¹And it was in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before his face, and I lifted up the wine and set it before the king; and I had not been sad before his face.

²And the king said to me, Why is your face sad, when you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart. And I was very, very afraid.

³And I said to the king, May the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the house of my fathers' tombs is desolate, and its gates have been consumed by fire?

⁴And the king said to me, Over what do you search? And I prayed to the God of the heavens.

⁵And I said to the king, If it is good for the king, and if your slave is pleasing before your face, that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, and I will rebuild it.

⁶And the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, How long will your journey be, and when will you return? And it was pleasing before the face of the king, and he sent me; and I set him an appointed time.

⁷And I said to the king, If it is good for the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of the region beyond the River, so that they will let me cross over until I come to Judah;

⁸and a letter to Asaph, keeper of the preserve which is the king's, so that he will give me wood to make beams for the gates of the citadel which belongs to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house which I will enter it. And the king gave me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

⁹And I went to the governors of the region beyond the River, and gave them the letters of the king. And the king had sent with me officials of the army and horsemen.

¹⁰And Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the slave, the Ammonite heard, and it displeased them with great displeasure that someone had come to seek the good of the children of Israel.

¹¹And I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.

¹²And I rose by night, I and a few men with me. And I did not tell anyone what my God was putting into my heart to do for Jerusalem. And no animal was with me, except the animal that I was riding on it.

¹³And I went out by the gate of the valley at night, and toward the face of the Spring of Dragons and to the gate of the ash heap. And I was examining the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and its gates had been consumed by fire.

¹⁴And I passed on to the gate of the Spring, and to the pool of the king, but there was no room for the animal beneath me to pass through.

¹⁵And I was going up in the wadi by night, and was examining the wall; then I turned back and entered by the gate of the valley, and so I returned.

¹⁶And the officials did not know where I had gone, or what I was doing; and to the Jews, and to the priests, and to the nobles, and to the officials, and to the rest of those doing the work, until then I had not told.

¹⁷And I said to them, You see the misery in which we are, how Jerusalem is desolate, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we will no longer be a reproach.

¹⁸And I told them about the hand of my God, how it was good upon me, and also the words of the king which he had spoken to me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. And they strengthened their hands for the good.

¹⁹And Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the slave, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arab heard, and they mocked us and despised us, and said, What is this word that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?

²⁰And I returned them word, and I said to them, The God of the heavens, he will make us succeed, and we his slaves will rise and build; and to you there is no portion and righteousness and memorial in Jerusalem.