Neh 2
1
And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the
king: that wine was before him, and I took up the wine, and gave it to the king: and
I was as one languishing away before his face.
2
And the king said to me: Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou dost not appear to
be sick? this is not without cause, but some evil, I know not what, is in thy heart.
And I was seized with an exceeding great fear:
3
And I said to the king: O king, live for ever: why should not my countenance be sorrowful,
seeing the city of the place of the sepulchres of my fathers is desolate, and the
gates thereof are burnt with fire?
4
Then the king said to me: For what dost thou make request? And I prayed to the God
of heaven,
5
And I said to the king: If it seem good to the king, and if thy servant hath found
favour in thy sight, that thou wouldst send me into Judea to the city of the sepulchre
of my father, and I will build it.
6
And the king said to me, and the queen that sat by him: For how long shall thy journey
be, and when wilt thou return? And it pleased the king, and he sent me: and I fixed
him a time.
7
And I said to the king: If it seem good to the king, let him give me letters to the
governors of the country beyond the river, that they convey me over, till I come into
Judea:
8
And a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, to give me timber that I may
cover the gates of the tower of the house, and the walls of the city, and the house
that I shall enter into. And the king gave me according to the good hand of my God
with me.
9
And I came to the governors of the country beyond the river, and gave them the king's
letters. And the king had sent wish me captains of soldiers, and horsemen.
10
And Sanaballat the Horonite, and Tobias the servant, the Ammonite, heard it, and it
grieved them exceedingly, that a man was come, who sought the prosperity of the children
of Israel.
11
And I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.
12
And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me, and I told not any man what
God had put in my heart to do in Jerusalem, and there was no beast with me, but the
beast that I rode upon.
13
And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, and before the dragon fountain,
and to the dung gate, and I viewed the wall of Jerusalem which was broken down, and
the gates thereof which were consumed with fire.
14
And I passed to the gate of the fountain, and to the king's aqueduct, and there was
no place for the beast on which I rode to pass.
15
And I went up in the night by the torrent, and viewed the wall, and going back I came
to the gate of the valley, and returned.
16
But the magistrates knew not whither I went, or what I did: neither had I as yet told
any thing to the Jews, or to the priests, or to the nobles, or to the magistrates,
or to the rest that did the work.
17
Then I said to them: You know the affliction wherein we are, because Jerusalem is
desolate, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire: come, and let us build up
the walls of Jerusalem, and let us be no longer a reproach.
18
And I shewed them how the hand of my God was good with me, and the king's words, which
he had spoken to me, and I said: Let us rise up, and build. And their hands were strengthened
in good.
19
But Sanaballat the Horonite, and Tobias the servant, the Ammonite, and Gossem the
Arabian heard of it, and they scoffed at us, and despised us, and said: What is this
thing that you do? are you going to rebel against the king?
20
And I answered them, and said to them: The God of heaven he helpeth us, and we are
his servants: let us rise up and build: but you have no part, nor justice, nor remembrance
in Jerusalem.