The Daily Audio Bible

1 Words of Nehemiah son of Hachaliah. And it cometh to pass, in the month of Chisleu, the twentieth year, and I have been in Shushan the palace,

² and come in doth Hanani, one of my brethren, he and men of Judah, and I ask them concerning the Jews, the escaped part that have been left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem;

³ and they say to me, `Those left, who have been left of the captivity there in the province, [are] in great evil, and in reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burnt with fire.'

⁴ And it cometh to pass, at my hearing these words, I have sat down, and I weep and mourn [for] days, and I am fasting and praying before the God of the heavens.

⁵ And I say, `I beseech thee, O Jehovah, God of the heavens, God, the great and the fearful, keeping the covenant and kindness for those loving Him, and for those keeping His commands,

⁶ let Thine ear be, I pray Thee, attentive, and Thine eyes open, to hearken unto the prayer of Thy servant, that I am praying before Thee to-day, by day and by night, concerning the sons of Israel Thy servants, and confessing concerning the sins of the sons of Israel, that we have sinned against Thee; yea, I and the house of my father have sinned;

⁷ we have acted very corruptly against Thee, and have not kept the commands, and the statutes, and the judgments, that Thou didst command Moses Thy servant.

⁸ `Remember, I pray Thee, the word that Thou didst command Moses Thy servant, saying, Ye -- ye trespass -- I scatter you among peoples;

⁹ and ye have turned back unto Me, and kept My commands, and done them -- if your outcast is in the end of the heavens, thence I gather them, and have brought them in unto the place that I have chosen to cause My name to tabernacle there.

¹⁰ And they [are] Thy servants, and Thy people, whom Thou hast ransomed by Thy great power, and by Thy strong hand.

¹¹ `I beseech Thee, O Lord, let, I pray Thee, Thine ear be attentive unto the prayer of Thy servant, and unto the prayer of Thy servants, those delighting to fear Thy Name; and give prosperity, I pray Thee, to Thy servant to-day, and give him for mercies before this man;' and I have been butler to the king.

2 And it cometh to pass, in the month of Nisan, the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, wine [is] before him, and I lift up the wine, and give to the king, and I had not been sad before him;

² and the king saith to me, `Wherefore [is] thy face sad, and thou not sick? this is nothing except sadness of heart;' and I fear very much,

³ and say to the king, `Let the king to the age live! wherefore should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of the graves of my fathers, [is] a waste, and its gates have been consumed with fire?'

⁴ And the king saith to me, `For what art thou seeking?' and I pray unto the God of the heavens,

⁵ and say to the king, `If to the king [it be] good, and if thy servant be pleasing before thee, that thou send me unto Judah, unto the city of the graves of my fathers, and I built it.'

⁶ And the king saith to me (and the queen is sitting near him), `How long is thy journey? and when dost thou return?' and it is good before the king, and he sendeth me away, and I set to him a time.

⁷ And I say to the king, `If to the king [it be] good, letters let be given to me for the governors beyond the River, that they let me pass over till that I come in unto Judah:

⁸ and a letter unto Asaph, keeper of the paradise that the king hath, that he give to me trees for beams [for] the gates of the palace that the house hath, and for the wall of the city, and for the house into which I enter;' and the king giveth to me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

⁹ And I come in unto the governors beyond the River, and give to them the letters of the king; and the king sendeth with me heads of a force, and horsemen;

¹⁰ and Sanballat the Horonite heareth, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and it is evil to them -- a great evil -- that a man hath come in to seek good for the sons of Israel.

¹¹ And I come in unto Jerusalem, and I am there three days,

¹² and I rise by night, I and a few men with me, and have not declared to a man what my God is giving unto my heart to do for Jerusalem, and there is no beast with me except the beast on which I am riding.

¹³ And I go out through the gate of the valley by night, and unto the front of the fountain of the dragon, and unto the gate of the dunghill, and I am measuring about the walls of Jerusalem, that are broken down, and its gates consumed with fire.

¹⁴ And I pass over unto the gate of the fountain, and unto the pool of the king, and there is no place for the beast under me to pass over,

¹⁵ and I am going up through the brook by night, and am measuring about the wall, and turn back, and come in through the gate of the valley, and turn back.

¹⁶ And the prefects have not known whither I have gone, and what I am doing; and to the Jews, and to the priests, and to the freemen, and to the prefects, and to the rest of those doing the work, hitherto I have not declared [it];

¹⁷ and I say unto them, `Ye are seeing the evil that we are in, in that Jerusalem [is] waste, and its gates have been burnt with fire; come and we build the wall of Jerusalem, and we are not any more a reproach.'

¹⁸ And I declare to them the hand of my God that is good upon me, and also the words of the king that he said to me, and they say, `Let us rise, and we have built;' and they strengthen their hands for good.

¹⁹ And Sanballat the Horonite heareth, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, and they mock at us, and despise us, and say, `What [is] this thing that ye are doing? against the king are ye rebelling?'

²⁰ And I return them word, and say to them, `The God of the heavens -- He doth give prosperity to us, and we His servants rise and have built; and to you there is no portion, and right, and memorial in Jerusalem.'

3 And Eliashib the high priest riseth, and his brethren the priests, and they build the sheep-gate; they have sanctified it, and set up its doors, even unto the tower of Meah they have sanctified it, unto the tower of Hananeel;

² and by his hand have men of Jericho built; and by their hand hath Zaccur son of Imri built;

³ and the fish-gate have sons of Hassenaah built, they have walled it, and set up its doors, its locks, and its bars.

⁴ And by their hand hath Merimoth son of Urijah, son of Koz, strengthened; and by his hand hath Meshullam son of Berechiah, son of Meshezabeel, strengthened; and by his hand hath Zadok son of Baana strengthened;

⁵ and by his hand have the Tekoites strengthened, and their honourable ones have not brought in their neck to the service of their Lord.

⁶ And the old gate have Jehoiada son of Paseah, and Meshullam son of Besodeiah, strengthened; they have walled it, and set up its doors, and its locks, and its bars.

⁷ And by their hand hath Melatiah the Gibeonite strengthened, and Jadon the Meronothite, men of Gibeon and of Mizpah, to the throne of the governor beyond the River.

⁸ By his hand hath Uzziel son of Harhaiah of the refiners strengthened; and by his hand hath Hananiah son of [one of] the compounders strengthened; and they leave Jerusalem unto the broad wall.

⁹ And by their hand hath Rephaiah son of Hur, head of the half of the district of Jerusalem, strengthened.

¹⁰ And by their hand hath Jedaiah son of Harumaph strengthened, and over-against his own house; and by his hand hath Hattush son of Hashabniah strengthened.

¹¹ A second measure hath Malchijah son of Harim strengthened, and Hashub son of Pahath-Moab, even the tower of the furnaces.

¹² And by his hand hath Shallum son of Halohesh, head of the half of the district of Jerusalem, strengthened, he and his daughters.

¹³ The gate of the valley hath Hanun strengthened, and the inhabitants of Zanoah; they have built it, and set up its doors, its locks, and its bars, and a thousand cubits in the wall unto the dung-gate.

¹⁴ And the dung-gate hath Malchijah son of Rechab, head of the district of Beth-Haccerem, strengthened; he doth built it, and set up its doors, its locks, and its bars.

7 And concerning the things of which ye wrote to me: good [it is] for a man not to touch a woman,

² and because of the whoredom let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her proper husband;

³ to the wife let the husband the due benevolence render, and in like manner also the wife to the husband;

⁴ the wife over her own body hath not authority, but the husband; and, in like manner also, the husband over his own body hath not authority, but the wife.

⁵ Defraud not one another, except by consent for a time, that ye may be free for fasting and prayer, and again may come together, that the Adversary may not tempt you because of your incontinence;

⁶ and this I say by way of concurrence -- not of command,

⁷ for I wish all men to be even as I myself [am]; but each his own gift hath of God, one indeed thus, and one thus.

⁸ And I say to the unmarried and to the widows: it is good for them if they may remain even as I [am];

⁹ and if they have not continence -- let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn;

¹⁰ and to the married I announce -- not I, but the Lord -- let not a wife separate from a husband:

¹¹ but and if she may separate, let her remain unmarried, or to the husband let her be reconciled, and let not a husband send away a wife.

¹² And to the rest I speak -- not the Lord -- if any brother hath a wife unbelieving, and she is pleased to dwell with him, let him not send her away;

¹³ and a woman who hath a husband unbelieving, and he is pleased to dwell with her, let her not send him away;

¹⁴ for the unbelieving husband hath been sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife hath been sanctified in the husband; otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy.

¹⁵ And, if the unbelieving doth separate himself -- let him separate himself: the brother or the sister is not under servitude in such [cases], and in peace hath God called us;

¹⁶ for what, hast thou known, O wife, whether the husband thou shalt save? or what, hast thou known, O husband, whether the wife thou shalt save?

¹⁷ if not, as God did distribute to each, as the Lord hath called each -- so let him walk; and thus in all the assemblies do I direct:

¹⁸ being circumcised -- was any one called? let him not become uncircumcised; in uncircumcision was any one called? let him not be circumcised;

¹⁹ the circumcision is nothing, and the uncircumcision is nothing -- but a keeping of the commands of God.

²⁰ Each in the calling in which he was called -- in this let him remain;

²¹ a servant -- wast thou called? be not anxious; but if also thou art able to become free -- use [it] rather;

²² for he who [is] in the Lord -- having been called a servant -- is the Lord's freedman: in like manner also he the freeman, having been called, is servant of Christ:

²³ with a price ye were bought, become not servants of men;

²⁴ each, in that in which he was called, brethren, in this let him remain with God.

¹⁹ How abundant is Thy goodness, That Thou hast laid up for those fearing Thee,

²⁰ Thou hast wrought for those trusting in Thee, Before sons of men. Thou hidest them in the secret place of Thy presence, From artifices of man, Thou concealest them in a tabernacle, From the strife of tongues.

²¹ Blessed [is] Jehovah, For He hath made marvellous His kindness To me in a city of bulwarks.

²² And I -- I have said in my haste, `I have been cut off from before Thine eyes,' But Thou hast heard the voice of my supplications, In my crying unto Thee.

²³ Love Jehovah, all ye His saints, Jehovah is keeping the faithful, And recompensing abundantly a proud doer.

²⁴ Be strong, and He strengtheneth your heart, All ye who are waiting for Jehovah!

⁴ Loftiness of eyes, and breadth of heart, Tillage of the wicked [is] sin.