Nehemiah 2:4-8
New American Standard Bible
4 Then the king said to me, “[a]What would you request?” (A)So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 Then I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, I request 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, with the queen sitting beside him, “How long will your journey be, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me, and (B)I gave him a definite time. 7 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me (C)for the governors of the provinces beyond the River, so that they will allow me to pass through until I come to Judah, 8 and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s (D)forest, so that he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of (E)the citadel which is by the [b]temple, for the wall of the city, and for the house to which I will go.” And the king granted them to me because (F)the good hand of my God was on me.
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- Nehemiah 2:4 Lit For what is this you
- Nehemiah 2:8 Lit house
Nehemiah 2:4-8
New English Translation
4 The king responded,[a] “What is it you are seeking?” Then I quickly prayed to the God of heaven 5 and said to the king, “If the king is so inclined[b] and if your servant has found favor in your sight, dispatch me to Judah, to the city with the graves of my ancestors, so that I can rebuild it.” 6 Then the king, with his consort[c] sitting beside him, replied, “How long would your trip take, and when would you return?” Since the king was pleased to send me,[d] I gave him a time. 7 I said to the king, “If the king is so inclined, let him give me letters for the governors of Trans-Euphrates[e] that will enable me to travel safely until I reach Judah, 8 and a letter for Asaph the keeper of the king’s nature preserve,[f] so that he will give me timber for beams for the gates of the fortress adjacent to the temple and for the city wall[g] and for the house to which I go.” So the king granted me these requests,[h] for the good hand of my God was on me.
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- Nehemiah 2:4 tn Heb “said to me.”
- Nehemiah 2:5 tn Heb “If upon the king it is good.” So also in v. 7.
- Nehemiah 2:6 tn Or “queen,” so most English versions (cf. HALOT 1415 s.v. שֵׁגַל); TEV “empress.”
- Nehemiah 2:6 tn Heb “It was good before the king and he sent me.”
- Nehemiah 2:7 tn Heb “beyond the river,” here and often elsewhere in the Book of Nehemiah.
- Nehemiah 2:8 tn Or “forest.” So HALOT 963 s.v. פַּרְדֵּס 2.
- Nehemiah 2:8 tc One medieval Hebrew ms, the Syriac Peshitta, Vulgate, and the Arabic read here the plural וּלְחוֹמוֹת (ulekhomot, “walls”) against the singular וּלְחוֹמַת (ulekhomat) in the MT. The plural holem vav (וֹ) might have dropped out due to dittography or the plural form might have been written defectively.
- Nehemiah 2:8 tn The Hebrew text does not include the expression “these requests,” but it is implied.
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