d an important and profitable position
in the royal court, but when he heard how his countrymen were
suffering, how the walls of the city of his fathers were in ruins, he
did not hesitate, but gaining the permission of the king, he set out
to serve his country in its sore distress. How he heard of the need of
the city, how he went to its relief, and how the people under his
splendid leadership took courage and rebuilt the walls, he himself has
told in these words:)--

_The Need and the Man_.

"Now it came to pass in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I
was in Shushan the palace, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he
and certain men out of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews
that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning
Jerusalem. 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 {213} I sat down
and wept, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the
God of heaven, and said, 'I beseech thee, O Lord, the God of heaven,
the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy with them
that love him and keep his commandments: let thine ear now be
attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hearken unto the
prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee at this time, day and
night, for the children of Israel thy servants, while I confess the
sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee:
yea, I and my father's house have sinned. We have dealt very corruptly
against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes,
nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses. Remember,
I beseech thee, the words that thou commandedst thy servant Moses,
saying, If ye trespass, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples:
but if ye return unto me, and keep my commandments and do them, though
your outcasts were in the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I
gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I
have chosen to cause my name to dwell there. Now these are thy
servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power,
and by thy strong hand. O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be
attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy
servants, who delight to fea