asked them concerning the Jews who had
escaped, who were left from the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And
they said to me, The survivors who are left from the captivity there in
the provinces are in great misfortune and reproach, and the wall of
Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been destroyed by fire.

[Sidenote: Neh. 1:4-11b]
Now when I heard these statements I sat down and wept, and mourned certain
days; and I fasted and made supplication before the God of heaven, and I
said, 'I beseech thee, O Jehovah, the God of heaven, the great and
terrible God, who keepeth the covenant and showeth kindness to them who
love and keep his commands; let thine ears now be attentive and thine eyes
open, to hear the supplication of thy servant, which I am now making
before thee, day and night, for the Israelites thy servants, while I
confess the sins of the Israelites, which we have sinned against thee, as
I also and my father's house have sinned. We have dealt very wickedly
against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor
the ordinances, which thou didst command thy servant Moses. Remember, I
beseech thee, the word which thou didst command thy servant Moses, saying,
"If ye trespass I will scatter you abroad among the peoples; but if ye
return to me, and keep my commands and do them, then, though your outcasts
were at the ends of the earth, yet will I gather them thence and will
bring them to the place that I have chosen, there to cause my name to
dwell." Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed
by thy great power and by thy strong hand. O Lord, I beseech thee, let
thine ear be attentive to the supplication of thy servant, and to the
supplications of thy servants, who delight to fear thy name; and give
success to thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this
man.

[Sidenote: Neh. 1:11c-2:8]
Now I was cupbearer to the king. And it came to pass in the month of
Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, when I had charge of
the wine, that I took up the wine and gave it to the king, and I had not
beforetime been sad. And the king said to me, 'Why is your countenance
sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart.'
Then I was greatly afraid, and I said to the king, 'Let the king live
forever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of
my fathers' sepulchres, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destro