i1 [A Psalm of Asaph.] i0 par O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance; Your holy temple they have defiled; they have laid Jerusalem in heaps.

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

Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; and rescue us, and make atonement for our sins, for Your name's sake!

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.

If I do not remember you, let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy.

Then the heads of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all those whose spirit God had aroused to go up and build the house of Jehovah which is in Jerusalem,

And when the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem.

Though fear had come upon them because of the people of those lands, they set the altar on its bases; and they offered burnt offerings on it to Jehovah, both the morning and evening burnt offerings.

Blessed be Jehovah the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this into the king's heart, to beautify the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem,

And they said to me, The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.

and said to the king, May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies waste, and its gates have been consumed with fire?

Then I said to them, You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach.

And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish; stones that are burned?

So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a heart to work.

Then Judah said, The strength of the laborers is stumbling, and there is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall.

O Lord, I pray, according to all Your righteousness, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain. For because of our sins and for our fathers' iniquities, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all those around us.