When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and no breach remained in it (even though up to that time I had not positioned doors in the gates),

Even now siege ramps have been built up around the city ¹  in order to capture it. War, ²  starvation, and disease are sure to make the city fall into the hands of the Babylonians ³  who are attacking it. ⁴  Lord, ⁵  you threatened that this would happen. Now you can see that it is already taking place. ⁶ 

Then the Lord God made ¹  a woman from the part he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

David became famous ¹  when he returned from defeating the Arameans ²  in the Valley of Salt, he defeated ³  18,000 in all.

He made ten tables and set them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left. He also made one hundred gold bowls.

In every city throughout Judah he set up high places to offer sacrifices to other gods. He angered the Lord God of his ancestors.

There was a great celebration in Jerusalem, unlike anything that had occurred in Jerusalem since the time of King Solomon son of David of Israel. ¹ 

Now give orders that these men cease their work and that this city not be rebuilt until such time as I so instruct. ¹ 

So they hanged Haman on the very gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. The king’s rage then abated.

and lays the beams of the upper rooms of his palace on the rain clouds. ¹  He makes the clouds his chariot, and travels along on the wings of the wind. ² 

He has made his people victorious, ¹  and given all his loyal followers reason to praise – the Israelites, the people who are close to him. ²  Praise the Lord!

How will they respond to the messengers of this nation? ¹  Indeed, the Lord has made Zion secure; the oppressed among his people will find safety in her.

At that time ¹  this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city! The Lord’s ²  deliverance, like walls and a rampart, makes it secure. ³ 

Indeed, ¹  the Lord knocks down those who live in a high place, he brings down an elevated town; he brings it down to the ground, ²  he throws it down to the dust.

So this sin will become your downfall. You will be like a high wall that bulges and cracks and is ready to collapse; it crumbles suddenly, in a flash. ¹ 

You will be reestablished when I vindicate you. ¹  You will not experience oppression; ²  indeed, you will not be afraid. You will not be terrified, ³  for nothing frightening ⁴  will come near you.

I will send men against it to destroy it ¹  with their axes and hatchets. They will hack up its fine cedar panels and columns and throw them into the fire.

I saw that the temple had a raised platform all around; the foundations of the side chambers were a full measuring stick ¹  of 10½ feet ²  high.

There was a row of masonry around each of the four courts, and places for boiling offerings were made under the rows all around.

“We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands and in three days build another not made with hands.’”