⁵ And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.”

⁶ Then the king said to me (the queen also sitting beside him), “How long will your journey be? And when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him ^(A)a time.

⁷ Furthermore I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the ^(B)governors of the region beyond ^[a]the River, that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah, 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 ^[b]citadel which pertains ^(C)to the ^[c]temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy.” And the king granted them to me ^(D)according to the good hand of my God upon me.