Nehemiah 2

₁It was in the month of Nisan, in the 20th year after Artaxerxes had become king. I took the cup of wine and I gave it to the king. I had never before shown the king that I was sad. ₂But that day the king said to me: ‘I can see you are sad. Are you sick? Why are you sad?’ I was afraid ₃but I said to the king: ‘I pray that you, the king, will live for many years. I am sad because enemies have destroyed the city where my forefathers are buried and they have burnt the gates.’ ₄The king said to me: ‘What do you want me to do?’ I prayed to the God in heaven, ₅and I said to the king: ‘Your_Majesty, if you think it is right and if you want to be good to me, please send me, your servant, to the city where my forefathers are buried so that I can help build the city again.’ ₆The queen was sitting next to the king when he asked me: ‘How long will it take for you to get there? And when will you come back?’ The king decided to send me and I told him how long I would be away. ₇I asked him: ‘Your_Majesty, if you think it is right then please give me a letter that I can give to the governor of the lands west of the Euphrates River so that they will not stop me when I go to the province of Judah. ₈I must get wood for the poles of the gates, for building the temple and to make the walls of the city strong, and also for the house where I will live. Can you also please give me a letter to Asaph, the chief_official of the king's forests, to give me the wood that I need?’

The king gave me the letters because my God was good to me and the king did everything that I asked him. ₉I went to the governors of the lands west of the Euphrates River and I gave them the letter from the king. The king sent officers and men on horses with me. ₁₀They told this to Sanballat, who was from the town of Horon, and Tobiah, the official of the Ammonites. They were angry and upset because they did not want anyone to go to the Israelites to help them or to do anything good for them.

₁₁I came to Jerusalem and after 3 days ₁₂I went out in the night and there were a few men with me. I did not tell anyone what God wanted me to do for the city of Jerusalem. There were no animals with me, only the one that I rode on. ₁₃I went out of the city that night through the Valley Gate as far as the Jackal Fountain and the Dung Gate. I looked at the wall of Jerusalem and saw how enemies had broken down the wall and burnt the gates. ₁₄I went further to the Fountain Gate and the King's Pool. The animal on which I rode could not go further, ₁₅so I went into the valley in the dark to see what the wall looked like. Then I turned_around and went through the gate in the valley into the city.

₁₆The leaders did not know where I had gone and what I was doing. Before then I had not said anything to the people of Judah, or the priests, or the important people, or the leaders and the other people who had to do the work. ₁₇But on that day I said to them: ‘You can see how many problems we have. The enemies have destroyed the walls of Jerusalem and burnt its gates. We must build the wall again so that we will no longer be ashamed.’ ₁₈I told them how my God had helped me and what the king had said to me. And they said: ‘Yes, we must build the wall.’

They immediately prepared to start the work. ₁₉But when someone told Sanballat from Horon, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arabian about it, they laughed and mocked us and asked: ‘What are you doing? Do you want to rebel_against the king?’ ₂₀I answered them and said: ‘The God of heaven will help us succeed. We are his servants and we will build the wall. You are not welcome here. You have no right to be here because nothing here belongs to you. You are not part of our history.’