Tears For The Dung Gate

* Jesus pray for me
* Nehemiah pray for me

+-----Tears For The Dung Gate; Nehemiah's Thoughts When Examining Jerusalem At Night

Crying at the Jackal well, I buried
my head in my hands steadied
by my crouched knees and conversed
with the moon.
We spoke on Jerusalem’s
horror lore here passed down in Persian
vagabond dialect by street urchins
stoked from rumors of
Hebrews debased. Of the sudden and
unexpected blare of the siege on
that red night, the last Babylonian
blood moon on record, shrewd
exhibition of the sleight of
Nebuchadnezzar's hand (that they just
put down), they brag: The strategic
cunning of battering rams, clustered,
at the eastern gate while tossed torches
from horseback alighted the Temple
courtyard in the north. They too, snicker
at tales of pitter patter of feet,
our men of valor in retreat ignoring
wanton wails of our women
repossessed by diseased dogs salivating.
In impenetrable armor they brandished
sickle swords and maces, they say. Oh
Zion, stately city once beautiful now
razed, the promise of God to Abraham
scattered stone, I have not forgotten you!
So now I bid the moon give me leave:
dismiss this night and make way
for the Sun! For the King has sent me to
rebuild walls, restore ashen gates.
In the pitch black of cruelest oppression,
light of God’s favor again dawns on
his people.

-----Nehemiah 2:11-20

 I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days  I set out during the night with a few others. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on. By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. Then I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through; so I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the Valley Gate. The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work. Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me. They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against the king?” I answered them by saying, “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.”