Nehemiah 2

Nehemiah’s Prayer Answered

1And it came about in the month Nisan, 1in the twentieth year of King 2Artaxerxes, that wine was before him, and 3I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. 2So the king said to me, “Why is your face sad though you are not sick? 4This is nothing but sadness of heart.” Then I was very much afraid. 3I said to the king, “5Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad 6when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?” 4Then the king said to me, “What would you request?” 7So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5I said to the king, “If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.” 6Then the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, “How long will your journey be, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me, and 8I gave him a definite time. 7And I said to the king, “If it please the king, let letters be given me 9for the governors of the provinces beyond the River, that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah, 8and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s 10forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of 11the fortress which is by the 12temple, for the wall of the city and for the house to which I will go.” And the king granted them to me because 13the good hand of my God was on me.

9Then I came to 14the governors of the provinces beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. Now 15the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen. 10When 16Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite 17official heard about it, it was very displeasing to them that someone had come to seek the welfare of the sons of Israel.

Nehemiah Inspects Jerusalem’s Walls

11So I 18came to Jerusalem and was there three days. 12And I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. I did not tell anyone what my God was putting into my 19mind to do for Jerusalem and there was no animal with me except the animal on which I was riding. 13So I went out at night by 20the Valley Gate in the direction of the Dragon’s Well and on to the 21Refuse Gate, inspecting the walls of Jerusalem 22which were broken down and its 23gates which were consumed by fire. 14Then I passed on to 24the Fountain Gate and 25the King’s Pool, but there was no place for 26my mount to pass. 15So I went up at night by the 27ravine and inspected the wall. Then I entered the Valley Gate again and returned. 16The officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done; nor had I as yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials or the rest who did the work.

17Then I said to them, “You see the bad situation we are in, that 28Jerusalem is desolate and its gates burned by fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that we will no longer be a reproach.” 18I told them how the hand of my God had been favorable to me and also about the king’s words which he had spoken to me. Then they said, “Let us arise and build.” 29So they put their hands to the good work. 19But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite 30official, and 31Geshem the Arab heard it, 32they mocked us and despised us and said, “What is this thing you are doing? 33Are you rebelling against the king?” 20So I answered them and said to them, “34The God of heaven will give us success; therefore we His servants will arise and build, 35but you have no portion, right or memorial in Jerusalem.”