The Daily Audio Bible

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.

7 After the wall had been rebuilt, and I had set up its doors, and the gatekeepers, singers and L’vi’im had been appointed, ² I put my kinsman Hanani in charge of Yerushalayim, along with Hananyah the commander of the citadel. For he was a faithful man, and he feared God more than most. ³ I said to them, “The gates of Yerushalayim are not to be opened until the sun is hot; and while the gatekeepers are still on duty, have them shut the doors; and you, put up the bars. Appoint watchmen from among those living in Yerushalayim; assign each one his time to guard, and have each one serving near his own house.”

⁴ The city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and the houses had not been rebuilt. ⁵ My God put it in my heart to assemble the nobles, the leaders and the people, so that they could be registered according to their genealogies. I located the record of the genealogies of those who had come up at the beginning and found written in it:

⁶ “Here is a list of the people of the province who had been exiled, carried off to Bavel by N’vukhadnetzar king of Bavel, but who later returned from exile and went up to Yerushalayim and Y’hudah, each to his own city; ⁷ they went with Z’rubavel, Yeshua, Nechemyah, ‘Azaryah, Ra‘amyah, Nachmani, Mordekhai, Bilshan, Misperet, Bigvai, N’chum and Ba‘anah.

“The number of men from the people of Isra’el:

³⁹ “The cohanim:

⁴³ “The L’vi’im:

⁶¹ “The following went up from Tel-Melach, Tel-Harsha, K’ruv, Adon and Immer; but they could not state which fathers’ clan they and their children belonged to, [so it was not clear] whether they were from Isra’el:

⁶³ and of the cohanim:

⁶⁴ “These tried to locate their geneaolgical records, but they weren’t found. Therefore they were considered defiled and were not allowed to serve as cohanim. ⁶⁵ The Tirshata told them not to eat any of the especially holy food until a cohen appeared who could consult the urim and tumim.

⁶⁶ “The entire assembly numbered 42,360, ⁶⁷ not including their male and female slaves, of whom there were 7,337. They also had 245 male and female singers. ⁶⁸ Their horses numbered 736; their mules, 245; * ⁶⁹ their camels, 435; and their donkeys, 6,720.

⁷⁰ “Some from among the heads of fathers’ clans made contributions for the work. The Tirshata contributed to the treasury a thousand gold darkmonim [twenty-one pounds], fifty basins and 530 tunics for the cohanim. ⁷¹ Some of the heads of fathers’ clans gave into the treasury for the work 20,000 gold darkmonim [420 pounds] and 2,200 silver manim [one-and-a-third tons]. ⁷² The rest of the people gave 20,000 gold darkmonim, 2,000 silver manim [about one-and-a-quarter tons] and sixty-seven tunics for the cohanim.

⁷³ “So the cohanim, the L’vi’im, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants and all Isra’el lived in their towns.”

^(8:1) When the seventh month arrived, after the people of Isra’el had resettled in their towns,

8 Now about food sacrificed to idols: we know that, as you say, “We all have knowledge.” Yes, that is so, but “knowledge” puffs a person up with pride; whereas love builds up. ² The person who thinks he “knows” something doesn’t yet know in the way he ought to know. ³ However, if someone loves God, God knows him.

⁴ So, as for eating food sacrificed to idols, we “know” that, as you say, “An idol has no real existence in the world, and there is only one God.” ⁵ For even if there are so-called “gods,” either in heaven or on earth — as in fact there are “gods” and “lords” galore — ⁶ yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things come and for whom we exist; and one Lord, Yeshua the Messiah, through whom were created all things and through whom we have our being.

⁷ But not everyone has this knowledge. Moreover, some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat food which has been sacrificed to them, they think of it as really affected by the idol; and their consciences, being weak, are thus defiled. ⁸ Now food will not improve our relationship with God — we will be neither poorer if we abstain nor richer if we eat. ⁹ However watch out that your mastery of the situation does not become a stumbling block to the weak. ¹⁰ You have this “knowledge”; but suppose someone with a weak conscience sees you sitting, eating a meal in the temple of an idol. Won’t he be built up wrongly to eat this food which has been sacrificed to idols? ¹¹ Thus by your “knowledge” this weak person is destroyed, this brother for whom the Messiah died; ¹² and so, when you sin against the brothers by wounding their conscience when it is weak, you are sinning against the Messiah!

¹³ To sum up, if food will be a snare for my brother, I will never eat meat again, lest I cause my brother to sin.