| Chapter
2 |
| 1 | And 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 unto the king.
Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. |
|
2 | Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy
countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of
heart. Then I was very sore afraid, |
|
3 | And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should
not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres,
lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? |
| 4 | Then the king said unto me, For what
dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. |
| 5 | And I said unto the king, If it please
the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest
send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build
it. |
| 6 | And the king said
unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be?
and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a
time. |
| 7 | Moreover I said
unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors
beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah; |
| 8 | And a letter unto Asaph the
keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the
gates of the palace which appertained 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. |
| 9 | Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave
them the king's letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and
horsemen with me. |
| 10 |
When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it,
it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of
the children of Israel. |
| 11 |
So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days. |
| 12 | And I arose in the night, I and some
few men with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do
at Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode
upon. |
| 13 | And I went out
by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the
dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the
gates thereof were consumed with fire. |
| 14 | Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the
king's pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to
pass. |
| 15 | Then went I up
in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by
the gate of the valley, and so returned. |
| 16 | And the rulers knew not whither I went, or what I did;
neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the
nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work. |
| 17 | Then said I unto them, Ye see the
distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are
burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be
no more a reproach. |
| 18 |
Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the
king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and
build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work. |
| 19 | But when Sanballat the Horonite, and
Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they
laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do?
will ye rebel against the king? |
|
20 | Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he
will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but ye have no
portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem. |
