Néhémie 4
1 Et il arriva que, lorsque Sanballat apprit que nous bâtissions la muraille, il se mit en colère et fut extrêmement irrité, et il se moqua des Juifs.
When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the city wall, he was very angry. He was enraged/furious. He made fun of us Jews.
2 Et il parla devant ses frères et devant l’armée de Samarie, et dit: Que font ces faibles Juifs? Les laissera-t-on faire? Offriront-ils des sacrifices? Achèveront-ils en un jour? Feront-ils revivre les pierres des monceaux de poussière, quand elles sont brûlées?
While his colleagues and officials of the army troops who had come from Samaria were listening, he said, “What do these feeble/pathetic Jews [think they] are doing? Do they think that if they offer enough/many sacrifices, [their gods will hear them and enable] them to finish building the wall in one day? The stones [that were in the wall previously have been weakened by] being burned in a fire. Those stones that they are pulling out of the rubbish/garbage heaps—do they think that they can make them strong again?” [RHQ]
3 Et Tobija, l’Ammonite, était à côté de lui, et il dit: Au reste, pour ce que ceux-ci bâtissent, si un renard y montait, il ferait crouler leur muraille de pierres.
Tobiah was [standing] beside Sanballat. He said, “That stone wall [that they are building] is very weak; so if even a fox climbed up on it, the wall would fall down!”
4 – Écoute, ô notre Dieu, car nous sommes méprisés, et fais retomber leur outrage sur leurs propres têtes, et livre-les au mépris dans un pays de captivité;
Then I prayed. I said, “Our God, hear us, because they are ridiculing us! Cause the words of their insults to fall back on them! Allow their enemies to come and capture them and force them to go to a foreign land!
5 et ne couvre pas leur iniquité, et que leur péché ne soit pas effacé de devant toi, car ils ont provoqué ceux qui bâtissent.
They are guilty; they have [said things that] caused you to be angry while the people here who are building the wall are listening; so punish them!”
6 Mais nous avons rebâti la muraille, et toute la muraille fut reliée jusqu’à la moitié; et le peuple avait le cœur au travail.
But after some time, we finished building the wall around the whole city, up to half as high as the first wall had been. We were able to do that because we worked very hard.
7 Mais il arriva que, lorsque Sanballat et Tobija, et les Arabes, et les Ammonites, et les Asdodiens, apprirent que la réparation des murs de Jérusalem avançait, que les brèches commençaient à se fermer, ils se mirent dans une grande colère;
But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the men from Arabia, the people from the Ammon [people-group] and from Ashdod [city] heard that the work on the wall was continuing and that we were filling in the gaps in the wall, they became very angry.
8 et ils se liguèrent tous ensemble pour venir faire la guerre contre Jérusalem et pour lui causer du dommage.
They all planned to come and fight against the people of Jerusalem [MTY] and to cause trouble.
9 Et nous avons prié notre Dieu, et nous avons établi une garde contre eux, jour et nuit, à cause d’eux.
But we prayed to our God [to protect us], and we put men [around the walls] to guard [the city] day and night.
10 Et Juda dit: Les forces des porteurs de fardeaux faiblissent, et il y a beaucoup de décombres: nous ne pouvons bâtir la muraille.
Then the people of [MTY] Judah started to say, “The men who are working [on the wall] are becoming very tired. There is a lot of [heavy] rubble that we must remove; we ourselves cannot finish the work.
11 Et nos ennemis disaient: Ils ne le sauront pas et ne le verront pas, jusqu’à ce que nous arrivions au milieu d’eux: et nous les tuerons, et nous ferons cesser l’ouvrage.
“Besides, our enemies are saying, ‘Before the Jews see us, we will swoop down on them and kill them and stop their work [on the wall]!’”
12 Et il arriva que, comme les Juifs qui habitaient près d’eux vinrent et nous le dirent par dix fois, de tous les lieux d’où ils revenaient vers nous,
The Jews who were living near our enemies came and told us many times, “You should leave the city and go to other places, in order that your enemies will not attack you!”
13 j’établis [des postes] dans les endroits bas, dans l’espace derrière la muraille, en des lieux découverts, et je plaçai le peuple par familles avec leurs épées, leurs piques et leurs arcs.
So I put guards at the places where the wall was not very high yet and at places where there were gaps in the wall. I put guards to protect each of their family groups. I gave the guards daggers, spears, and bows [and arrows].
14 Et je regardai et je me levai, et je dis aux nobles et aux chefs, et au reste du peuple: Ne les craignez pas; souvenez-vous du Seigneur, qui est grand et terrible, et combattez pour vos frères, pour vos fils et pour vos filles, pour vos femmes et pour vos maisons.
Then after I inspected everything, I summoned the leaders and [other] officials and [many of] the other people, and I said to them, “Do not be afraid of our enemies! Think about [what] Yahweh, who is great and glorious, [can do]! And fight to protect your friends, your families, and your homes!”
15 Et quand nos ennemis apprirent que nous étions informés, et que Dieu avait dissipé leur conseil, il arriva que nous sommes tous retournés à la muraille, chacun à son travail.
Our enemies heard that we knew what they were planning to do and that God had (spoiled their plans/prevented them from doing what they planned). [But we were sure that God would defend us, ] so we all started to work on the wall again.
16 Et, dès ce jour-là, la moitié de mes jeunes hommes travaillait à l’œuvre, et la moitié tenait les piques, et les boucliers, et les arcs, et les cuirasses; et les chefs étaient derrière toute la maison de Juda.
But after that, only half of the men who were working for me worked on the wall. The others stood there on guard, holding their spears, shields, bows [and arrows], and [wearing their] coats made of metal plates. [To encourage the people] were building the wall, their leaders stood behind them.
17 Ceux qui bâtissaient la muraille, et ceux qui portaient les fardeaux [et] ceux qui les chargeaient, faisaient le travail d’une main, et, de l’autre main, tenaient une arme.
Those who carried [baskets of supplies on their heads/shoulders] and those who built the wall did their work with one hand, and held a weapon with the other hand.
18 Et ceux qui bâtissaient avaient chacun leur épée ceinte sur leurs reins et bâtissaient, et celui qui sonnait de la trompette était à côté de moi.
All those who were building [the wall] had a dagger fastened to their side. The man who would blow the trumpet [if our enemies attacked] was standing at my side.
19 Et je dis aux nobles et aux chefs, et au reste du peuple: L’ouvrage est grand et étendu, et nous sommes épars sur la muraille, éloignés l’un de l’autre.
Then I said to the officials, the other important men, and the other people, “This wall is very long, and we are far apart from each other along the wall.
20 Au lieu où vous entendrez le son de la trompette, là, rassemblez-vous vers nous; notre Dieu combattra pour nous.
If you hear the man blowing the trumpet, gather around us at that place. [Remember that] our God will fight for us!”
21 Ainsi nous faisions l’ouvrage; et la moitié d’entre eux tenait les piques depuis le lever de l’aurore jusqu’à l’apparition des étoiles.
So we continued to work. Half of the men continued to hold their spears all day, from when the sun rose [in the morning] until the stars appeared [at night].
22 Dans ce temps-là aussi je dis au peuple: Que chacun, avec son serviteur, passe la nuit à l’intérieur de Jérusalem, afin que de nuit ils nous soient une garde, et que de jour [ils fassent] le travail.
At that time, I also said to the people, “Tell every worker and his helper that they must stay inside Jerusalem at night. By doing that, they can guard us at night, and they can work [on the wall] during the daytime.”
23 Et ni moi, ni mes frères, ni mes jeunes hommes, ni les hommes de la garde qui me suivaient, nous n’avons ôté nos vêtements; chacun [avait] son arme à sa droite.
During that time, none of us ever took off our clothes (OR, we wore our clothes all the time)—I and my relatives and my workers and the guards who were with me. And we had our weapons with us, in our hands.
