1And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, wine was before him, and I took up the wine and gave it to the king; and I had not been sad before him.
2And the king said to me, "Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart." And I feared very greatly.
3And I said to the king, "Let the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the house of the graves of my fathers, is laid waste, and its gates are consumed with fire?"
4And the king said to me, "For what is this you are requesting?" And I prayed to the God of heaven,
5and I said to the king, "If it is good to the king, and if your servant is good before you, that you would send me to Judah, to the city of the graves of my fathers, that I may build it."
6And the king said to me — and the queen sitting beside him — "For how long will your journey be, and when will you return?" And it was good before the king, and he sent me; and I gave him a time.
7And I said to the king, "If it is good to the king, let letters be given to me to the governors beyond the River, that they may let me pass over until I come to Judah;
8and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's park, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the castle which belongs to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house into which I shall enter." And the king gave to me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
9And 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.
10And Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard, and it was evil to them, a great evil, that a man (adam) had come to seek good for the sons of Israel.
11And I came to Jerusalem, and I was there three days.
12And I arose by night, I and a few men (ish) with me; and I did not tell to a man (adam) what my God was putting into my heart to do for Jerusalem; and there was no beast with me except the beast on which I was riding.
13And I went out by the gate of the valley by night, even toward the face of the spring of the great sea-creature (tannin), and to the dung gate; and I was inspecting the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down, and its gates consumed with fire.
14And I passed over to the gate of the fountain, and to the king's pool; but there was no place for the beast under me to pass.
15And I was going up by the wadi by night, and I was inspecting the wall; and I turned back and entered by the gate of the valley, and returned.
16And the prefects 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 prefects and to the rest of the doers of the work I had not yet told it.
17And I said to them, "You see the evil that we are in, that Jerusalem is laid waste and its gates are burned with fire. Come, and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may be no longer a reproach."
18And I told them of the hand of my God, which was good upon me, and also the words of the king which he had said to me. And they said, "Let us arise and build." And they strengthened their hands for the good.
19And Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian heard, and they mocked us and despised us, and said, "What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?"
20And I returned them a word, and said to them, "The God of heaven, he will prosper us, and we his servants will arise and build; but to you there is no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem."