1And in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, wine was served; and I brought the wine, and gave it to the king. Now I had never before been sad in his presence. 2Therefore, the king asked me, “Why is your countenance sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing else but sadness of heart.” Then I was very much afraid, 3And I said to the king, “Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies waste, and its gates are consumed by fire?” 4Then the king said to me, “For what do you make request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5Then I said to the king, “If it please the king, and if I have found favor in your sight, I ask that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, that I may rebuild it.” 6And the king said to me (the queen also sitting by him), “For how long shall your absence be? And when will you return?” And after I gave him a time for my return, it pleased the king to send me. 7I also said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me for the governors beyond the Euphrates River, for safe passage until I get to Judah; 8And also 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 is near the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me all that I asked, because the gracious hand of my God was upon me.

9So when I came to the governors beyond the Euphrates, I gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent officers of the army and horsemen with me. 10But when Sanballat, the Horonite, and Tobiah, the Ammonite official, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that someone had come to help the children of Israel.

11Then I arrived at Jerusalem, and was there three days. 12And I arose in the night, I and a few men with me; nor did I tell anyone what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem; nor was there any donkeys with me, except the donkey that I rode on (to attract no attention). 13And I went out at night by the gate of the valley, toward the jackal's well, and to the dung gate, and inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down, and its gates destroyed by fire. 14Then I moved on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king's pool; but there was no place for my donkey to pass. 15So I went up the valley by night past the brook, inspecting the wall, and then returned, entering at the gate of the valley. 16And the officials did not know where I had gone, nor what I did; nor had I yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the rulers, nor the rest who would be doing the work. 17Then I said to them, “You see the distress we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are destroyed by fire. Come, and let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we are no more disgraced.” 18Then I told them how the hand of my God had favored me; and what the king had said to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and rebuild.” So they enthusiastically began this good work.

19But when Sanballat, the Horonite, Tobiah, the Ammonite official, and Geshem, the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and derided us, and said, “What is this that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?” 20Then I replied, “The God of heaven will prosper us; therefore we, His servants, will rise and build; but you have no share in Jerusalem - nor any historic right to it.”