¹In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was served him, I carried the wine and gave it to the king. Now, I had never been sad in his presence before. ²So 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. ³I 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?” ⁴Then the king said to me, “What do you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. ⁵Then 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.” ⁶The king said to me (the queen also was sitting beside him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me, and I set him a date. ⁷Then I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may grant me passage until I arrive in Judah; ⁸and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, directing him to give me timber to make beams for the gates of the temple fortress, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for the gracious hand of my God was upon me.

⁹Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River, and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent officers of the army and cavalry with me. ¹⁰When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.

¹¹So I came to Jerusalem and was there for three days. ¹²Then I got up during the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. The only animal I took was the animal I rode. ¹³I went out by night by the Valley Gate past the Dragon’s Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. ¹⁴Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool; but there was no place for the animal I was riding to continue. ¹⁵So I went up by way of the valley by night and inspected the wall. Then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. ¹⁶The 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 that were to do the work.

¹⁷Then 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.” ¹⁸I 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. ¹⁹But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” ²⁰Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven is the one who will give us success, and we his servants are going to start building; but you have no share or claim or historic right in Jerusalem.”

¹   How the gold has grown dim,
          how the pure gold is changed!
     The sacred stones lie scattered
          at the head of every street.

²   The precious children of Zion,
          worth their weight in fine gold —
     how they are reckoned as earthen pots,
          the work of a potter’s hands!

³   Even the jackals offer the breast
          and nurse their young,
     but my people has become cruel,
          like the ostriches in the wilderness.

⁴   The tongue of the infant sticks
          to the roof of its mouth for thirst;
     the children beg for food,
          but no one gives them anything.

⁵   Those who feasted on delicacies
          perish in the streets;
     those who were brought up in purple
          cling to ash heaps.

⁶   For the chastisement of my people has been greater
          than the punishment of Sodom,
     which was overthrown in a moment,
          though no hand was laid on it.

⁷   Her princes were purer than snow,
          whiter than milk;
     their bodies were more ruddy than coral,
     their hair like sapphire.

⁸   Now their visage is blacker than soot;
          they are not recognized in the streets.
     Their skin has shriveled on their bones;
          it has become as dry as wood.

⁹   Happier were those pierced by the sword
          than those pierced by hunger,
     whose life drains away, deprived
          of the produce of the field.

¹⁰  The hands of compassionate women
          have boiled their own children;
     they became their food
     in the destruction of my people.

¹¹  The LORD gave full vent to his wrath;
          he poured out his hot anger,
     and kindled a fire in Zion
          that consumed its foundations.

¹²  The kings of the earth did not believe,
          nor did any of the inhabitants of the world,
     that foe or enemy could enter
          the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³  It was for the sins of her prophets
          and the iniquities of her priests,
     who shed the blood of the righteous
          in the midst of her.

¹⁴  Blindly they wandered through the streets,
          so defiled with blood
     that no one was able
          to touch their garments.

¹⁵  “Away! Unclean!” people shouted at them;
          “Away! Away! Do not touch!”
     So they became fugitives and wanderers;
          it was said among the nations,
          “They shall stay here no longer.”

¹⁶  The LORD himself has scattered them,
          he will regard them no more;
     no honor was shown to the priests,
          no favor to the elders.

¹⁷  Our eyes failed, ever watching
          vainly for help;
     we were watching eagerly
          for a nation that could not save.

¹⁸  They dogged our steps
          so that we could not walk in our streets;
     our end drew near; our days were numbered;
          for our end had come.

¹⁹  Our pursuers were swifter
          than the eagles in the heavens;
     they chased us on the mountains,
          they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

²⁰  The Lord’s anointed, the breath of our life,
          was taken in their pits —
     the one of whom we said, “Under his shadow
          we shall live among the nations.“

²¹  Rejoice and be glad, O daughter Edom,
          you that live in the land of Uz;
          but to you also the cup shall pass;
          you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.

²²  The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter Zion, is accomplished,
          he will keep you in exile no longer;
     but your iniquity, O daughter Edom, he will punish,
          he will uncover your sins.

^6:12When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and there came a great earthquake; the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, ¹³and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree drops its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. ¹⁴The sky vanished like a scroll rolling itself up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. ¹⁵Then the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, ¹⁶calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; ¹⁷for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

^7:1After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on earth or sea or against any tree. ²I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to damage earth and sea, ³saying, “Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have marked the servants of our God with a seal on their foreheads.”

⁴And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the people of Israel.

²⁴He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; ²⁵but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. ²⁶So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. ²⁷And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ ²⁸He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ ²⁹But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. ³⁰Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”