Néhémie 4
1 Or il arriva que Samballat, ayant appris que nous rebâtissions la muraille, fut fort indigné et fort 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 Car il dit en la présence de ses frères, et des gens de guerre de Samarie: Que font ces Juifs languissants? Les laissera-t-on faire? Sacrifieront-ils? et achèveront-ils tout en un jour? Pourront-ils faire revenir les pierres des monceaux de poudre, puisqu'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, Hammonite, qui était auprès de lui, dit: Encore qu'ils bâtissent, si un renard monte, il rompra leur muraille de pierre.
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 Ô notre Dieu! écoute, comment nous sommes en mépris, et fais retourner leur opprobre sur leur tête, et mets-les en proie 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 point leur iniquité, et que leur péché ne soit point effacé devant ta face; car ils ont usé de discours piquants, s'attachant aux bâtisseurs.
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 Nous rebâtîmes donc la muraille, et tout le mur fut rejoint jusqu'à sa moitié; car 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 quand Samballat et Tobija, et les Arabes, les Hammonites, et les Asdodiens eurent appris que la muraille de Jérusalem avait été refaite, et qu'on avait commencé à reclore ce qui avait été rompu, ils furent fort en 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 entre eux tous ensemble, pour venir faire la guerre contre Jérusalem, et pour faire échouer [son dessein.]
They all planned to come and fight against the people of Jerusalem [MTY] and to cause trouble.
9 Alors nous priâmes notre Dieu, et ayant peur d'eux, nous posâmes des gardes le jour et la nuit contre 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: La force des ouvriers est affaiblie, et il y a beaucoup de ruines, en sorte que nous ne pourrons pas 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 Or nos ennemis avaient dit: Qu'ils n'en sachent rien, et qu'ils n'en voient rien, jusqu'à ce que nous entrions au milieu d'eux, et que nous les mettions à mort, et fassions 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 Mais il arriva que les Juifs qui demeuraient parmi eux, étant venus vers nous, nous dirent par dix fois: Prenez garde à tous les endroits par lesquels vous pourriez vous tourner 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 C'est pourquoi je rangeai le peuple depuis le bas, derrière la muraille, sur des lieux élevés, selon leurs familles, avec leurs épées, leurs javelines 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 Puis je regardai et me levai; et je dis aux principaux et aux magistrats, et au reste du peuple: N'ayez point peur d'eux; 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 eurent su que nous avions été avertis, Dieu dissipa leur conseil; et nous retournâmes tous aux murailles, 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 Depuis ce jour-là une moitié de mes gens travaillait, et l'autre moitié tenait des javelines, des boucliers, des arcs et des corselets; et les Gouverneurs suivaient chaque famille 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 chargeaient les portefaix, travaillaient chacun d'une main, et de l'autre ils tenaient l'épée.
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 Car chacun de ceux qui bâtissaient était ceint sur ses reins d'une épée, et ils bâtissaient ainsi [équipés]; et le trompette était près 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 Car je dis aux principaux et aux magistrats, et au reste du peuple: L'ouvrage est grand et étendu, et nous sommes écartés sur la muraille loin 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 En quelque lieu donc que vous entendiez le son de la trompette, courez-y 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 C'était donc ainsi que nous travaillions; mais la moitié tenait des javelines, depuis le point du jour, jusqu'au lever 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 Et en ce temps-là je dis au peuple: Que chacun avec son serviteur, passe la nuit dans Jérusalem, afin qu'ils nous servent la nuit pour faire le guet, et le jour pour travailler.
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 moi, mes frères, mes serviteurs, et les gens de la garde qui me suivent, nous ne quitterons point nos habits: que chacun [vienne avec] son épée, et [avec] de l'eau.
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.
