Nehemiah 2:5-8

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 1I gave him a definite time. 7And I said to the king, “If it please the king, let letters be given me 2for 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 3forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of 4the fortress which is by the 5temple, for the wall of the city and for the house to which I will go.” And the king granted them to me because 6the good hand of my God was on me.