¹¹ O Lord, ^(A)let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”

Now I was ^(B)cupbearer to the king.

^6 (A)let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, ^(B)confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even ^(C)I and my father's house have sinned.

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.

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.

^18 (A)Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.

⁶ this Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe ^(A)skilled in the Law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given, and the king granted him all that he asked, ^(B)for the hand of the Lord his God was on him.

^27 (A)Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, ^(B)who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem, ^28 (C)and who extended to me his steadfast love before the king and his counselors, and before all the king's mighty officers. I took courage, for the hand of the Lord my God was on me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.