Letters to the Exiles (The Rough Draft)

* Jesus pray for me
* Jeremiah pray for me
* dedicated to Sara Groves, Jeremiah
https://youtu.be/Lop2ghrnzqk
* dedicated to For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles
http://www.letterstotheexiles.com/

The Prophet Jeremiah: TONY, MY MAN!!! SHOW THESE GOOD FOLKS THE ROUGH DRAFT OF THE LETTER I WROTE IN JEREMIAH 29....YOU KNOW....THE VERSION THAT DIDNT MAKE IT IN THE GOOD BOOK!!!!!! #WOOOOOOOO


+-----------------Letters to the Exiles; Jeremiah's Thoughts Before Writing His Letters To His People In Captivity

Friends, I hope this letter finds
you well. I wanted to say: I hope you marry,
I hope you plant trees, that the
trees grow, bear fruit, and prosper, their
branches dancing passionately in the wind
like King David before the Ark
of the Covenant,
leaves intoning and harmonizing Deborah’s
song of deliverance,
when Sisera fell and God emancipated Israel
from Jabin King of Hazor.
May your wives eyes’
never lose their sparkle,
a lonely pair of luminescent stars
in the moonless, ominous and
overbearingly onyx Babylonian sky
that is now every Hebrew male’s heart.
I ask of you all only one thing -that
henceforth at night when you light candles,
sparks from the wick of your deep
and secret yearning,
your faces warmed by flickering flames,
that you not let despondency preclude dreams.
Dream of me no longer
with portents in my speech but prophesying
Utopia, a joyful herald of poetry
rhyming of the celestial rivers of Zion that
heal our souls’ present wounds,
the sins that abhorred our God forever
washed and forgotten.
For I wish you knew that God
promised us that Nebuchadnezzar will not
always reign, but that through his promise to
Abraham we shall, and forever. But for now,
the King beckons, and these shackles on
my wrists, or soldiers with spears standing guard,
wont allow my fingers to write many more words,
or me to wipe from my face
many more tears. Princes and princesses
of Judah and Jerusalem:
(temporarily) celebrate this life of yours,
 a somber night, even
blessing this foreign land, because our Sun
will soon rise- Salvation and freedom
like the dawn, radiant and dazzling,
crowned in triumph and racing towards us on
a chariot of clouds leading back to Jerusalem.
All memory of our captivity will be to us
like a deep sleep that bright daylight banishes…
we will all be awake then; rejoicing
in a Glorious New Day
(soon).

[He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed, Shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Psalm 126:6]

--------Jeremiah 29:1-14
Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders in exile and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King Jeconiah [also called Coniah and Jehoiachin] and the queen mother, the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem. [The letter was sent] by the hand of Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. It said: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the captives whom I have caused to be carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build yourselves houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat the fruit of them. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not be diminished. And seek (inquire for, require, and request) the peace and welfare of the city to which I have caused you to be carried away captive; and pray to the Lord for it, for in the welfare of [the city in which you live] you will have welfare. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Let not your [false] prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you; pay no attention and attach no significance to your dreams which you dream or to theirs, For they prophesy falsely to you in My name. I have not sent them, says the Lord. For thus says the Lord, When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you and keep My good promise to you, causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome. Then you will call upon Me, and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear and heed you. Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me [as a vital necessity] and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will release you from captivity and gather you from all the nations and all the places to which I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I caused you to be carried away captive.

------Jeremiah Lyrics

Jeremiah, tell me about the fire

That burns up in Your bones

I want to know, I want to know more now

The burning of ambition and desire

It never could come close

To that fire, to that fire

I was looking to myself

And I forgot the power of God

I was standing with a sparkler in my hand

While I stood so proud and profound

You came and burned this whole place down

Now that's a fire

Jeremiah, tell me about the fire

That burns up in Your bones

I want to know, I want to know more now

The burning of ambition and desire

It never could come close

To that fire, to that fire

And I was caught up in this vice

And its power to entice

I was dwelling on my hopelessness and doubt

With the slightest invitation

You came with total detonation

Now that's a fire

Jeremiah, tell me about the fire

That burns up in Your bones

I want to know, I want to know more now

Jeremiah, tell me about the fire

'Cause nothing could come close

To that fire, to that fire

Jeremiah

And I was warming my hands by this little light of mine

But now I know, I know it's time

To come in from the cold

Fight fire with fire and fan the flame

Come stir up these coals in my soul, in my soul

Till it burns out of control

Jeremiah, tell me about the fire

That burns up in Your bones

I want to know, I want to know more now

Jeremiah, tell me about the fire

'Cause nothing could come close

To that fire, to that fire

Jeremiah

That's a fire

Jeremiah

It's a fire

And I was warming my hands by this little light of mine

But now I know, I know, I know it's time

To come in from the cold

Come in from the cold

Stir up in my bones, stir up in my bones

Stir up in my bones

Evil, will you stir up in my bones?

I was looking to myself, I was looking to myself

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine

My Kiss By Force #EmmaKissTony

* Jesus pray for me
* Saint Matthew pray for me
 * Saint John the Baptist pray for me
* Dedicated to Emma Watson
#EmmaKissTony


+-----------------My Kiss By Force

Baby, when I see your red hair I see fire,
I smell smoke of the defeated Philistines
(my singleness)
ascending into ether. Memories of
every girl who ever hurt me
stick to the ground as dried blood
of fallen warriors,
now looted, their shields now rusting.
(The most fearsome Giant among them,
the only one I ever fell in love with
who left me and married an older man,
felled by five smooth stones
of you nonchalantly flicking tresses
from the front of your face to
the side of your ears.)
Your smile is armed with divine charms,
trumpets of joy, horns of passion,
sterling white teeth the Ark of the Covenant
that degrades and cracks the walls of my heart
from within, one glance at your laughter
and my sturdy wall of self-control topples
into piles of rocks strewn indiscriminately,
me swooning ecstatically, incapacitated
in Jericho
as if you marched around me
for seven days continuously.
Your body sustains my desire, like the
sun standing still, the moon refusing to obey
its course, stoically standing above
all my ex girlfriends: Amorite
foes of my torpor, my listlessness and my
dejection at being spurned and passed up,
of my self confidence razed to the ground,
raided and burned, oxen and crops
of my hope in eventual Romance stolen away
and offered before the Pagan gods of
callousness.  

Emma, I have been through so much,
the warring, the battling for love….
…my scars….my tears….my paucity….
did you think, after all of this,
I’d let you walk away without asking you out?
To be with you would be my Heaven-
angelic smile, celestial hair, your utopian
body-
and I’ll be Damned if I don’t make
an earnest attempt to take your affection
by force.
Let my kiss be a sword, that we both
live and die by.

(OH EMMA WOULD YA WOULD YA WOULD YA DATE WITH ME?????!!!! #WOOOOO)


--------Matthew 11:10-13
This is the one about whom it is written, 'BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER AHEAD OF YOU, WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY BEFORE YOU.' "Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force." For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John.

The End Of All I Know

* Jesus pray for me
* Saint Cornelius pray for me

+---------This Is The End Of All I Know; The Thoughts Of Cornelius Before Peter's Arrival

At lunch I have sporadic visions of the
sun setting on an execrated Roman world,
of darkness enveloping languid peasant
peoples without even the slightest concern
for daylight, or times or seasons.
Even amongst the Citizenry this
torpidity pervades. Caesar and his nobles
lament that the red wine is always bitter,
the maids categorically spurn flax
claiming all of it is brittle,
incurable curse of Eden and Eve on fabric,
(of Nemesis dispensing her
whimsical retribution),
and the oxen and sheep all herald
apathy, petulance when served food.
These troubling visions grip and
detain my mind for days while
trying to surmise their rubric. Could it be
that angels seek
a dialogue on impending apocalypse,
damnation on everything I thought I knew,
suggestions of the advent of a new dawn
previously prophesied
(and that I secretly yearn for)?
Then, in other visions I see
Simon Peter traversing on water,
ensconced in faint white light,
water rippling behind his sandals,
approaching me, his arms reaching
directly for my head,
“When I come to you, prepare for the
Earth to be reborn” he says.
My family and I wait for this
visitation with bated breath, telling
our children to throw away their
clothing, I tell my wife to sell her jewelry
at the market, to hold me close.
Baptism, I tell them, will bury all the bad
things, like Daddy does when he
sends his soldiers to war against
savage enemies of the State. I
also tell them just like in any battle,
to brace themselves, that
in the face of the unknown
we all must be prepared to die.

(To our former selves).




--------Acts 10:25-48
And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him. But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man. And as he talked with him, he went in, and found many that were come together. And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for: I ask therefore for what intent ye have sent for me? And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God. Send therefore to Joppa, and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter; he is lodged in the house of one Simon a tanner by the sea side: who, when he cometh, shall speak unto thee. Immediately therefore I sent to thee; and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God. Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree: Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly; Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.

The Penurious Widow Begging For Your Heart

* Jesus pray for me
* Spiritual Bootcamp Lesson #2 - NEVER STOP PRAYING
* Dedicated to ...gaaah I want to write her name so badly right here. But hopefully...you know who you are....!!!!

OKAY MAGGOTS!!!! SERGEANT JESUSMETAPHOR HERE!!! #SALUTE!!! PUT DOWN YOUR INFERNAL #STARBUCKS' MOCHA SOY LATTES AND COME CLOSE. ATTEN-HUT!!!! DROP AND GIVE ME 20!!! WHILST I SPEAK. HERES WHAT I HAVE TO TEACH YA: NEVER STOP PRAYING, NEVER STOP HOPING AND NEVER STOP BELIEVING!!! GOT IT MAGGOTS??? CLEAVE TO GOD IN PRAYER, ADDING PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING WITH YOUR SUPPLICATIONS!!! HUUAAAAAHH!!! DONT BE A FLACCID SOLDIER OUT THERE ON THE SPIRITUAL BATTLEFIELD. IF YOU WANT SOMETHING- PRAY AND PRAY AND PRAY FOR  IT!!! ATTEN-HUT!!!! NOW READ THIS POEM I WROTE ABOUT A GIRL I REALLY LIKE AND HOW I BELIEVE, HUUUAAAHHH!!!! SHES WORTH FIGHTING FOR IN DAILY PRAYER!!!

+-----------------Tony Conti: The Penurious Widow Begging For Your Heart; The Gospel Widow's Thoughts Before Approaching The Wicked Judge Daily 

My heart cannot rest as long as my
mind lingers on Good and Evil, my
bedside candle flickering underneath
angst-laden, syncopated breaths,
as I groan in my dreams for you.  Beneath
the moon’s gaze my unconscious
undulant body yearns for your kiss,
my face glossed in pale luminescent white lighting,
your hand lain in mine, forever insulated
against the adversarial suggestion of
this continual abidance in loneliness,
of picking up shards of my lovelorn heart
only to have them riven in my hands,
in their tiny reflections I see you embracing
another person dancing in unison…synchronized
to a harrowing beat,
your sinister silhouettes cleaving
together haunts and disrupts my sleep.
In my waking moments my soul
runs before the judiciary of Romance
insisting on adjudication, my desire emphatically
rapping and knocking on the bench
to stress my sense of urgency, intransigent
before the jailers of rationality and societal mores.
They say love is blind, fancying whim
and balking at selfish notions of predestination
before gradual knowing or of
calculated manipulation (intensity scares
girls away) but please, if I may,
allow me to debase myself before the
court and coerce your reciprocity with tears
(I have cried continuously for you).
I stand before your conscience seeking
consideration and reconsideration
of us possibly, maybe being together,
maybe one day, maybe even fifty
years from now.
If I could, I would fight every day
to come into possession of
your daily company. I do fight everyday
in the silence of my thoughts
for a pleasant verdict, imploring
Amorous Fate to rule in my favor-
that day I would be widowed of your
smile no more.


---------Luke 18:1-8
And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

The Charter Of The Early Church #CLYA

*Jesus pray for me
* Jesus pray for Christ Life Young Adults #CLYA
https://christlife.org/young-adults/

TO THE BEST CATHOLIC YOUNG ADULT GROUP IN THE WORLD!!! #WOOOOO

+-----------The Charter of The (Acts) Early Church; The Anthem of #CLYA at Vinny’s 4th of July Party 2015. 

We have almost forgotten the
Mourning Morning, that first sunrise
without our Savior next to us,
at breakfast barely eating
our baked bread, the paltry portion
(poorly seasoned due to lethargy) of fish
for lunch, dust under our sandals as
that somber almost sacral evening’s meal,
pressing our praying faces to the ground
sobbing sorely, duly
aggrieved and not knowing what to do next.
For now, we can feel His very
breath upon us, His presence rushing mightily
through our souls and blowing our hearts
out of sorrow like a violent wind
disbursing fire, singeing lips,
onto the tips of our tongues,
enabling us, finally, to laugh and smile.
To say we will be okay, we can
and will make it.
Because when we see each other now
we see Him,
hearts ablaze with love,
so among us no good is withheld,
no possession is exclusively claimed
or hoarded because He never
cached any blessing away or denied us His gifts.
As we carry His cross in our hearts, our secret
daily tribute of honor- attesting His death
wasn’t in vain, our dreams drift Heavenward,
collectively musing in full agreement
that Jesus was right:
 it was entirely to our benefit that
He depart into clouds,
flanked by radiant angels rejoicing.
The Spirit, in His absence, has stitched us together;
a kaleidoscopic tapestry depicting such
beauty and charm that the world
cant take its eyes off of it.


----Acts 2:41-47
Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need  And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

Our Capernaums #FISHBETTAHAVEMYMONEY

* Jesus Pray for me
* Saint Matthew Pray for me
* Dedicated to Rihanna, B* Better Have My Money
https://youtu.be/oQW2FFt3-A8

AYO - JESUS BE LIKE - FISH BETTA HAVE MY MONEY!!!! LOLZ
#FISHBETTAHAVEMYMONEY

+--------/Our Capernaums; Jesus’ Words To Peter Regarding Paying Tribute

We should all live our lives as
if our prayers had fins,
gills of intransigent assurance in goodness,
layered in uncompromising scales,
that greyish hexagonal coating of skin
that penetrates thick currents of misfortune
and withstands all adversities of undertow
in the sea of our Being in the world.
Our courageous beliefs like
bream fish swimming fearless
in the face of Leviathan, flitting in and
around flaring nostrils
through a gargantuan
mouth opened wide for destruction- his
teeth freshly forged in fire,
Roman swords of the damned
hammered by a hardened hellacious
warring blacksmith serving soldiers specifically
seeking those wanted by the State–
insouciantly dipping  far enough
below the surface to evade
hawks' talons,
those flying self-wrought circling enemies of
our psyche, disconsolation with wings
and piercing eyes of the hunter
that swoop in to tear our joy apart.
And on the land just above,
we should always stand hopeful
on this spiritual silt,
like a fisherman on shore with a rod
and a hook that dangles on strings
of our conviction pulled taut.
Because when we become children of God
we don’t owe debts to anyone,
our desire and our yearning
produce gold coins of perseverance
from inside our sacred hearts and souls.
Our faith, then, pays tribute to us
that we then pass on to others.
 

---Matthew 17:24-27
And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.

----B* Better Have My Money Lyrics
Yayo, yayo
Moo-la-lah
Yayo

B* better have my money!
Y'all should know me well enough
B* better have my money!
Please don't call me on my bluff
Pay me what you owe me
Ballin' bigger than LeBron
B*, give me your money
Who y'all think y'all frontin' on?
Like brrap, brrap, brrap

Louis 13 and it's all on me, n* you just bought a shot
Kamikaze if you think that you gon' knock me off the top
Shit, your wife in the backseat of my brand new foreign car
Don't act like you forgot, I call the shots, shots, shots
Like blah, brrap, brrap
Pay me what you owe me, don't act like you forgot

B* better have my money!
B* better have my money!
Pay me what you owe me
B* better have my (B* better have my)
B* better have my (B* better have my)
B* better have my money!

Turn up to Rihanna while the whole club f*in' wasted
Every time I drop I am the only thing you're playin'
In a drop top, doin' hundred, y'all in my rearview mirror racin'
Where y'all at? Where y'all at? Where y'all at?
Like brrap, brrap, brrap

Louis 13 and it's all on me, n* you just bought a shot
Kamikaze if you think that you gon' knock me off the top
Shit, your wife in the backseat of my brand new foreign car
Don't act like you forgot, I call the shots, shots, shots
Like blah, brrap, brrap
Pay me what you owe me, don't act like you forgot

B* better have my money!
B* better have my money!
Pay me what you owe me
B* better have my (B* better have my)
B* better have my (B* better have my)
B* better have my money!

B* better have my money!
B* better have my money!
Pay me what you owe me
B* better have my (B* better have my)
B* better have my (B* better have my)
B* better have my money!

B* better have my money!
B* better have my money!
B*, B*, B* better have my money!
Yo, that B* better have my money!
Hold up
My money!
Yo, my money!
That B* better have my money!
B* better have my money!

Whispering Stones #rebuildmyJerusalem

* Jesus Pray for me

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 it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven – Nehemiah 1:3-4

+--------/Whispering Stones; Nehemiah’s Thoughts upon Seeing Jerusalem’s Wall Obliterated

These stones are like disassembled
fragments of a once grandiose and vaunted
dream almost forgotten
but not quite yet. On the ground slain, burned
yet resilient, they yearn to be touched and
comforted, lifted to one’s ear and granted
the opportunity to speak. They sing
the song of Solomon’s Temple newly dedicated,
they intone of the parting of the Red Sea,
of Moses forsaking everything he once knew,
of hoping with abandon,
of yearning to fulfill
a greater destiny, cynically mocking the
screams of Pharaoh’s charioteers gargling water
whilst Hebrews walked giddily on
dry land, the astonishment
of an abused dejected people
at last embracing freedom.
They muse that even the five most
insignificant among them felled (in a sling)
the  greatest of Philistines, stained in
the blood of Goliath’s head, rolling
with pride, wearing
tattoos of the highest order.
Now, they cry out to me for revival.
They were
once a stalwart bastion of refuge
against marauders, a united wall
impregnable, lauding and cheering
King Josiah’s victories and casting
menacing stares at invaders
with Watchmen (who once
killed Abimelek by hurling
a millstone...) but now disgraced
now they are disillusioned.
These stones:
the prophet’s visionary totem
cleansed with my tears as we
mourn together beneath the moon. But
our legacy isnt dead just yet, I promise-
from the Sheep Gate to the Fish Gate
to the Dung Gate,
the Eunuch Cup Bearer has come
from Artaxerxes bearing goodly
anticipation shining in the Sun
of the King's Countenance.
A heart in shambles will be patched,
a broken wall will be rebuilt,
the reverie of the captives is coming true:
Jerusalem will rise
once again.


[dedicated to anyone who has had hopes and dreams and desires destroyed. Pray with me. One day, will reign autonomously, free from the captivity and scorn of our enemies and detractors. One day, our hearts will be rebuilt and we will reign victorious. We will have our heart's desires. Amen. #wooooooo (Ric Flair)]


-----------------Nehemiah 2:12-18, 4:1-3
 And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon. And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king's pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass. Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned. And the rulers knew not whither I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work. 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. Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work. But it came to pass, that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews. 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? Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.