Book of Nehemiah - Ferrar Fenton Bible Translation page 928

NEHEMIAH. 4·——1 5—~·9 $¤mlm1lui hzcihzs in §¤s¤il £2bzmial; mth Qzsirug ibn Wall. 4 But when Sanbailat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and Amonitcs, and Ashdodites heard that the extent of the walls was erected at jerusalem that the breaches began to be closed, they were very furious, and all of them agreed together to go to war with jerusalem, and to cause trouble to it, but we prayed to our GOD, and appointed a guard against them by day and night to oppose them. The strength of

the labourers fails, at the heaps of burnt ashes, so we are not able to build at the walls} They

shall not know, nor perceive until we are come into the midst of them and kill, and stop their work} And when the }ews who resided

amongst them came they told us Wherever you turn round they will assail youl' I therefore placed in the bottom

of the moat behind the walls, in the dry parts, a Guard of troops for the People, with swords, spears and bows. Thus I revived them, and stood up, and said to the Captains and Subalterns, and the rest of the Fear not before them! Remember the ALM1GH1‘Y, the Gunn and Ta1uz1e1.n,—and ight for your countrymen, your sons and daughters, your wives and homes! g _ Thus our Opponents heard that we knew;-—and that GOD had broken their intention, and that we had all I0 II 12 returned to our work on the wall. But from that day half of the youths worked at the wall, and half with the guards, with spears and shields, and bows, and coats of mail, with Officers over them. All the House of judah built at the Wall, with the labourers. The men worked on the one side at the work, and on the other went on guard. The builders also had each a sword girt at his waist. Thus they built,-and the Trum peter was at my side. I also said to the Omcers and Subalterns, and the rest of the people, ’The work is great and extensive, and we are scattered upon the wall at a distance one from the other. In whatever place, therefore you hear the sound of the trumpet, collect there to us,—··Our Gob will fightfor Thus we did at the work ;—and

half kept guard with spears from the rise of dawn until the stars came out. I also, at this time, said to each man Lod ge in } erusalem and be with us at night as a guard, and neither I, nor my brothers, and attendants;-or the men of my Guard, who followed me,

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ever regarded our clothing.

Each went to the water, - — -1 However, the People and their

wives complained greatly against their judean countrymen, and some said ‘ We have many sons and daughters, let us reap the corn, and eat and We are mortgaging

our farms, and vineyards, and houses, and are buying corn for hunger. And there were others who said,

‘ We have had to borrow money to pay the King’s taxes on our farms and vineyards 1-·And now our bodies are like the bodies of our slaves and our children like their children's bodies! For seel we are bringing the bodies of our sons and daughters into x6 slavery! And some of our daughters have become slaves ;-—so Gov is not with us,···-for foreigners possess our farms and vineyards! £zIyzmial3 ®ell¤ a ¥nl:lir meeting. But I was very furious when I 6 heard these complaints, and these statements, yet I reflected in my 7 mind, and reproved the Omcers and Subalterns, and said to them; ‘? It seems you all exact usury from your countrymenf'. I consequently ap- pointed a Great Meeting about them, when I said ; ézbzmialfs Qlnuhznnneiimt nf Slnlmrg. ‘We have redeemed our judean

brothers who had been sold to the heathen, as far as we cou1d,—-but you even sell your own brothers, who should be sold to us l And they were silent, and could not find a word.-—So I continued; l`he thing that you do is not

right-—shou1d you not walk in the No·rn.—Ch. 4, v. ry. The text seems to be

defective here,and some considerable portion tohave been lost, where I place the hyphens. us! ··-F. F. 928