The Return · 445 BC
Chapter 16
The King’s Cupbearer
Then the king said to me, “What is your request?”So I prayed to the God of heaven.I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may build it.”
It was the month of , in the twentieth year, and son of Hacaliah was at the palace in .
, one of his brothers, came with some men from . Nehemiah asked them about the Jews who had escaped, the ones left from the captivity, and about .
They told him, “The people who are left from the captivity, there in the province, are in great trouble, and others look down on them. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned.”
When Nehemiah heard this, he sat down and wept. He mourned for several days, and he and prayed to the God of heaven.
This is what he prayed:
Please, Lord, God of heaven,the great God, the God to be feared,who keeps his and his loving kindnesswith those who love him and keep his commandments:let your ear listen now, and your eyes be open,so that you hear the prayer I pray to you at this time,day and night, for the people of Israel, who serve you,while I confess the sins that we, the people of Israel, have done against you.Yes, I have sinned, and my father’s family too.We have done great wrong against you.We have not kept the commandments, the rules or the lawsthat you gave your servant .
“Remember, please,” he prayed, “the word you gave your servant Moses: ‘If you are not faithful, I will scatter you among other nations. But if you come back to me, and keep my commandments and do them, then even if your people who were driven out are at the farthest edge of the sky, I will gather them from there. I will bring them to the place that I have chosen to be the home of my name.’
“They are your servants and your people. You set them free by your great power and your strong hand. Lord, please, let your ear listen now to my prayer, and to the prayer of your servants, who are glad to fear your name. Please give me success today, and let this man show me mercy.” Nehemiah was to the king: he was the one who served the king his wine.
It was the month of , in the twentieth year that was king. The wine was in front of the king, and Nehemiah picked it up and gave it to him. He had never been sad in the king’s presence before.
“Why is your face sad?” the king asked him. “You aren’t sick. This can only be sorrow in your heart.”
Then Nehemiah was very much afraid. “May the king live forever!” he said. “Why shouldn’t my face be sad, when the city where my ancestors lie buried is in ruins, and fire has burned up its gates?”
“What are you asking for?” the king said.
So Nehemiah prayed to the God of heaven. Then he said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if you think well of me, I ask you to send me to Judah, to the city where my ancestors lie buried, so that I can build it again.”
The queen was sitting beside the king. He asked Nehemiah, “How long will your journey be? When will you come back?” The king was pleased to send him, and Nehemiah set a time.
Nehemiah went on, “If it pleases the king, I ask for letters to the governors beyond , so that they will let me pass through until I reach Judah. I also ask for a letter to , the keeper of the king’s forest, so he can give me timber for beams: for the gates of the fortress by the temple, for the city wall, and for the house I will live in.”
The king gave Nehemiah what he asked for, because the good hand of Nehemiah’s God was on him.
Nehemiah came to the governors beyond the River and handed them the king’s letters. The king had sent army captains and horsemen with him.
When the Horonite and the servant heard about it, they were very upset that a man had come to do good for the people of Israel.
Nehemiah came to Jerusalem and was there for three days. One night he got up, and a few men got up with him. He didn’t tell anyone what his God had put into his heart to do for Jerusalem. No animal went with them except the one he rode.
He went out by night through the Valley Gate, toward the Jackal’s Well, and on to the Dung Gate, looking closely at the walls of Jerusalem. The walls were broken down, and the gates had been burned.
Then he went on to the Spring Gate and the King’s Pool, but there was no place for the animal he was riding to get through.
While it was still night, he went up along the brook and looked closely at the wall. Then he turned around and came back in by the Valley Gate.
The leaders didn’t know where he had gone or what he had done. He had not yet told the Jews, or the , or the nobles, or the leaders, or any of the others who did the work.
Then Nehemiah said to them, “You see how bad things are for us: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates are burned. Come, let’s build up the wall of Jerusalem, so that we won’t be disgraced.”
He told them how the good hand of his God had been on him, and what the king had said to him.
“Let’s rise up and build!” they said. So they gathered their strength for the good work.
But Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite servant and the Arabian heard about it. They made fun of Nehemiah and the people with him, and looked down on them. “What is this thing you are doing?” they said. “Are you going to rebel against the king?”
Nehemiah answered them, “The God of heaven will give us success. So we, his servants, will rise up and build. But you have no share in Jerusalem, no right to it, and nothing here to remember you by.”