Nehemiah 2:12-18 ▼

12 And I arose in the night, I and a few men with me, and I did not tell to a man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem, there was no beast with me for but the beast that I was riding upon.

13 And I went out through the Gate of the Valley by night, and to the front of the Well of the Serpent, and to the Gate of the Dunghill. And I was inspecting the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down, and its gates that had been consumed with the fire.

14 And I went on to the Gate of the Fountain and to the Pool of the King, and there was no place for the beast under me to pass over.

15 And I went up by the valley by night, and I was inspecting the wall, and I turned back and came in through the Gate of the Valley, and I returned.

16 And the prefects did not know where I had gone or what I had done. And to the Jews, and to the priests, and to the freemen, and to the prefects, and to the rest of those doing the work, even yet I had not told it.

17 And I said to them, “You? see the distress that we are in—that Jerusalem is waste and its gates are burned with the fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may not be anymore a reproach.”

18 And I told them of the hand of my God that was good upon me, and also of the words of the king that he had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” And they strengthened their hands for good.