yed
by fire?' And then the king said to me, 'For what do you make request? So
I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, 'If it please the
king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you would
send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may
rebuild it.' And the king said to me (and the queen was also sitting by
him), 'For how long will your journey be? And when will you return?' Then
it pleased the king to send me; for I set him a time. Moreover I said to
the king, 'If it please the king, let official letters be given me to the
governors of the province beyond the River, that they may let me pass
through until I come to Judah, and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the
king's park, that he may give me the timber to make beams for the gates of
the castle, which belongs to the temple, and for the wall of the city, and
for the house that I shall enter. And the king granted me this, according
to the hand of my God which kindly cared for me.

[Sidenote: Neh. 2:9-16]
Then I came to the governors of the province beyond the River, and gave
them the king's official letters. Now the king had sent with me military
officers and horsemen. And when Sanballat, the Horonite, and Tobiah, the
Ammonite slave, heard of it, it troubled them exceedingly, that one had
come to seek the welfare of the Israelites. So I came to Jerusalem and was
there three days. And I arose in the night, together with a few of my
followers, and I told no man what my God had put into my heart to do for
Jerusalem, neither was there any beast with me, except the beast upon
which I rode. And I went out by night through the Valley Gate, toward the
Dragon's Well and to the Dung Gate, and investigated carefully the walls
of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and where its gates had been
destroyed by fire. Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King's
Pool, but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass. Then
I went up in the night by the Brook Kidron and investigated carefully the
wall; then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned.
And the rulers did not know where I went or what I did, neither had I as
yet told it to the Jews nor to the priests nor to the nobles nor to the
rulers nor to the rest who did the work.

[Sidenote: Neh. 2:17-20]
Then I said to them, 'You see the bad condition in which we are, how
Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates are destroyed by fire. Come and