Nehemiah 1:1-3

Contemporary English Version

Nehemiah's Prayer

1 I am Nehemiah son of Hacaliah, and in this book I tell what I have done.

During the month of Chislev^[a] in the twentieth year that Artaxerxes^[b] ruled Persia, I was in his fortress city of Susa,^{[c] 2} when my brother Hanani came with some men from Judah. So I asked them about the Jews who had escaped^[d] from being captives in Babylonia. I also asked them about the city of Jerusalem.

³ They told me, “Those captives who have come back are having all kinds of troubles. They are terribly disgraced, Jerusalem's walls are broken down, and its gates have been burned.”