5 Then there arose a great outcry from the common people and their wives against their brothers the [wealthier] Judeans. ² Some of them said, “Counting our sons and daughters, there are a lot of us! Allow us to get grain for them, so that we can eat and stay alive.” ³ There were also some who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, vineyards and homes in order to buy grain, because of the famine.” ⁴ Yet others said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s taxes against our fields and vineyards. ⁵ Now our flesh is no different from the flesh of our kinsmen, and our children are the same as their children; yet we are bringing our sons and daughters into bondage as slaves. Some of our daughters have gone into slavery already, and it’s beyond our power to do anything about it, because other men have our fields and vineyards.”

⁶ When I heard their outcry and the reasons for it, I became very angry. ⁷ I thought the matter over and then took issue with the nobles and rulers. I charged them, “You are lending against pledges, everyone to his brother”; and I summoned a great assembly to deal with them. ⁸ I said to them, “We, to the limit of our ability, have redeemed our brothers the Judeans who sold themselves to the pagans. Now you are selling your own brothers, and we will have to buy them back!” They stayed silent; they couldn’t think of anything to say. ⁹ I also said, “What you are doing is not good! You should be living in fear of our God, so that our pagan enemies won’t have grounds for deriding us. ¹⁰ Moreover, my brothers and my servants, I too have loaned them money and grain. Please, let’s stop making it so burdensome to go into debt. ¹¹ Please! Today! Give them back their fields, vineyards, olive groves and homes; also the hundred pieces of silver and the grain, wine and olive oil you demand from them as interest.”

¹² They answered, “We will give it back. We will require nothing from them. Yes, we will do it, just as you say.” Then I called the cohanim and took an oath from them that they would do as they had promised. ¹³ Shaking out the fold in my garment, I said, “May God thus shake every man from his house and from his work who fails to live up to this promise — may he be shaken out like this and made empty.” The whole assembly said, “Amen!” and praised Adonai; and the people did as they had promised.

¹⁴ Besides that, from the time I was appointed their governor in the land of Y’hudah, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of Artach’shashta the king — that is, for twelve years — neither I nor my colleagues drew on the governor’s living allowance. ¹⁵ The earlier governors, before me, had burdened the people, taxing them more than one-and-a-half pounds of silver shekels for food and wine; and even their servants lorded it over the people. But I didn’t, because I feared God. ¹⁶ Moreover, I put all my energy into working on this wall. We didn’t buy any land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work.

¹⁷ There were 150 leaders and other Judeans who ate at my table, besides those who came to us from the surrounding nations. ¹⁸ Every day one ox, six choice sheep, and fowl were prepared for me, and every ten days a supply of all kinds of wine. Yet in spite of all this, I never claimed the governor’s allowance, because the people were already bearing the heavy burden of their labor. ¹⁹ My God, remember favorably everything I have done for this people!

6 When it was reported to Sanvalat, Toviyah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and that not a single gap was left in it — although up to that time I hadn’t yet set up the doors in the gateways — ² Sanvalat and Geshem sent me a message which said, “Come, let’s meet together in one of the villages of the Ono Valley.” But they were planning to do me harm; ³ so I sent them messengers with this message: “I’m too busy with important work to come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it to come down to you?” ⁴ They kept sending this sort of message to me — four times — and I answered them the same way.

⁵ The fifth time, with the same purpose, Sanvalat sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand, ⁶ in which was written: “It is reported among the nations, and Geshem says it too, that you and the Judeans are planning a revolt, that this is why you are rebuilding the wall, and that you intend to be their king,” and similar words; ⁷ “moreover, that you have also appointed prophets to proclaim about you in Yerushalayim, ‘There is a king in Y’hudah!’ A report along these lines is now going to be made to the king. Come now, therefore, and let’s discuss this.” ⁸ I sent him this answer; “Nothing like what you are saying is being done. You’re making it all up in your head.” ⁹ They were all just trying to scare us, thinking, “This will sap their strength and keep them from working.” But now, [God,] increase my strength!

¹⁰ One day, when I went to the house of Sh’ma‘yah the son of D’layah, the son of M’heitav’el, where he was confined, he said, “Let’s meet together in the house of God, inside the temple, and let’s shut the doors of the temple. For they are going to come and try to assassinate you; yes, they will come at night to kill you.” ¹¹ I replied, “Should a man like me run away? Can a man like me go into the temple to save his life? I refuse to go in.” ¹² Then I realized that God had not sent him, that he was making this prophecy against me, and that Toviyah and Sanvalat had bribed him to say it. ¹³ He had been hired to frighten me into following his suggestion and thus sin, so that they would have material for their unfavorable report about me and could taunt me with it. ¹⁴ My God, remember Toviyah and Sanvalat according to their deeds, also the prophet No‘adyah and the other prophets trying to intimidate me.

¹⁵ So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. ¹⁶ When all our enemies heard about it and the surrounding nations became afraid, our enemies’ self-esteem fell severely; because they realized that this work had been accomplished by our God.

¹⁷ During this same period of time, the nobles of Y’hudah sent many letters to Toviyah, and Toviyah kept sending them replies. ¹⁸ For there were many in Y’hudah who had sworn allegiance to him, because he was the son-in-law of Sh’khanyah the son of Arach, and his son Y’hochanan had taken as his wife the daughter of Meshulam the son of Berekhyah. ¹⁹ They would even praise his good deeds in my presence, and they passed on my words to him. And Toviyah kept sending letters to intimidate me.

24 but the next day, while it was still very early, they took the spices they had prepared, went to the tomb, ² and found the stone rolled away from the tomb! ³ On entering, they discovered that the body of the Lord Yeshua was gone! ⁴ They were standing there, not knowing what to think about it, when suddenly two men in dazzlingly bright clothing stood next to them. ⁵ Terror-stricken, they bowed down with their faces to the ground. The two men said to them, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? ⁶ He is not here; he has been raised. Remember how he told you while he was still in the Galil, ⁷ ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be executed on a stake as a criminal, but on the third day be raised again’?” ⁸ Then they remembered his words; ⁹ and, returning from the tomb, they told everything to the Eleven and to all the rest. ¹⁰ The women who told the emissaries these things were Miryam of Magdala, Yochanah, Miryam the mother of Ya‘akov, and the others in their circle.

¹¹ But the emissaries didn’t believe them; in fact, they thought that what they said was utter nonsense! ¹² However, Kefa got up and ran to the tomb. Stooping down, he saw only the burial cloths and went home wondering what had happened.

¹³ That same day, two of them were going toward a village about seven miles from Yerushalayim called Amma’us, ¹⁴ and they were talking with each other about all the things that had happened. ¹⁵ As they talked and discussed, Yeshua himself came up and walked along with them, ¹⁶ but something kept them from recognizing him. ¹⁷ He asked them, “What are you talking about with each other as you walk along?” They stopped short, their faces downcast; ¹⁸ and one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only person staying in Yerushalayim that doesn’t know the things that have been going on there the last few days?” ¹⁹ “What things?” he asked them. They said to him, “The things about Yeshua from Natzeret. He was a prophet and proved it by the things he did and said before God and all the people. ²⁰ Our head cohanim and our leaders handed him over, so that he could be sentenced to death and executed on a stake as a criminal. ²¹ And we had hoped that he would be the one to liberate Isra’el! Besides all that, today is the third day since these things happened; ²² and this morning, some of the women astounded us. They were at the tomb early ²³ and couldn’t find his body, so they came back; but they also reported that they had seen a vision of angels who say he’s alive! ²⁴ Some of our friends went to the tomb and found it exactly as the women had said, but they didn’t see him.”

²⁵ He said to them, “Foolish people! So unwilling to put your trust in everything the prophets spoke! ²⁶ Didn’t the Messiah have to die like this before entering his glory?” ²⁷ Then, starting with Moshe and all the prophets, he explained to them the things that can be found throughout the Tanakh concerning himself.

²⁸ They approached the village where they were going. He made as if he were going on farther; ²⁹ but they held him back, saying, “Stay with us, for it’s almost evening, and it’s getting dark.” So he went in to stay with them. ³⁰ As he was reclining with them at the table, he took the matzah, made the b’rakhah, broke it and handed it to them. ³¹ Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. But he became invisible to them. ³² They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn inside us as he spoke to us on the road, opening up the Tanakh to us?”

³³ They got up at once, returned to Yerushalayim and found the Eleven gathered together with their friends, ³⁴ saying, “It’s true! The Lord has risen! Shim‘on saw him!” ³⁵ Then the two told what had happened on the road and how he had become known to them in the breaking of the matzah.

³⁶ They were still talking about it when — there he was, standing among them! ³⁷ Startled and terrified, they thought they were seeing a ghost. ³⁸ But he said to them, “Why are you so upset? Why are these doubts welling up inside you? ³⁹ Look at my hands and my feet — it is I, myself! Touch me and see — a ghost doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you can see I do.” ⁴⁰ As he said this, he showed them his hands and feet. ⁴¹ While they were still unable to believe it for joy and stood there dumbfounded, he said to them, “Have you something here to eat?” ⁴² They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³ which he took and ate in their presence.

⁴⁴ Yeshua said to them, “This is what I meant when I was still with you and told you that everything written about me in the Torah of Moshe, the Prophets and the Psalms had to be fulfilled.” ⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds, so that they could understand the Tanakh, ⁴⁶ telling them, “Here is what it says: the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day; ⁴⁷ and in his name repentance leading to forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed to people from all nations, starting with Yerushalayim. ⁴⁸ You are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹ Now I am sending forth upon you what my Father promised, so stay here in the city until you have been equipped with power from above.”

⁵⁰ He led them out toward Beit-Anyah; then, raising his hands, he said a b’rakhah over them; ⁵¹ and as he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. ⁵² They bowed in worship to him, then returned to Yerushalayim, overflowing with joy. ⁵³ And they spent all their time in the Temple courts, praising God.