Book of Common Prayer

2 In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of Artach’shashta the king, it happened that I took the wine and brought it to the king. Prior to then I had never appeared sad in his presence. ² The king asked, “Why do you look so sad? You’re not sick, so this must be some deep inner grief.” At this, I became very fearful, ³ as I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why shouldn’t I look sad, when the city, the place where my ancestors’ tombs are, lies in ruins; and its gates are completely burned up?” ⁴ The king asked me, “What is it that you want?” I prayed to the God of heaven, ⁵ then said to the king, “If it pleases the king, if your servant has won your favor, send me to Y’hudah, to the city of my ancestors’ tombs, so that I can rebuild it.” ⁶ With the queen sitting next to him, the king asked me, “How long is your trip going to take? When will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a time.

⁷ I then said to the king, “If it pleases the king, have letters given to me for the governors of the territory beyond the [Euphrates] River, so that they will let me pass through until I reach Y’hudah; ⁸ and also a letter for Asaf the supervisor of the royal forests, so that he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress belonging to the house, for the city wall and for the house I will be occupying.” The king gave me these, according to the good hand of my God on me.

⁹ I went to the governors of the territory beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. The king had sent with me an escort of army captains and cavalry. ¹⁰ When Sanvalat the Horoni and Toviyah the servant, the ‘Amoni, heard about this, they were very displeased that someone had come to promote the welfare of the people of Isra’el.

¹¹ So I reached Yerushalayim. After I had been there for three days, ¹² I got up during the night, I and a few men with me. I hadn’t told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Yerushalayim; and I didn’t take any animal with me except the animal on which I was riding. ¹³ I went out by night through the Valley Gate, to the Dragon’s Well and the Dung Gate, and inspected the places where the walls of Yerushalayim were broken down and where its gates had been burned down. ¹⁴ Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but there was no room for the animal under me to pass. ¹⁵ So I went up the valley in the dark and went on inspecting the wall; then I turned back, entered through the Valley Gate and returned, ¹⁶ without the officials’ knowing where I had gone or what I had done. Till then, I hadn’t said anything about this to the Judeans, cohanim, nobles, officials or anyone who would be responsible for the work.

¹⁷ Afterwards, I said to them, “You see what a sad state we are in, how Yerushalayim lies in ruins, with it gates burned up. Come, let’s rebuild the wall of Yerushalayim, so that we won’t continue in disgrace.” ¹⁸ I also told them of the gracious hand of my God that had been on me, also what the king had said to me. They said, “Let’s start building at once,” and energetically set out to do this good work.

¹⁹ When Sanvalat the Horoni, Toviyah the servant, the ‘Amoni, and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they began mocking us and jeering, “What is this you are doing? Are you going to rebel against the king?” ²⁰ But I answered them: “The God of heaven will enable us to succeed. Therefore we his servants will set about rebuilding. But you have no share, right or history to commemorate in Yerushalayim.”

¹² Then I watched as he broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, the sun turned black as sackcloth worn in mourning, and the full moon became blood-red. ¹³ The stars fell from heaven to earth just as a fig tree drops its figs when shaken by a strong wind. ¹⁴ The sky receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place. ¹⁵ Then the earth’s kings, the rulers, the generals, the rich and the mighty — indeed, everyone, slave and free — hid himself in caves and among the rocks in the mountains, ¹⁶ and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us^[a] from the face of the One sitting on the throne and from the fury of the Lamb! ¹⁷ For the Great Day of their fury has come, and who can stand?”

7 After 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 would blow on the land, on the sea or on any tree. ² I saw another angel coming up from the east with a seal from the living God, and he shouted to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea, ³ “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads!” ⁴ I heard how many were sealed — 144,000 from every tribe of the people of Isra’el:

²⁴ Yeshua put before them another parable. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; ²⁵ but while people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, then went away. ²⁶ When the wheat sprouted and formed heads of grain, the weeds also appeared. ²⁷ The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ ²⁸ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants asked him, ‘Then do you want us to go and pull them up?’ ²⁹ But he said, ‘No, because if you pull up the weeds, you might uproot some of the wheat at the same time. ³⁰ Let them both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest-time I will tell the reapers to collect the weeds first and tie them in bundles to be burned, but to gather the wheat into my barn.’”