike a pact together in the villages, on the plain of Ono.” But they were thinking that they would do me harm.

3 Therefore, I sent messengers to them, saying: “I am doing a great work, and I cannot descend, lest perhaps it may be neglected when I go out and descend to you.”

4 Then they sent to me, with this same word, four times. And I responded to them with the same word as before.

5 And Sanballat sent his servant to me a fifth time, with the former word, and he had a letter in his hand written in this manner:

6 “It has been heard among the Gentiles, and Geshem has said it, that you and the Jews are planning to rebel, and because of this, you are building the wall and thinking to raise yourself as a king over them. For this reason,

7 you also have stationed prophets, who preach about you in Jerusalem, saying: ‘There is a king in Judea!’ But the king will hear about these words. Therefore, come now, so that we may go to counsel together.”

8 And I sent to them, saying: “There has been nothing done according to these words, which you have spoken. For you are inventing these things from your own heart.”

9 For all these men wished to frighten us, thinking that our hands would cease from the work, and that we would cease. For this reason, I strengthened my hands all the more.

10 And I entered into the house of Shemaiah, the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, in secret. And he said: “Let us consult together in the house of God, in the midst of the temple. And let us close the doors of the temple. For they will come to kill you, and they will arrive in the night to put you to death.”

11 And I said: “How could anyone like me flee? And who like me should enter the temple, so that he may live? I will not enter.”

12 And I understood that God had not sent him, but he had spoken to me as if he were prophesying, and that Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

13 For he had accepted money, so that I would be afraid, and would sin, and so that they would have some evil with which to rebuke me.

14 Remember me, O Lord, because of Tobiah and Sanballat, because of their works of this kind. Then, too, Noadiah, a prophetess, and the rest of the prophets, would have made me afraid.

15 Now the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Elul, in fifty-two days.

16 Then it happened that, when all our enemies had heard of it, all the nations that were around us were afraid, and they were downcast within themselves. For they knew that this work had been accomplished by God.

17 But also, in those days, many letters were being sent by the nobles of the Jews to Tobiah, and were arriving from Tobiah to them.

18 For there were many in Judea who had sworn an oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah, the son of Arah, and because Jehohanan, his son, had married the daughter of Meshullam, the son of Berechiah.

19 Moreover, they praised him before me, and they reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters, so that he might make me afraid.

1 Then, after the wall was built, and I set up the double doors, and I enrolled the gatekeepers, and the singing men, and the Levites,

2 I instructed Hanani, my brother, and Hananiah, the leader of the house of Jerusalem, (for he seemed to be a truthful man, fearing God more than the others,)

3 and I said to them: “Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot.” And while they were standing there, the gates were closed and barred. And I stationed guards from the inhabitants of Jerusalem, each one in his turn, and each one opposite his own house.

4 Now the city was great and very wide, and the people in its midst were few, and the houses were not yet built.

5 But God had given to my heart, and I gathered the nobles, and the magistrates, and the common people, so that I might enroll them. And I found a book of the census of those who first went up, and in it there was found written:

6 These are the sons of the province, who ascended from the captivity of the transmigration, those whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had taken away, and who returned into Jerusalem and Judea, each one to his own city.

7 They arrived with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:

8 The sons of Parosh, two thousand one hundred seventy-two.

9 The sons of Shephatiah, three hundred seventy-two.

10 The sons of Arah, six hundred fifty-two.

11 The sons of Pahath-moab of the sons of Jeshua and of Joab, two thousand eight hundred eighteen.

12 The sons of Elam, one thousand two hundred fifty-four.

13 The sons of Zattu, eight hundred forty-five.

14 The sons of Zaccai, seven hundred sixty.

15 The sons of Binnui, six hundred forty-eight.

16 The sons of Bebai, six hundred twenty-eight.

17 The sons of Azgad, two thousand three hundred twenty-two.

18 The sons of Adonikam, six hundred sixty-seven.

19 The sons of Bigvai, two thousand sixty-seven.

20 The sons of Adin, six hundred fifty-five.

21 The sons of Ater, sons of Hezekiah, ninety-eight.

22 The sons of Hashum, three hundred twenty-eight.

23 The sons of Bezai, three hundred twenty-four.

24 The sons of Hariph, one hundred twelve.

25 The sons of Gibeon, ninety-five.

26 The sons of Bethlehem and Netophah, one hundred eighty-eight.

27 The men of Anathoth, one hundred twenty-eight.

28 The men of Beth-azmaveth, forty-two.

29 The men of Kiriath-jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred forty-three.

30 The men of Ramah and Geba, six hundred twenty-one.

31 The men of Michmas, one hundred twenty-two.

32 The men of Bethel and Ai, one hundred twenty-three.

33 The men of the other Nebo, fifty-two.

34 The men of the other Elam, one thousand two hundred fifty-four.

35 The sons of Harim, three hundred twenty.

36 The sons of Jericho, three hundred forty-five.

37 The sons of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred twenty-one.

38 The sons of Senaah, three thousand nine hundred thirty.

39 The priests: the sons of Jedaiah in the house of Jeshua, nine hundred seventy-three.

40 The sons of Immer, one thousand fifty-two.

41 The sons of Pashhur, one thousand two hundred forty-seven.

42 The sons of Harim, one thousand and seventeen.

43 The Levites: the sons of Jeshua and Kadmiel, the sons

44 of Hodaviah, seventy-four. The singing men:

45 the sons of Asaph, one hundred forty-eight.

46 The gatekeepers: the sons of Shallum, the sons of Ater, the sons of Talmon, the sons of Akkub, the sons of Hatita, the sons of Shobai, one hundred thirty-eight.

47 The temple servants: the sons of Ziha, the sons of Hasupha, the sons of Tabbaoth,

48 the sons of Keros, the sons of Siaha, the sons of Padon, the sons of Lebanah, the sons of Hagabah, the sons of Shalmai,

49 the sons of Hanan, the sons of Giddel, the sons of Gahar,

50 the sons of Reaiah, the sons of Rezin, the sons of Nekoda,

51 the sons of Gazzam, the sons of Uzza, the sons of Paseah,

52 the sons of Besai, the sons of Meunim, the sons of Nephusim,

53 the sons of Bakbuk, the sons of Hakupha, the sons of Harhur,

54 the sons of Bazluth, the sons of Mehida, the sons of Harsha,

55 the sons of Barkos, the sons of Sisera, the sons of Temah,

56 the sons of Neziah, the sons of Hatipha.

57 The sons of the servants of Solomon: the sons of Sotai, the sons of Sophereth, the sons of Perida,

58 the sons of Jaalah, the sons of Darkon, the sons of Giddel,

59 the sons of Shephatiah, the sons of Hattil, the sons of Pochereth, who was born from Hazzebaim, the son of Amon.

60 All the temple servants and the sons of the servants of Solomon, three hundred ninety-two.

61 Now these are the ones who ascended from Telmelah, Telharsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer; and they were not able to indicate the house of their fathers and their offspring, whether they were of Israel:

62 the sons of Delaiah, the sons of Tobiah, the sons of Nekoda, six hundred forty-two;

63 and among the priests: the sons of Hobaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, the sons of Barzillai, who took a wife from the daughters of Barzillai, a Gileadite, and he was called by their name.

64 These sought their writing in the census, and they did not find it, and so they were cast out of the priesthood.

65 And the cupbearer said to them that they should not eat from the Holy of Holies, until a priest would stand up who was learned and skillful.

66 The entire multitude, which was like one man, was forty-two thousand three hundred sixty,

67 aside from their men and women servants, who were seven thousand three hundred thirty-seven, and among them were singing men and singing women, two hundred forty-five.

68 Their horses were seven hundred thirty-six; their were mules two hundred forty-five.

69 Their camels were four hundred thirty-five; their donkeys were six thousand seven hundred twenty.

70 Now several of the leaders of the families gave to the work. The cupbearer gave to the treasury one thousand drachmas of gold, fifty bowls, and five hundred thirty priestly garments.

71 And some of the leaders of the families gave to the treasury of the work twenty thousand drachmas of gold, and two thousand two hundred minas of silver.

72 And what the remainder of the people gave was twenty thousand drachmas of gold, and two thousand minas of silver, and sixty-seven priestly garments.

73 Now the priests, and the Levites, and the gatekeepers, and the singing men, and the rest of the common people, and the temple servants, and all of Israel dwelt in their own cities.