1Now it came about in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, that wine was before him, and I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence before.
2Then the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, though you are not ill? This is nothing but sadness of heart.” Then I was very greatly afraid,
3and I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been consumed by fire?”
4Then the king said to me, “What is it that you are requesting?” So I prayed to the God of the heavens,
5and I said to the king, “If it seems good to the king, and if your servant is favorable in your sight, that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it.”
6Then the king said to me—the queen consort sitting beside him—“How long will your journey take, and when will you return?” So it seemed good to the king to send me, and I gave him a set time.
7And I said to the king, “If it seems good to the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of Beyond-the-River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah,
8and a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress that belongs to the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house into which I will go.” And the king granted them to me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
9So I came to the governors of Beyond-the-River and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen.
10When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard of it, it was greatly displeasing to them that a man had come to seek the good of the sons of Israel.
11So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days.
12Then I rose up by night, I and a few men with me, and I told no one what my God was putting into my heart to do for Jerusalem. And there was no animal with me except the animal on which I was riding.
13And I went out by night through the Valley Gate, toward the Dragon’s Spring and toward the Dung Gate, and I was inspecting the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that had been consumed by fire.
14Then I crossed over to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool, but there was no place for the animal under me to pass.
15So I went up by night through the wadi and was inspecting the wall, and I turned back and came in through the Valley Gate, and so returned.
16And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, for as yet I had not told the Jews, or the priests, or the nobles, or the officials, or the rest who were to do the work.
17Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach.”
18And I told them of the hand of my God, that it had been good upon me, and also the king’s words that he had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work.
19But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked us and despised us, and said, “What is this thing you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”
20Then I answered them a word and said to them, “The God of the heavens, he will give us success, and we his servants will rise up and build; but you have no share, or right, or memorial in Jerusalem.”
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