Nehemiah Sent to Jerusalem
And it happened in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him; and I lifted up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad before him.
And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, when you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart.” Then I was very greatly afraid.
And I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the house of my fathers’ graves, lies waste, and its gates are consumed with fire?”
And the king said to me, “For what is it that you are asking?” So I prayed to the God of the heavens,
and I said to the king, “If it seems good to the king, and if your servant is pleasing before you, that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may build it.”
And the king said to me — the queen consort sitting beside him — “How long will your journey be, and when will you return?” And it was good before the king, and he sent me; and I set him a time.
And I said to the king, “If it seems good to the king, let letters be given me to the governors of Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah;
and a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s park, that he may give me timber to roof the gates of the fortress that belongs to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter.” And the king gave them to me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
And I came to the governors of Beyond the River, and gave them the king’s letters. And the king had sent with me officers of the force and horsemen.
And Sanballat the Horonite heard, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite; and it was evil to them, a great evil, that someone had come to seek good for the sons of Israel.
Nehemiah Inspects the Walls
And I came to Jerusalem, and I was there three days.
And I rose up by night, I and a few men with me; and I told no one what my God was putting in my heart to do for Jerusalem. And there was no animal with me except the animal I was riding.
And I went out by night through the Valley Gate, toward the Dragon Spring, and to the Dung Gate; and I was inspecting the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and its gates consumed with fire.
And I crossed over to the Spring Gate, and to the King’s Pool; and there was no place for the animal under me to pass.
So I was going up by the wadi by night, and I was inspecting the wall; and I turned back, and came in by the Valley Gate, and returned.
And the deputies did not know where I had gone or what I was doing; and to the Jews, and to the priests, and to the nobles, and to the deputies, and to the rest who were doing the work, I had not told it as yet.
Then I said to them, “You see the evil that we are in — that Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, and let us be a reproach no longer.”
And I told them of the hand of my God, which was good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had said to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” And they strengthened their hands for the good.
And Sanballat the Horonite heard, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arab; and they mocked us and despised us, and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”
And I returned 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 portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem.”