Nehemiah 2:1–8

Nehemiah Sent to Judah

2And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of ^aKing ¹Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that ^bI took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before. ²Therefore the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but ^csorrow of heart.”

So I became ²dreadfully afraid, ³and said to the king, ^d“May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when ^ethe city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with ^ffire?”

⁴Then the king said to me, “What do you request?”

So I ^gprayed to the God of heaven. ⁵And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.”

⁶Then the king said to me (the queen also sitting beside him), “How long will your journey be? And when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him ^ha time.

⁷Furthermore I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the ⁱgovernors of the region beyond ³the River, that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah, ⁸and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the ⁴citadel which pertains ^jto the ⁵temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy.” And the king granted them to me ^kaccording to the good hand of my God upon me.