In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes,
when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the
king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. And the king said to
me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing
but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid. I said to
the king, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be
sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' graves, lies in ruins,
and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” Then the king said to
me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.
And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your
servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah,
to the city of my fathers' graves, that I may rebuild it.” And the
king said to me (the queen sitting beside him), “How long will you
be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send
me when I had given him a time. And I said to the king, “If it
pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the
province Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until
I come to Judah, and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's
forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of
the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for
the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I
asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.
Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River and
gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent with me
officers of the army and horsemen. But when Sanballat the Horonite
and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them
greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of
Israel.
So I went to Jerusalem and was there three days. Then I arose in
the night, I and a few men with me. And I told no one what my God
had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no animal with
me but the one on which I rode. I went out by night by the Valley
Gate to the Dragon Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the
walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that had
been destroyed by fire. Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to
the King's Pool, but there was no room for the animal that was
under me to pass. Then I went up in the night by the valley and
inspected the wall, and I turned back and entered by the Valley
Gate, and so returned. And the officials did not know where I had
gone or what I was doing, and I had not yet told the Jews, the
priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the
work.
Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how
Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build
the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.” And
I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good,
and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they
said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands
for the good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the
Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us
and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing?
Are you rebelling against the king?” Then I replied to them, “The
God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise
and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem.”
