2One day four months later, when Emperor Artaxerxes was dining, I took the wine to him. He had never seen me look sad before, ²so he asked, “Why are you looking so sad? You aren’t ill, so it must be that you’re unhappy.”

I was startled ³^*and answered, “May Your Majesty live for ever! How can I help looking sad when the city where my ancestors are buried is in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

⁴The emperor asked, “What is it that you want?”

I prayed to the God of Heaven, ⁵and then I said to the emperor, “If Your Majesty is pleased with me and is willing to grant my request, let me go to the land of Judah, to the city where my ancestors are buried, so that I can rebuild the city.”

⁶The emperor, with the empress sitting at his side, approved my request. He asked me how long I would be gone and when I would return, and I told him.

⁷Then I asked him to grant me the favour of giving me letters to the governors of West Euphrates Province,^c instructing them to let me travel to Judah. ⁸I asked also for a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal forests, instructing him to supply me with timber for the gates of the fort that guards the Temple, for the city walls, and for the house I was to live in. The emperor gave me all I asked for, because God was with me.

Read in Logos

Footnotes

cwest euphrates province: Under Persian rule the land of Israel was part of this large Persian province west of the River Euphrates.

Cross references

*2.3: 2 K 25:8–10; 2 Ch 36:19; Jr 52:12–14