Nehemiah 2:1-8

International Standard Version

Nehemiah’s Conversation with the King

2 It came about in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, during the month of Nissan, the king was about to drink some wine that I was preparing for him.^[a] Now I had never looked troubled in his presence.

² The king asked me, “Why do you look so troubled, since you’re not ill? This cannot be anything else but troubles of the heart.”

Then I was filled with fear. ³ I replied to the king, “May the king live forever. Why shouldn’t I be troubled, since the city where my ancestral sepulchers are located lies waste, with its gates burned by fire?”

⁴ The king answered, “What do you want?”

So I prayed to the God of heaven ⁵ and I replied to the king, “If it seems good to you, and if your servant has found favor with you, would you send me to Judah, to the city where my ancestral sepulchers are located, so I can rebuild it?”

⁶ With his queen seated beside him, the king asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you return?” The king thought it was a good idea^[b] to send me, so I presented him with a prepared plan.^[c]

⁷ I also asked the king, “If it seems good to you, order that letters of authorization be given me for the Trans-Euphrates^[d] governors, so they will allow me to pass through to Judah, ⁸ along with a letter to Asaph, the royal Commissioner of Forests, so that he will supply me with timber to craft beams for the gatehouses of the Temple, for the city walls, and for the house in which I will be living.”

The king granted this for me, according to the good hand of my God.