1 It happened in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of
Artaxerxes the king, when wine was before him, that I took up the wine, and
gave it to the king. Now I had not been before sad in his presence.
2 The king said to me, Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? this
is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid. 3 I said
to the king, Let the king live forever: why should not my face be sad, when
the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and the gates of it are
consumed with fire? 4 Then the king said to me, For what do you make
request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 I said to the king, If it
please the king, and if your servant have found favor in your sight, that you
would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may build
it. 6 The king said to me (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long
shall your journey be? and when will you return? So it pleased the king to
send me; and I set him a time. 7 Moreover I said to the king, If it please
the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the River, that
they may let me pass through until I come to Judah; 8 and a letter to
Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make
beams for the gates of the castle which appertains to the house, and for the
wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. The king granted
me, according to the good hand of my God on me. 9 Then 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. 10 When Sanballat the
Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them
exceedingly, because a man had come to seek the welfare of the children of
Israel. 11 So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days. 12 I arose
in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God
put into my heart to do for Jerusalem; neither was there any animal with me,
except the animal that I rode on. 13 I went out by night by the valley
gate, even toward the jackal’s well, and to the dung gate, and viewed the
walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates of it were consumed
with fire. 14 Then I went on to the spring gate and to the king’s pool:
but there was no place for the animal that was under me to pass. 15 Then
went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall; and I turned back,
and entered by the valley gate, and so returned. 16 The rulers didn’t know
where I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to
the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest who did
the work. 17 Then said I to them, You see the evil case that we are
in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and the gates of it are burned with fire: come,
and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.
18 I told them of the hand of my God which was good on me, as also of the
king’s words that he had spoken to me. They said, Let us rise up and build.
So they strengthened their hands for the good work. 19 But when
Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the
Arabian, heard it, they ridiculed us, and despised us, and said, What is this
thing that you do? will you rebel against the king? 20 Then
answered I them, and said to them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us;
therefore we his servants will arise and build: but you have no portion,
nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.
World English Bible - Public Domain |
|
|