1 The Divrei Nechemyah ben Chachalyah. And it came to pass in the month Kislev, in the twentieth year [i.e., 445 B.C.E.], as I was in Shushan the capital [of Persia],

² That Chanani, one of my achim [see 7:2], came, he and certain men, from Yehudah; and I asked them concerning the remnant of the Yehudim that had survived the Exile [the Golus], and concerning Yerushalayim.

³ And they said unto me, The remnant that have survived the Exile [the Golus] there in the province are in ra’ah gedolah and reproach; the Chomat Yerushalayim also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with eish.

⁴ And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for several yamim, and did a tzom, and davened before Elohei HaShomayim,

⁵ And said, O Hashem Elohei HaShomayim, HaEl HaGadol vHaNora, that is shomer habrit vachesed for them that love Him and are shomer mitzvot over His commandments,

⁶ Let Thine ear now be attentive, and Thine eyes open, that Thou mayest hear the tefillah of Thy eved, which I am davening before Thee now, yomam valailah, for the Bnei Yisroel Thy avadim, and mitvaddeh al chattot (confess the sins) of the Bnei Yisroel, which we have sinned against Thee. Both I and the Bais Avi have sinned.

⁷ We have dealt very corruptly against Thee, and have not been shomer mitzvot, neither over the chukkim, nor the mishpatim, which Thou commandedst Moshe Thy eved.

⁸ Remember, the word that Thou commandedst Moshe Thy eved, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations,

⁹ But if ye make teshuvah and turn unto Me, and are shomer over My mitzvot, and do them; though there were of you those exiled unto the uttermost part of HaShomayim, yet will I gather them from there, and will bring them unto the place [i.e., Yerushalayim] that I have chosen to make dwell Shmi (My Name) there.

¹⁰ Now these are Thy Avadim and Thy Am, whom Thou hast redeemed by Thy ko’ach hagadol, and by Thy Yad HaChazakah.

¹¹ O Adonoi, let now Thine ear be attentive to the tefillah of Thy eved, and to the tefillah of Thy Avadim, who desire to fear Thy Shem; and give success to Thy eved today, and grant him rachamim in the sight of this man. For I was the Mashkeh L’Melech.