1 In the month of Nisan, in King Artaxerxes' twentieth year, when wine was set before him, I took the wine and handed it to the king. I had never before looked sad in his presence.
2 The king asked me, "Why do you look so sad when you are not ill? This can only be sadness of heart." I was terribly afraid,
3 but I told the king, "May the king live forever! How can I help looking sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins and its gates have been burned down?"
4 The king asked me, "What is it you want?" Then I prayed to the God of heaven
5 and answered the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has pleased you, send me to Judah, to the city where my fathers are buried, so I can rebuild it."
6 The king, with the queen seated beside him, asked me, "How long will you be gone, and when will you come back?" The king was pleased to send me, and I gave him a set time.
7 I also said to the king, "If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of the province Beyond the River, so they will grant me safe passage until I reach Judah,
8 and a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king's forest, so he will give me timber for beams for the gates of the fortress beside the temple, for the city wall, and for the house I will live in." The king granted my requests, because the good hand of my God was upon me.
9 So I went to the governors of the province Beyond the River and handed them the king's letters. The king had also sent army officers and horsemen with me.
10 When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much upset that someone had come to promote the welfare of the children of Israel.
11 I arrived in Jerusalem, and after I had been there three days,
12 I got up during the night with a few men. I had told no one what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. The only animal with me was the one I was riding.
13 By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Dragon Spring and the Dung Gate, inspecting the walls of Jerusalem, which had been torn down, and its gates, which had been burned.
14 Then I moved on to the Fountain Gate and the King's Pool, but there was not enough room for the animal I was riding to get through.
15 So I went up the valley by night, inspecting the wall. Then I turned back and came in again through the Valley Gate.
16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because I had not yet said anything to the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the others who would be doing the work.
17 Then I told them, "You see the trouble we are in, with Jerusalem lying in ruins and its gates burned. Come, let us rebuild Jerusalem's wall, and we will no longer be a disgrace."
18 I told them how the hand of my God had been good to me and what the king had said to me. They replied, "Let us get up and build!" So they put their hands to the good work.
19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they laughed at us and ridiculed us. "What are you doing?" they asked. "Are you rebelling against the king?"
20 I answered them, "The God of heaven will make us succeed. We his servants will get up and build, but you have no share, no claim, and no memorial in Jerusalem."