The Koine Bible

And it happened in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, and wine was before me, and I took the wine and gave it to the king, and there was no other before him

And the king said to me, Why is your face sad, and you are not cheerful? Is this not nothing except evilness of heart? And I was very greatly afraid.

And I said to the king, May the king live forever; why should not my face be sad, because the city, the house of the monuments of my fathers, has been laid waste, and its gates have been consumed with fire?

And the king said to me, About what do you seek this? And I prayed to the God of heaven.

And I said to the king, If it is good for the king, and if your servant will be well-treated before you, so that you may send him to Judah, to the city of the memorials of my fathers, and I will rebuild it.

And the king and the concubine sitting beside him said to me, Until when will your journey be, and when will you return? And I was well-pleasing before the king, and he sent me away, and I gave him a term.

And I said to the king, If it is good to the king, let him give me letters to the governors beyond the river, so that they may convey me until I come to Judah.

and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the garden, who is to the king, that he might give me timber to roof the gates and for the wall of the city and for the house into which I shall enter, and the king gave me, according to the good hand of God.

And I came to the governors beyond the river, and I gave them the letters of the king, and the king sent with me commanders of force and horsemen

And Sanaballat the Aronite and Tobiah the servant the Ammonite heard it, and it became evil to them, because a man had come to seek good for the sons of Israel.

And I came to Jerusalem and I was there three days.

And I rose up by night, I and a few men with me, and I did not tell a man what God gives into my heart to do with Israel; and there is no beast with me except the beast on which I ride.

And I went out by the gate of Gholela and toward the mouth of the spring of the figs and to the gate of the dung, and I was breaking in the wall of Jerusalem, which they were tearing down, and its gates were devoured by fire.

And I passed by the gate of the Spring and to the king’s pool, and there was no place for the beast to pass under me

And I was going up in the wall of the torrent valley by night, and I was breaking in the wall, and I was at the gate of the ravine, and I returned

And the guards did not know what I went to and what I do, neither to the Jews nor to the priests nor to the nobles nor to the commanders nor to the rest who were doing the work, until then I did not announce it.

And I said to them, You see the evil in which we are, in it: how Jerusalem is desolate and her gates have been given to fire. Come, and let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be a reproach.

And I told them of the hand of God, which is good upon me, and of the words of the king which he spoke to me; and I said, Let us arise and build. And their hands were strengthened for good.

And Sanaballat the Aronite and Tobia the slave, the Ammonite, and Gesam the Arab heard, and they mocked us and came upon us and said, What is this matter that you are doing? Or are you revolting against the king?

And I answered them with a word and said to them, The God of heaven himself will prosper us, and we, his pure servants, will build; but for you there is no portion and righteousness and memorial in Jerusalem.