Nehemiah 2:1-11

Legacy Standard Bible

God’s Hand Was on Nehemiah

2 Now it happened in the month Nisan, ^(A)in the twentieth year of King ^(B)Artaxerxes, that wine was before him, and ^(C)I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. ² So the king said to me, “Why is your face sad though you are not sick? ^(D)This is nothing but sadness of heart.” Then I was very much afraid. ³ I said to the king, “^(E)Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad ^(F)when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste and its gates have been consumed by fire?” ⁴ Then the king said to me, “What would you request?” ^(G)So I prayed to the God of heaven. ⁵ I said to the king, “If it is good for the king, and if your servant is good before 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 sitting beside him, “How long will your journey be, and when will you return?” So it was good to the king to send me, and ^(H)I gave him a set time. ⁷ And I said to the king, “If it is good to the king, let letters be given me ^(I)for the governors of the provinces beyond the ^[a]River, that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah, ⁸ and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s ^(J)forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of ^(K)the fortress which is by the house of God, for the wall of the city and for the house to which I will go.” And the king granted them to me because ^(L)the good hand of my God was on me.

⁹ Then I came to ^(M)the governors of the provinces beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. Now ^(N)the king had sent with me commanders of the military force and horsemen. ¹⁰ Then ^(O)Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite ^[b]official heard about it, and it was a very great evil to them that someone had come to seek the good of the sons of Israel.

Nehemiah Inspects Jerusalem’s Walls

¹¹ So I ^(P)came to Jerusalem and was there three days.