And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned? {fortify...: Heb. leave to themselves}

And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and {there is} much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.

So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.

Blessed {be} the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put {such a thing} as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which {is} in Jerusalem:

For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place.

And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, {lieth} waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?

Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all {them} whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the LORD which {is} in 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 when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel {were} in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.

Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress 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.

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget {her cunning}.

[A Psalm of Asaph.] O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. {of: or, for}

O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people {are become} a reproach to all {that are} about us.

And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, {lieth} waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?

That there came certain from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, {even} fourscore men, having their beards shaven, and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, with offerings and incense in their hand, to bring {them} to the house of the LORD.

{Is it} time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house {lie} waste?