| 1 | And it cometh to pass, in the month of Nisan, the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, wine [is] before him, and I lift up the wine, and give to the king, and I had not been sad before him; |
| 2 | and the king saith to me, `Wherefore [is] thy face sad, and thou not sick? this is nothing except sadness of heart;` and I fear very much, |
| 3 | and say to the king, `Let the king to the age live! wherefore should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of the graves of my fathers, [is] a waste, and its gates have been consumed with fire?` |
| 4 | And the king saith to me, `For what art thou seeking?` and I pray unto the God of the heavens, |
| 5 | and say to the king, `If to the king [it be] good, and if thy servant be pleasing before thee, that thou send me unto Judah, unto the city of the graves of my fathers, and I built it.` |
| 6 | And the king saith to me (and the queen is sitting near him), `How long is thy journey? and when dost thou return?` and it is good before the king, and he sendeth me away, and I set to him a time. |
| 7 | And I say to the king, `If to the king [it be] good, letters let be given to me for the governors beyond the River, that they let me pass over till that I come in unto Judah: |
| 8 | and a letter unto Asaph, keeper of the paradise that the king hath, that he give to me trees for beams [for] the gates of the palace that the house hath, and for the wall of the city, and for the house into which I enter;` and the king giveth to me, according to the good hand of my God upon me. |
| 9 | And I come in unto the governors beyond the River, and give to them the letters of the king; and the king sendeth with me heads of a force, and horsemen; |
| 10 | and Sanballat the Horonite heareth, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and it is evil to them -- a great evil -- that a man hath come in to seek good for the sons of Israel. |
| 11 | And I come in unto Jerusalem, and I am there three days, |
| 12 | and I rise by night, I and a few men with me, and have not declared to a man what my God is giving unto my heart to do for Jerusalem, and there is no beast with me except the beast on which I am riding. |
| 13 | And I go out through the gate of the valley by night, and unto the front of the fountain of the dragon, and unto the gate of the dunghill, and I am measuring about the walls of Jerusalem, that are broken down, and its gates consumed with fire. |
| 14 | And I pass over unto the gate of the fountain, and unto the pool of the king, and there is no place for the beast under me to pass over, |
| 15 | and I am going up through the brook by night, and am measuring about the wall, and turn back, and come in through the gate of the valley, and turn back. |
| 16 | And the prefects have not known whither I have gone, and what I am doing; and to the Jews, and to the priests, and to the freemen, and to the prefects, and to the rest of those doing the work, hitherto I have not declared [it]; |
| 17 | and I say unto them, `Ye are seeing the evil that we are in, in that Jerusalem [is] waste, and its gates have been burnt with fire; come and we build the wall of Jerusalem, and we are not any more a reproach.` |
| 18 | And I declare to them the hand of my God that is good upon me, and also the words of the king that he said to me, and they say, `Let us rise, and we have built;` and they strengthen their hands for good. |
| 19 | And Sanballat the Horonite heareth, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, and they mock at us, and despise us, and say, `What [is] this thing that ye are doing? against the king are ye rebelling?` |
| 20 | And I return them word, and say to them, `The God of the heavens -- He doth give prosperity to us, and we His servants rise and have built; and to you there is no portion, and right, and memorial in Jerusalem.` |
