2:1  And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, that wine stood before him and I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not looked sad in his presence.

2:2  So the king said to me, "Why does your face appear sad though you don't seem sick? This could represent nothing but sadness of heart." Then I felt very much afraid.

2:3  I said to the king, "Let the king live forever Why should my face not appear sad when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies desolate and its gates have burned in the fire?"

2:4  Then the king said to me, "What would you request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven.

2:5  I said to the king, "If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, that I may rebuild it."

2:6  Then the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, "How long will your journey take, and when will you return?" So it pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a definite time.

2:7  And I said to the king, "If it please the king, let you give me letters for the governors of the provinces beyond the River, that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah,

2:8  and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress which locates by the temple, for the wall of the city and for the house to which I will go" And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God rested on me.

2:9  Then I came to the governors of the provinces beyond the River and gave them the king's letters Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen.

2:10  When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about it, it displeased them that someone had come to seek the welfare of the sons of Israel.

2:11  So I came to Jerusalem and remained there three days.

2:12  And I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. I did not tell anyone what my God had put into my mind to do for Jerusalem and I had no animal with me except the animal on which I rode.

2:13  So I went out at night by the Valley Gate in the direction of the Dragon's Well and on to the Refuse Gate, inspecting the walls of Jerusalem which had broken down and its gates had burned in the fire.

2:14  Then I passed on to the Fountain Gate and the King's Pool, but I could find no place for my mount to pass.

2:15  So I went up at night by the ravine and inspected the wall. Then I entered the Valley Gate again and returned.

2:16  The officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done; nor had I as yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials or the rest who did the work.

2:17  Then I said to them, "You see the bad situation we find ourselves in, that Jerusalem has become desolate and its gates burned by fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that we will no longer seem a reproach."

2:18  I told them how the hand of my God had proved favorable to me and also about the king's words which he had spoken to me. Then they said, "Let us arise and build." So they put their hands to the good work.

2:19  But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard it, they mocked us and despised us and said, "What thing do you do? Do you rebel against the king?"

2:20  So I answered them and said to them, "The God of heaven will give us success; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no portion, right or memorial in Jerusalem."