The {Or, history}words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah.
Now it came to pass in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the {Or, castle}palace,
that Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men out of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, that were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.
And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,
and said, I beseech thee, O Jehovah, the God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and lovingkindness with them that love him and keep his commandments:
let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants while I confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee. Yea, I and my father's house have sinned:
we have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.
Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye trespass, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples:
but if ye return unto me, and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts were in the uttermost part of the heavens, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen, to cause my name to dwell there.
Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.
O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who delight to fear thy name; and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. Now I was cupbearer to the king.
Querverweise zu Nehemia 1,3 Neh 1,3
These are the children of the province, that went up out of the captivity of those that had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and that returned unto Jerusalem and to Judah, every one unto his city;
Behold, we are servants this day, and as for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it.
then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
Then said I unto them, Ye see the evil case that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.
Now these are the chiefs of the province that dwelt in Jerusalem: but in the cities of Judah dwelt every one in his possession in their cities, to wit, Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the Nethinim, and the children of Solomon's servants.
And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they have power over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress. {[Chapter 10:1 in Hebrew]}
We are become a reproach to our neighbors,A scoffing and derision to them that are round about us.
And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about.
Now these are the children of the province, that went up out of the captivity of those that had been carried away, whom {Hebrew: Nebuchadnezzor.}Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, and that returned unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city;
Thou hast made us like sheep appointed for food,And hast scattered us among the nations.
Thou sellest thy people for nought,And hast not increased thy wealth by their price.
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbors,A scoffing and a derision to them that are round about us.
Thou makest us a byword among the nations,A shaking of the head among the peoples.
Therefore I {Or, have profaned}will profane the {Or, holy princes}princes of the sanctuary; and I {Or, have made}will make Jacob a {Or, devoted thing}curse, and Israel a reviling.
And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be {Or, burnt}eaten up; I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
Be it known unto the king, that we went into the province of Judah, to the house of the great God, which is builded with great stones, and timber is laid in the walls; and this work goeth on with diligence and prospereth in their hands.
By the rivers of Babylon,There we sat down, yea, we wept,When we remembered Zion.
Upon the willows in the midst thereofWe hanged up our harps.
For there they that led us captive required of us {Hebrew: words of song.}songs,And {Or, our tormentors}they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying,Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
I will even give them up to be {Or, a terror unto}tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil; to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.
Thy holy cities are become a wilderness, Zion is become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
Now it came to pass in the days of {Or, Xerxes Hebrew: Ahashverosh.}Ahasuerus (this is Ahasuerus who reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces),
Rise up, ye women that are at ease, and hear my voice; ye {Hebrew: confident.}careless daughters, give ear unto my speech.
{Or, After a year and days Hebrew: Days above a year.}For days beyond a year shall ye be troubled, ye careless women; for the vintage shall fail, the ingathering shall not come.
Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones; strip you, and make you bare, and {Or, put a girdle upon}gird sackcloth upon your loins.
They shall smite upon the breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city.
For the palace shall be forsaken; the populous city shall be deserted; {Or, Ophel}the hill and the watch-tower shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;
And I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be {Or, a terror unto}tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an execration, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them;
Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned with fire; and all our pleasant places are laid waste.
Jerusalem remembereth in the days of her affliction and of her {Or, wanderings}miseries all her pleasant things that were from the days of old:When her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and none did help her,The adversaries saw her, they did mock at her {Hebrew: ceasings.}desolations.
For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: As mine anger and my wrath hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my wrath be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt; and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no more.
Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her branches; for they are not Jehovah's.
Thou hast heard their reproach, O Jehovah, and all their devices against me,
in that ye provoke me unto anger with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither ye are gone to sojourn; that ye may be cut off, and that ye may be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?
Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives which they committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?
They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah.
And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed; in the land of Egypt shall they fall; they shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine; they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine; and they shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.
And the Chaldeans burned the king's house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and brake down the walls of Jerusalem.
Remember, O Jehovah, what is come upon us:Behold, and see our reproach.
And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about.