Nehemiah 2

Nehemiah Chapter 2 ESV

1Artaxerxes, understanding the cause of Nehemiah's sadness sendeth him with letters and a commission to build the wall of Jerusalem. 9Nehemiah delivereth the letters, and to the grief of the enemies of the Jews cometh to Jerusalem. 12He vieweth the state of the walls secretly by night. 17He encourageth the Jews to build in spite of the scorn of their enemies.
1 In the month of Nisan, 1in the twentieth year of King 2Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, 3I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence.
2 And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but 1sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid.
3 I said to the king, 1“Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, 2when the city, the place of my fathers' graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”
4 Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed 1to the God of heaven.
5 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' graves, that I may rebuild it.”
6 And the king said to me (1the queen sitting beside him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me 2when I had given him a time.
7 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me 1to the governors of the province 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 1the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, 2for the good hand of my God was upon me.
9 Then I came to 1the governors of the province Beyond the River and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen.
10 But when 1Sanballat the Horonite and 2Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.
11 1So I went to Jerusalem and was there three days.
12 Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. And I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no animal with me but the one on which I rode.
13 I went out by night by 1the Valley Gate to the Dragon Spring and to 2the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem 3that were broken down 4and its gates that had been destroyed by fire.
14 Then I went on to 1the Fountain Gate and to 2the King's Pool, but there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass.
15 Then I went up in the night 1by the valley and inspected the wall, and I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned.
16 And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, and I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work.
17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, 1how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer 2suffer derision.”
18 And I told them 1of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” 2So they strengthened their hands for the good work.
19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and 1Geshem the Arab heard of it, 2they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? 3Are you rebelling against the king?”
20 Then I replied to them, 1“The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claima in Jerusalem.”
Nehemiah 2

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