Nehemiah 2

Nehemiah's Request to the King Nehemiah 2:3–5

³Verse 3. I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why shouldn’t my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates have been consumed with fire?” ⁴Verse 4. Then the king said to me, “What is your request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. ⁵Verse 5. I said to the king, “If it pleases 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’ tombs, that I may build it.”

King's Favor and Provision Nehemiah 2:6–8

⁶Verse 6. The king said to me (the queen was also sitting by him), “How long will your journey be? When will you return?”So it pleased the king to send me, and I set a time for him.⁷Verse 7. Moreover I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah;⁸Verse 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 citadel by the temple, for the wall of the city, and for the house that I will occupy.”The king granted my requests, because of the good hand of my God on me.

Arrival in Jerusalem Nehemiah 2:9–11

⁹Verse 9. Then I came to the governors beyond the River, and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. ¹⁰Verse 10. When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly, because a man had come to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. ¹¹Verse 11. So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.

Night Inspection of the Walls Nehemiah 2:12–16

¹²Verse 12. I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. I didn’t tell anyone what my God put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There wasn’t any animal with me, except the animal that I rode on. ¹³Verse 13. I went out by night by the valley gate, even toward the jackal’s well, then to the dung gate, and inspected the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and its gates were consumed with fire. ¹⁴Verse 14. Then I went on to the spring gate and to the king’s pool, but there was no place for the animal that was under me to pass.

¹⁵Verse 15. Then went I up in the night by the brook, and inspected the wall; and I turned back, and entered by the valley gate, and so returned. ¹⁶Verse 16. The rulers didn’t know where I went, or what I did. I had not 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.

Gathering the People Nehemiah 2:17–18

¹⁷Verse 17. Then I said to them, “You see the bad situation that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come, let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we won’t be disgraced.” ¹⁸Verse 18. I told them of the hand of my God which was good on me, as also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me. They said, “Let’s rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work.

Opposition and Assurance Nehemiah 2:19–20

¹⁹Verse 19. But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammontite servant, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they ridiculed us, and despised us, and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?” ²⁰Verse 20. Then I answered them, and said to them, “The God of heaven will prosper us. Therefore we, his servants, will arise and build; but you have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.”