Nehemiah

Replying to @hanani

I sat down and cried. Mourned for days. Fasting and praying to the God of heaven.

LORD, remember what you told Moses. If your people are unfaithful, you'll scatter them among the nations. But if they come back to you, you'll gather them from the ends of the earth and bring them home.

Moses@mosesEven after you’ve been scattered, if you look for the LORD your God with all your heart and soul, you’ll find him.

Replying to @nehemiah

Also, please make it go well for me today with this man. For context: I'm the king's cupbearer.

Took the wine in to the king. I've never once been sad in front of him.

Liked by Artaxerxes, king of Persia

He noticed. Asked me why I looked so sad when I wasn't ill. Said it had to be something weighing on me. I was terrified.

Nehemiah@nehemiah · SusaTook the wine in to the king. I've never once been sad in front of him.

Replying to @nehemiah

Told him: why wouldn't I be sad? The city where my ancestors are buried is in ruins, and its gates have been burned. He asked what I wanted. I prayed to the God of heaven. Then I asked him to send me to Judah to rebuild it.

Replying to @nehemiah

The queen was sitting next to him. He asked how long I'd be away and when I'd be back. I gave him a date. He said yes.

Replying to @nehemiah

While I was at it, I asked for letters for the governors on the way, and one for Asaph who keeps the king's forest, so I'd have timber for the gates, the wall and the house I'd live in. Got all of it. God was being good to me.

Delivered the king's letters to the governors west of the Euphrates. The king sent army officers and cavalry along with me. Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official were not happy. At all. Somebody had come to help the Israelites.

Can say it now. Three days after I got to Jerusalem, I went out at night with a few men. Hadn't told anyone what God had put in my mind to do. Out through the Valley Gate, past the Serpent's Well to the Dung Gate, looking at the broken walls and burned gates. By the King's Pool there wasn't even room for the animal I was riding to get through. Went up the valley in the dark, then back in the way I'd come.

You can see the trouble we're in. Jerusalem in ruins, the gates burned. Come on. Let's rebuild the wall, and stop being a laughing stock.

Replying to @sanballat

The God of heaven will give us success. We're his servants, and we're building. You've got no share here, no right and no claim in Jerusalem.

Listen, our God. We're being laughed at. Turn their insults back on their own heads.

Tobiah the Ammonite@tobiah.ammoniteIf a fox climbed up on that wall of theirs, it'd fall down.

The whole wall's joined up now, all the way round, to half its height. People really put their hearts into it.

Replying to @jew.nearby

Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord. He's great and awesome. Fight for your brothers, your sons and daughters, your wives and your homes.

Replying to @on.the.wall

We're spread out a long way along the wall. Wherever you hear the horn, come to us there. Our God will fight for us.

Replying to @on.the.wall

None of us took our clothes off at night. Me, my brothers, my men, the guards. Weapon in hand even to go for water.

Replying to @father.in.debt

When I heard this I was furious.

Called a big meeting about the nobles and officials. We've been buying back our own people who were sold to foreigners, and you're selling them again? Give back their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, today. They had nothing to say.

Replying to @nehemiah

They promised to give it all back. I made them swear it in front of the priests. Then I shook out the folds of my robe: may God shake out anyone who breaks this promise, just like that. Everyone said amen, and praised the LORD. And they did it.

Twelve years as governor and I never took the governor's food allowance. The governors before me put heavy loads on the people. The people had enough to carry. 150 Jews and officials at my table every day, plus visitors from the nations round us. Remember me, my God, and be good to me, for all I've done for this people.

Replying to @sanballat

I'm doing a great work and I can't come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it to come to you?

Replying to @sanballat

Four times they sent the same message. Four times I sent the same answer. I knew they were planning to harm me.

Replying to @sanballat

None of this is true. You're making it up.

Replying to @nehemiah

They're all trying to scare us into dropping our tools. Now, God, make me strong.

Went to see Shemaiah, who was shut up in his house. He said we should meet in the temple and shut the doors, because they're coming to kill me. Tonight. I said: should a man like me run? Go into the temple to save my own life? I'm not going.

Replying to @nehemiah

Then I worked it out. God hadn't sent him. Tobiah and Sanballat had paid him to frighten me into doing something wrong, so they could smear my name.

The wall is finished. Fifty-two days. The twenty-fifth of Elul.

Replying to @nehemiah

When our enemies heard, all the nations round us lost their nerve. They could see our God had done this.

Meanwhile, letters going back and forth all the time between Judah's nobles and Tobiah. A lot of them are bound to him by marriage. They keep telling me what a good man he is, and passing on everything I say. And he keeps sending me letters to scare me.

Put my brother Hanani in charge of Jerusalem, with Hananiah the fortress commander, a man you can trust, who respected God more than most. Rule: the gates don't open until the sun is hot.

Big city. Hardly anyone living in it. The houses still haven't been rebuilt.

Replying to @theisraelites

Don't cry. Today is holy to the LORD. Go and eat something rich, drink something sweet, and send some to anyone who hasn't got anything ready. Don't be sad. The joy of the LORD is your strength.

Replying to @theisraelites

Nobody had celebrated like this since the days of Joshua son of Nun. The joy was huge.

Dedication day. Levites and singers brought in from all over. I took the leaders of Judah up on top of the wall and set up two great choirs. One went right along the wall towards the Dung Gate, with Ezra the scribe leading. The other went left, and I followed it. We met in the house of God.

I'd gone back to the king for a while. Came back to find that Eliashib the priest, who's related to Tobiah, had given Tobiah a big room in the courts of God's house. The storeroom for the offerings. I was furious. Threw all his stuff out of the room.

Replying to @nehemiah

Had the rooms purified, and put the temple things, the grain offerings and the incense back where they belong.

Also found out the Levites and singers hadn't been given their share, so they'd all gone back to their fields. Told the officials off: why is the house of God being neglected? Got them back to their posts. Remember me for this, my God.

People treading winepresses on the Sabbath. Donkeys loaded with grain, wine, grapes and figs coming into Jerusalem. Men from Tyre selling fish. So now the gates shut as it gets dark before the Sabbath, and stay shut till it's over.

Replying to @tyre.merchant

They haven't come back on the Sabbath since.

Saw Jews who'd married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. Half their children can't speak the language of Judah.

Replying to @nehemiah

Told them off. Called down curses on them, and made them swear before God to stop. Wasn't it this that made Solomon sin? There was no king like him, and his God loved him. Foreign wives led even him into sin.

And a grandson of Eliashib the high priest turns out to be Sanballat's son-in-law. I chased him away from me.

Remember me, my God, and be good to me.

Nehemiah@nehemiahTwelve years as governor and I never took the governor's food allowance. The governors before me put heavy loads on the people. The people had enough to carry. 150 Jews and officials at my table every day, plus visitors from the nations round us. Remember me, my God, and be good to me, for all I've done for this people.