[1] It happened in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the
king, when wine was before him, that I took up the wine, and gave it to the
king. Now I had not been [before] sad in his presence. [2] The king said to
me, Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? this is nothing else but
sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid. [3] 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` tombs, lies waste, and the gates of it are consumed
with fire? [4] Then the king said to me, For what do you make request? So I
prayed to the God of heaven. [5] I said to the king, If it please the king,
and if your servant have found favor in your sight, that you would send me
to Judah, to the city of my fathers` tombs, that I may build it. [6] The
king said to me (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall your
journey be? and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me;
and I set him a time. [7] Moreover I said to the king, If it please the
king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the River, that they
may let me pass through until I come to Judah; [8] 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 castle which appertains to the house, and for the wall
of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. The king granted
me, according to the good hand of my God on me. [9] Then I came to the
governors beyond the River, and gave them the king`s letters. Now the king
had sent with me captains of the army and horsemen. [10] When Sanballat the
Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved
them exceedingly, because a man had come to seek the welfare of the
children of Israel. [11] So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.
[12] I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any
man what my God put into my heart to do for Jerusalem; neither was there
any animal with me, except the animal that I rode on. [13] I went out by
night by the valley gate, even toward the jackal`s well, and to the dung
gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the
gates of it were consumed with fire. [14] Then I went on to the spring gate
and to the king`s pool: but there was no place for the animal that was
under me to pass. [15] Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed
the wall; and I turned back, and entered by the valley gate, and so
returned. [16] The rulers didn`t know where 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 who did the work. [17] Then said I to
them, You see the evil case that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and
the gates of it are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of
Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. [18] I told them of the hand of
my God which was good on me, as also of the king`s words that he had spoken
to me. They said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their
hands for the good [work]. [19] But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah
the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed
us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that you do?
will you rebel against the king? [20] Then answered I them, and said to
them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will
arise and build: but you have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in
Jerusalem.
