Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak ¹  and his priestly colleagues ²  and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his colleagues ³  started to build ⁴  the altar of the God of Israel so they could offer burnt offerings on it as required by ⁵  the law of Moses the man of God.

Shallun son of Col-Hozeh, head of the district of Mizpah, worked on the Fountain Gate. He rebuilt it, put on its roof, and positioned its doors, its bolts, and its bars. In addition, he rebuilt the wall of the Pool of Siloam, ¹  by the royal garden, as far as the steps that go down from the City of David.

Haman’s ¹  wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Have a gallows seventy-five feet ²  high built, and in the morning tell the king that Mordecai should be hanged on it. Then go with the king to the banquet contented.” ³  It seemed like a good idea to Haman, so he had the gallows built.

But they must make sure you learn to follow the religious practices of my people. ¹  Once they taught my people to swear their oaths using the name of the god Baal. ²  But then, they must swear oaths using my name, saying, “As surely as the Lord lives, I swear.” ³  If they do these things, ⁴  then they will be included among the people I call my own. ⁵ 

So Potiphar ¹  left ²  everything he had in Joseph’s care; ³  he gave no thought ⁴  to anything except the food he ate. ⁵  Now Joseph was well built and good-looking. ⁶ 

Let the king also be aware that if this city is built and its walls are completed, no more tax, custom, or toll will be paid, and the royal treasury ¹  will suffer loss.

Malkijah son of Recab, head of the district of Beth Hakkerem, worked on the Dung Gate. He rebuilt it and positioned its doors, its bolts, and its bars.

“‘This is because they have led my people astray saying, “All is well,” ¹  when things are not well. When anyone builds a wall without mortar, ²  they coat it with whitewash.

I will make you a bare rock; you will be a place where fishing nets are spread. You will never be built again, ¹  for I, the Lord, have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord.

Then ¹  the church throughout Judea, Galilee, ²  and Samaria experienced ³  peace and thus was strengthened. ⁴  Living ⁵  in the fear of the Lord and in the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, the church ⁶  increased in numbers.

He also made a throne room, called “The Hall of Judgment,” where he made judicial decisions. ¹  It was paneled with cedar from the floor to the rafters. ² 

He made the courtyard of the priests and the large enclosure and its doors; ¹  he plated their doors with bronze.

They crafted ¹  all your planks out of fir trees from Senir; ²  they took a cedar from Lebanon to make your mast.

Then he brought me to the outer court. I saw ¹  chambers there, and a pavement made for the court all around; thirty chambers faced the pavement.

So now we consider the arrogant to be happy; indeed, those who practice evil are successful. ¹  In fact, those who challenge ²  God escape!’”

Likewise, just as it was ¹  in the days of Lot, people ²  were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building;

You must gather all of its plunder into the middle of the plaza ¹  and burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It will be an abandoned ruin ²  forever – it must never be rebuilt again.

He constructed the walls inside the temple with cedar planks; he paneled the inside with wood from the floor of the temple to the rafters ¹  of the ceiling. He covered the temple floor with boards made from the wood of evergreens.

Solomon took thirteen years to build his palace. ¹ 

The king made a large throne decorated with ivory and overlaid it with pure gold.