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But now when the Ammonites, and Moabites, and Samaritans, and all
that inhabited Celesyria, heard that the building went on apace, they took
it heinously, and proceeded to lay snares for them, and to hinder their
intentions. They also slew many of the Jews, and sought how they might
destroy Nehemiah himself, by hiring some of the foreigners to kill him.
They also put the Jews in fear, and disturbed them, and spread abroad rumors,
as if many nations were ready to make an expedition against them, by which
means they were harassed, and had almost left off the building. But none
of these things could deter Nehemiah from being diligent about the work;
he only set a number of men about him as a guard to his body, and so unweariedly
persevered therein, and was insensible of any trouble, out of his desire
to perfect this work. And thus did he attentively, and with great forecast,
take care of his own safety; not that he feared death, but of this persuasion,
that if he were dead, the walls for his citizens would never be raised.
He also gave orders that the builders should keep their ranks, and have
their armor on while they were building. Accordingly, the mason had his
sword on, as well as he that brought the materials for building. He also
appointed that their shields should lie very near them; and he placed trumpeters
at every five hundred feet, and charged them, that if their enemies appeared,
they should give notice of it to the people, that they might fight in their
armor, and their enemies might not fall upon them naked. He also went about
the compass of the city by night, being never discouraged, neither about
the work itself, nor about his own diet and sleep, for he made no use of
those things for his pleasure, but out of necessity. And this trouble he
underwent for two years and four months;
1
for in so long a time was the wall built, in the twenty-eighth year of
the reign of Xerxes, in the ninth month. Now when the walls were finished,
Nehemiah and the multitude offered sacrifices to God for the building of
them, and they continued in feasting eight days. However, when the nations
which dwelt in Syria heard that the building of the wall was finished,
they had indignation at it. But when Nehemiah saw that the city was thin
of people, he exhorted the priests and the Levites that they would leave
the country, and remove themselves to the city, and there continue; and
he built them houses at his own expenses; and he commanded that part of
the people which were employed in cultivating the land to bring the tithes
of their fruits to Jerusalem, that the priests and Levites having whereof
they might live perpetually, might not leave the Divine worship; who willingly
hearkened to the constitutions of Nehemiah, by which means the city Jerusalem
came to be fuller of people than it was before. So when Nehemiah had done
many other excellent things, and things worthy of commendation, in a glorious
manner, he came to a great age, and then died. He was a man of a good and
righteous disposition, and very ambitious to make his own nation happy;
and he hath left the walls of Jerusalem as an eternal monument for himself.
Now this was done in the days of Xerxes.
2