Through the Bible – Day 169

₁When Sanballat, the governor of Samaria, heard that we were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, he became angry and started insulting our people. ₂In front of his friends and the Samaritan army he said, “What is this feeble bunch of Jews trying to do? Are they going to rebuild the wall and offer sacrifices all in one day? Do they think they can make something out of this pile of scorched stones?”

₃Tobiah from Ammon was standing beside Sanballat and said, “Look at the wall they are building! Why, even a fox could knock over this pile of stones.”

₄But I prayed, “Our God, these people hate us and have wished horrible things for us. Please answer our prayers and make their insults fall on them! Let them be the ones to be dragged away as prisoners of war. ₅Don't forgive the mean and evil way they have insulted the builders.”

₆The people worked hard, and we built the walls of Jerusalem halfway up again. ₇But Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the people from the city of Ashdod saw the walls going up and the holes being repaired. So they became angry ₈and decided to stir up trouble, and to fight against the people of Jerusalem. ₉But we kept on praying to our God, and we also stationed guards day and night.

₁₀Meanwhile, the people of Judah were singing a sorrowful song:

₁₁Our enemies were saying, “Before those Jews know what has happened, we will sneak up and kill them and put an end to their work.”

₁₂On at least ten different occasions, the Jews living near our enemies warned us against attacks from every side, ₁₃and so I sent people to guard the wall at its lowest places and where there were still holes in it. I placed them according to families, and they stood guard with swords and spears and with bows and arrows. ₁₄Then I looked things over and told the leaders, the officials, and the rest of the people, “Don't be afraid of your enemies! The Lord is great and fearsome. So think of him and fight for your relatives and children, your wives and homes!”

₁₅Our enemies found out that we knew about their plot against us, but God kept them from doing what they had planned. So we went back to work on the wall.

₁₆From then on, I let half of the young men work while the other half stood guard. They wore armour and had spears and shields, as well as bows and arrows. The leaders helped the workers ₁₇who were rebuilding the wall. Everyone who hauled building materials kept one hand free to carry a weapon. ₁₈Even the workers who were rebuilding the wall strapped on a sword. The worker who was to blow the signal trumpet stayed with me.

₁₉I told the people and their officials and leaders, “Our work is so spread out, that we are a long way from one another. ₂₀If you hear the sound of the trumpet, come quickly and gather around me. Our God will help us fight.”

₂₁Every day from dawn to dark, half of the workers rebuilt the walls, while the rest stood guard with their spears.

₂₂I asked the men in charge and their workers to stay inside Jerusalem and stand guard at night. So they guarded the city at night and worked during the day. ₂₃I even slept in my work clothes at night; my children, the workers, and the guards slept in theirs as well. And we always kept our weapons close by.

₁Some of the men and their wives complained about the Jews in power ₂and said, “We have large families, and it takes a lot of grain merely to keep them alive.”

₃Others said, “During the famine we even had to mortgage our fields, vineyards, and homes to them in order to buy grain.”

₄Then others said, “We had to borrow money from those in power to pay the government tax on our fields and vineyards. ₅We are Jews just as they are, and our children are as good as theirs. But we still have to sell our children as slaves, and some of our daughters have already been raped. We are completely helpless; our fields and vineyards have even been taken from us.”

₆When I heard their complaints and their charges, I became very angry. ₇So I thought it over and said to the leaders and officials, “How can you charge your own people interest?”

Then I called a public meeting and accused the leaders ₈by saying, “We have tried to buy back all of our people who were sold into exile. But here you are, selling more of them for us to buy back!” The officials and leaders did not say a word, because they knew this was true.

₉I continued, “What you have done is wrong! We must honour our God by the way we live, so the Gentiles can't find fault with us. ₁₀My relatives, my friends, and I are also lending money and grain, but we must no longer demand payment in return. ₁₁Now give back the fields, vineyards, olive orchards, and houses you have taken and also the interest you have been paid.”

₁₂The leaders answered, “We will do whatever you say and return their property, without asking to be repaid.”

So I made the leaders promise in front of the priests to give back the property. ₁₃Then I emptied my pockets and said, “If you don't keep your promise, that's what God will do to you. He will empty out everything you own, even taking away your houses.”

The people answered, “We will keep our promise.” Then they praised the LORD and did as they had promised.

₁₄I was governor of Judah from the twentieth year that Artaxerxes was king until the thirty-second year. And during these entire twelve years, my relatives and I refused to accept the food that I was allowed. ₁₅Each governor before me had been a burden to the people by making them pay for his food and wine and by demanding forty silver coins a day. Even their officials had been a burden to the people. But I respected God, and I didn't think it was right to be so hard on them. ₁₆I spent all my time getting the wall rebuilt and did not buy any property. Everyone working for me did the same thing. ₁₇I usually fed a hundred and fifty of our own Jewish people and their leaders, as well as foreign visitors from surrounding lands. ₁₈Each day one ox, six of the best sheep, and lots of chickens were prepared. Then every ten days, a large supply of wine was brought in. I knew what a heavy burden this would have been for the people, and so I did not ask for my food allowance as governor.

₁₉I pray that God will bless me for everything I have done for my people.

₁Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem, and our other enemies learnt that I had completely rebuilt the wall. All I lacked was hanging the doors in the gates. ₂Then Sanballat and Geshem sent a message, asking me to meet with them in one of the villages in Ono Valley. I knew they were planning to harm me in some way. ₃So I sent messengers to tell them, “My work is too important to stop now and go there. I can't afford to slow down the work just to visit you.” ₄They invited me four times, but each time I refused to go.

₅Finally, Sanballat sent an official to me with an unsealed letter, ₆which said:

₈I sent a message back to Sanballat, saying, “None of this is true! You are making it all up.”

₉Our enemies were trying to frighten us and to keep us from our work. But I asked God to give me strength.

₁₀One day I went to visit Shemaiah. He was looking very worried, and he said, “Let's hurry to the holy place of the temple and hide there. We will lock the temple doors, because your enemies are planning to kill you tonight.”

₁₁I answered, “Why should someone like me have to run and hide in the temple to save my life? I won't go!”

₁₂Suddenly I realized that God had not given Shemaiah this message. But Tobiah and Sanballat had paid him to trick me ₁₃and to frighten me into doing something wrong, because they wanted to ruin my good name.

₁₄Then I asked God to punish Tobiah and Sanballat for what they had done. I prayed that God would punish the prophet Noadiah and the other prophets who, together with her, had tried to frighten me.

₁₅On the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, the wall was completely rebuilt. It had taken fifty-two days. ₁₆When our enemies in the surrounding nations learnt that the work was finished, they felt helpless, because they knew that our God had helped us rebuild the wall.

₁₇All this time the Jewish leaders and Tobiah had been writing letters back and forth. ₁₈Many people in Judah were loyal to Tobiah for two reasons: Shecaniah son of Arah was his father-in-law, and Tobiah's son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah. ₁₉The people would always tell me about the good things Tobiah had done, and then they would tell Tobiah everything I had said. So Tobiah kept sending letters, trying to frighten me.

₁After the wall had been rebuilt and the gates hung, then the temple guards, the singers, and the other Levites were assigned their work. ₂I put my brother Hanani in charge of Jerusalem, along with Hananiah, the commander of the fortress, because Hananiah could be trusted, and he respected God more than most people did. ₃I said to them, “Don't let the gates to the city be opened until the sun has been up for a while. And make sure that they are closed and barred before the guards go off duty at sunset. Choose people from Jerusalem to stand guard at different places around the wall and others to stand guard near their own houses.”

₄Although Jerusalem covered a large area, not many people lived there, and no new houses had been built. _5-6So God gave me the idea to bring together the people, their leaders, and officials and to check the family records of those who had returned from captivity in Babylonia, after having been taken there by King Nebuchadnezzar. About this same time, I found records of those who had been the first to return to Jerusalem from Babylon Province. By reading these records, I learnt that they settled in their own home towns, ₇and that they had come with Zerubbabel, Joshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, and Baanah.

_8-25Here is how many had returned from each family group: 2,172 from Parosh; 372 from Shephatiah; 652 from Arah; 2,818 from Pahath Moab, who were all descendants of Jeshua and Joab; 1,254 from Elam; 845 from Zattu; 760 from Zaccai; 648 from Binnui; 628 from Bebai; 2,322 from Azgad; 667 from Adonikam; 2,067 from Bigvai; 655 from Adin; 98 from Ater, also known as Hezekiah; 328 from Hashum; 324 from Bezai; 112 from Hariph; and 95 from Gibeon.

_26-38Here is how many people returned whose ancestors had come from the following towns: 188 from Bethlehem and Netophah; 128 from Anathoth; 42 from Beth-Azmaveth; 743 from Kiriath-Jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth; 621 from Ramah and Geba; 122 from Michmas; 123 from Bethel and Ai; 52 from Nebo; 1,254 from Elam; 320 from Harim; 345 from Jericho; 721 from Lod, Hadid, and Ono; and 3,930 from Senaah.

_39-42Here is how many returned from each family of priests: 973 descendants of Jeshua from Jedaiah; 1,052 from Immer; 1,247 from Pashhur; and 1,017 from Harim.

_43-45Here is how many returned from the families of Levites: 74 descendants of Hodevah from the families of Jeshua and Kadmiel; 148 descendants of Asaph from the temple musicians; and 138 descendants of Shallum, Ater, Talmon, Akkub, Hatita, and Shobai from the temple guards.

_46-56Here are the names of the families of temple workers whose descendants returned: Ziha, Hasupha, Tabbaoth, Keros, Sia, Padon, Lebana, Hagaba, Shalmai, Hanan, Giddel, Gahar, Reaiah, Rezin, Nekoda, Gazzam, Uzza, Paseah, Besai, Meunim, Nephushesim, Bakbuk, Hakupha, Harhur, Bazlith, Mehida, Harsha, Barkos, Sisera, Temah, Neziah, and Hatipha.

_57-59Here are the names of Solomon's servants whose descendants returned: Sotai, Sophereth, Perida, Jaala, Darkon, Giddel, Shephatiah, Hattil, Pochereth Hazzebaim, and Amon.

₆₀A total of 392 descendants of temple workers and of Solomon's servants returned.

_61-62There were 642 who returned from the families of Delaiah, Tobiah, and Nekoda, though they could not prove they were Israelites. They had lived in the Babylonian towns of Tel-Melah, Tel-Harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer.

_63-64The families of Hobaiah, Hakkoz, and Barzillai could not prove they were priests. The ancestor of the family of Barzillai had married the daughter of Barzillai from Gilead and had taken his wife's family name. But the records of these three families could not be found, and none of them were allowed to serve as priests. ₆₅In fact, the governor told them, “You cannot eat the food offered to God until he lets us know if you really are priests.”

_66-69There were 42,360 who returned, in addition to 7,337 servants, and 245 musicians. Altogether, they brought with them 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys.

_70-72Many people gave gifts to help pay for the materials to rebuild the temple. The governor himself gave 8 kilogrammes of gold, 50 bowls to be used in the temple, and 530 robes for the priests. Family leaders gave 153 kilogrammes of gold and 1,458 kilogrammes of silver. The rest of the people gave 153 kilogrammes of gold, 1,325 kilogrammes of silver, and 67 robes for the priests.

₇₃And so, by the seventh month, priests, Levites, temple guards, musicians, workers, and many of the ordinary people had settled in the towns of Judah.

₁₁While the man kept holding on to Peter and John, the whole crowd ran to them in amazement at the place known as Solomon's Porch. ₁₂Peter saw that a crowd had gathered, and he said: