⁶ The king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked, “How long will you be gone? When will you return?” After I told him how long I would be gone, the king agreed to my request.

⁶ I was not in Jerusalem at that time, for I had returned to King Artaxerxes of Babylon in the thirty-second year of his reign,^[a] though I later asked his permission to return.

¹⁴ For the entire twelve years that I was governor of Judah—from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of the reign of King Artaxerxes^[a]—neither I nor my officials drew on our official food allowance.

⁴ The king asked, “Well, how can I help you?”

With a prayer to the God of heaven,

In those days I was the king’s cup-bearer.