Nehemiah 2:1–8

¹And 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 to the king. Now, I had never been sad in his presence. ²And the king said to me, Why is thy face sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sadness of heart. And I was very sore afraid. ³And I said to the king, Let the king live for ever! Why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lies waste, and its gates are consumed with fire? ⁴And the king said to me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of the heavens. ⁵And I said to the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it. ⁶And the king said to me—the queen also sitting by him, —For how long shall thy journey be, and when wilt thou return? And it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time. ⁷And I said to the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may set me forward till I come into Judah; ⁸and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertains 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.