Books: Nehemiah - Bible Claret

The Journey

In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, I was doing my duty as a cupbearer. I took up the wine and gave it to the king. I had never been sad before the king.

The king asked me:

“Why do you look sad? You don’t look sick. Is there something that bothers you?”

I became hesitant.

And I said:

“May the king live forever! How could I afford not to be sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins and its gates are burned down?”

The king said to me:

“What do you want, then?” I asked for the help of God from heaven, and

said to the king, “If it seems good to the king and if he is pleased with my work, then may he send me to the land of Judah, to the city where my ancestors are buried, that I may rebuild it.”

The queen sat beside the king, and the king asked me:

“How long will you be gone? When will you be back?”

I told him the date, and he allowed me to leave.

And I said to the king:

“If it pleases the king, may you give me letters for the governors of the province at the other side of the River that I may travel to Judah;

and also a letter to Asaph, the caretaker of the king’s forest, for I will need wood for the gates of the citadel near the temple, for the walls of the city and for the house where I shall live.”

The good hand of God supported me so that the king could give me what I asked for.

I went to the governors on the other side of the River and delivered the king’s letters to them. The king had ordered that army officers and horsemen accompany me.

But Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah, the Ammonite officer, came to know of my arrival, and it displeased them that someone had come to help the Israelites.

I arrived in Jerusalem and stayed there for three days.

Then I got up at night, accompanied by a few men, without telling anyone what my God had inspired me to do or what I planned to do in Jerusalem. Bringing only the horse I rode on,

I went out at night through the Gate of the Garbage Dump and examined the ruined wall of Jerusalem and the burned gates.

I moved on to the Fountain Gate and the King’s Reservoir, but my horse couldn’t pass through anywhere.

So I climbed the ravine at night. I inspected the wall and then turned back, entering through the Valley Gate.

So I returned to the house.

The counselors did not know where I had been or what I had been doing. Until that time, I had not yet told any of the Jews, the counselors, the priests, the nobles, or anyone in public office.

Then I said to them:

You yourselves see the misery we’re facing because Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates are burned. Come, let us rebuild Jerusalem’s walls and end this humiliating situation.

And I recounted to them how the good hand of God had helped me and what the king had told me. Everyone said:

“Let us begin the work.”

And they encouraged one another to make this good work a reality.

Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite officer, and Geshem the Arab heard of this. They laughed at us and came to tell us:

“What are you doing? You are rebelling against the king.”

I answered them:

“The God of heaven shall grant us success. We, his servants, are now going to build. But as for you, you have neither right nor inheritance nor anything to do with Jerusalem.”