² So the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This can only be sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid.^{(A) 3} I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my ancestors’ graves, lies waste and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”^{(B) 4} Then the king said to me, “What do you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.^{(C) 5} Then I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my ancestors’ graves, so that I may rebuild it.”

¹⁶ The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing; I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work.

Decision to Restore the Walls

¹⁷ Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer suffer disgrace.”^{(A) 18} I told them that the hand of my God had been gracious upon me and also the words that the king had spoken to me. Then they said, “Let us start building!” So they committed themselves to the common good.^(B)

⁶ So we rebuilt the wall, and all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

¹¹ And our enemies said, “They will not know or see anything before we come upon them and kill them and stop the work.” ¹² When the Jews who lived near them came, they said to us ten times, “From all the places where they live^[a] they will come up against us.”^{[b] 13} So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people according to their families,^[c] with their swords, their spears, and their bows.^{(A) 14} After I looked these things over, I stood up and said to the nobles and the officials and the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your kin, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your households.”^(B)

¹⁵ When our enemies heard that their plot was known to us and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his work.^{(C) 16} From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and body-armor, and the leaders posted themselves behind the whole house of Judah ¹⁷ who were building the wall. The burden bearers carried their loads in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and with the other held a weapon. ¹⁸ And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me.

²³ So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me ever took off our clothes; each kept his weapon in his right hand.^[a]

The Wall Completed

¹⁵ So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. ¹⁶ And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid^[a] and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.^(A)