Nehemiah Sent to Judah

2 In the month of Nisan, ^(A)in the twentieth year of King ^(B)Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, ^(C)I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence.

³ I said to the king, ^(A)“Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, ^(B)when the city, the place of my fathers' graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

⁸ and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of ^(A)the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, ^(B)for the good hand of my God was upon me.