²⁸ and ^(A)has extended mercy to me before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty princes.

So I was encouraged, as ^(B)the hand of the Lord my God was upon me; and I gathered leading men of Israel to go up with me.

^9 (A)For we were slaves. ^(B)Yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage; but ^(C)He extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us, to repair the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give us ^(D)a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.

The Lord Is Faithful

^17 (A)But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, ^(B)so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered ^(C)out of the mouth of the lion. ^18 (D)And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. ^(E)To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!

⁸ and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the ^[a]citadel which pertains ^(A)to the ^[b]temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy.” And the king granted them to me ^(B)according to the good hand of my God upon me.

⁵ But ^(A)the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, so that they could not make them cease till a report could go to Darius. Then a ^(B)written answer was returned concerning this matter.

¹⁸ Then, by the good hand of our God upon us, they ^(A)brought us a man of understanding, of the sons of Mahli the son of Levi, the son of Israel, namely Sherebiah, with his sons and brothers, eighteen men;

^7 (A)And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his ^[a]nobles, saying,

¹¹ O Lord, I pray, please ^(A)let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who ^(B)desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”

For I was the king’s ^(C)cupbearer.