Nehemiah 02 Artaxerxes Allows Nehemiah to Go to Jerusalem and Build the Wall

 Nehemiah 02

Artaxerxes Allows Nehemiah to Go to Jerusalem and Build the Wall

1 Now it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, that wine was before him; and I took up the wine, and gave it to the king: but before I had never been sad before him.

2 And the king said to me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? This is but sorrow of heart. Then I was greatly afraid.

3 And I said to the king, May the king live forever: how should not my countenance be sad, seeing the city, the place of my fathers' graves, laid waste, and its gates consumed with fire?

4 And the king said to me, What askest thou of me now? Then I prayed to the God of heaven, 

5 and said to the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant is accepted in your sight, please send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, so that I may rebuild it."

 6 The king said to me, while the queen was sitting beside him, "How long will your journey be, and when will you return?" And it pleased the king to send me, and I appointed him a set time. 

7 I also said to the king, "If it pleases the king, let letters be given to the governors beyond the River, that they may give me passage until I come to Judah; 

8 and a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king's garden, that he may give me timber to cover the gates of the palace and for the wall of the city and for the house that I shall enter." So the king gave it to me, according to the good hand of God upon me. 

9 Then I came to the governors beyond the River and gave them the king's letters, and the king had sent with me commanders of the army and horsemen.

10 When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard of it, they were very displeased that someone had come to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.

11 So I came to Jerusalem and stayed there three days.

12 And I got up at night, I and a few men with me, and I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do in Jerusalem. And there was no animal with me except the one I rode on.

13 So I went out at night through the Valley Gate to the Dragon's Well and to the Dung Gate, and I saw the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that had been consumed by fire.

14 And I passed by the Fountain Gate and the king's pool. and there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass.

15 So I went up by night by the brook, and looked at the wall; and I turned back, and entered by the valley gate, and so returned.

16 But the magistrates knew not whither I went, nor what I did: for up to that time neither the Jews, nor the nobles, nor the magistrates, nor any others that did the work, had told them anything.

17 Then I said unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth in desolation, and her gates have been burned with fire: come, therefore, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no more be in reproach.

18 Then I told them how the hand of my God was upon me, and the words of the king which he had spoken unto me. Then they said, Let us arise and build. And they strengthened their hands for good.

19 Then I told them that the hand of my God was upon me, and that the king had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us arise and build. And they set their hands to do good.  When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard of it, they mocked us and despised us. They said, “What are you doing? Do you want to rebel against the king?” 

20 Then I answered them, “The God of heaven will prosper us, and we his servants will arise and build. But you have no portion, no right, no memory in Jerusalem.”