Nehemiah’s Prayer Answered

2 And it came about in the month Nisan, ^(A)in the twentieth year of King ^(B)Artaxerxes, that wine was before him, and ^(C)I picked up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. ² So the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, though you are not ill? ^(D)This is nothing but sadness of heart.” Then I was very much afraid. ³ And I said to the king, “^(E)May the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad ^(F)when the city, the ^[a]site of my fathers’ tombs, is desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?” ⁴ Then the king said to me, “^[b]What would you request?” ^(G)So I prayed to the God of heaven. ⁵ Then I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, I request that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.” ⁶ Then the king said to me, with the queen sitting beside him, “How long will your journey be, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me, and ^(H)I gave him a definite time. ⁷ And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me ^(I)for the governors of the provinces beyond the River, so that they will allow me to pass through until I come to Judah, ⁸ and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s ^(J)forest, so that he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of ^(K)the citadel which is by the ^[c]temple, for the wall of the city, and for the house to which I will go.” And the king granted them to me because ^(L)the good hand of my God was on me.

⁹ Then I came to ^(M)the governors of the provinces beyond the Euphrates River and gave them the king’s letters. Now ^(N)the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen.