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NE-2:1 And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth
year of Artaxerxes the king, [that] wine [was] before him: and I
took up the wine, and gave [it] unto the king. Now I had not
been [beforetime] sad in his presence.
NE-2:2 Wherefore the king said unto me, Why [is] thy countenance
sad, seeing thou [art] not sick? this [is] nothing [else] but
sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid,
NE-2:3 And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why
should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my
fathers' sepulchres, [lieth] waste, and the gates thereof are
consumed with fire?
NE-2:4 Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make
request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.
NE-2:5 And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if
thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest
send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres,
that I may build it.
NE-2:6 And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,
) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return?
So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.
NE-2:7 Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let
letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they
may convey me over till I come into Judah;
NE-2:8 And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's forest,
that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the
palace which [appertained] to the house, and for the wall of the
city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king
granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
NE-2:9 Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave
them the king's letters. Now the king had sent captains of the
army and horsemen with me.
NE-2:10 When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the
Ammonite, heard [of it], it grieved them exceedingly that there
was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.
NE-2:11 So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.
NE-2:12 And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me;
neither told I [any] man what my God had put in my heart to do
at Jerusalem: neither [was there any] beast with me, save the
beast that I rode upon.
NE-2:13 And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even
before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the
walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates
thereof were consumed with fire.
NE-2:14 Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the
king's pool: but [there was] no place for the beast [that was]
under me to pass.
NE-2:15 Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the
wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley,
and [so] returned.
NE-2:16 And the rulers knew not whither 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 that did
the work.
NE-2:17 Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we [are]
in, how Jerusalem [lieth] waste, and the gates thereof are
burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of
Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. NE-2:18 Then I told
them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the
king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us
rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for [this]
good [work].
NE-2:19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant,
the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard [it], they laughed
us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What [is] this thing
that ye do? will ye rebel against the king?
NE-2:20 Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of
heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise
and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in
Jerusalem.
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