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by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.
11
O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive
to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and
prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was
the king’s cupbearer.
CHAPTER 2
And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king,
that
wine
was
before him: and I took up the wine, and gave
it
unto the king. Now I had not been
beforetime
sad
in his presence.
2
Wherefore the king said unto me, Why
is
thy countenance sad, seeing thou
art
not sick? this
is
nothing
else
but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid,
3
And said unto the
king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place
of my fathers’ sepulchres,
lieth
waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?
4
Then the
king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.
5
And I
said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou
wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it.
6
And
the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when
wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.
7
Moreover I said unto the
king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may
convey me over till I come into Judah;
8
And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest,
that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which
appertained
to the
house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted
me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
9
Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king
had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.
10
When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah
the servant, the Ammonite, heard
of it,
it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to
seek the welfare of the children of Israel.
11
So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.
12
And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I
any
man what my God
had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem: neither
was there any
beast with me, save the beast that I
rode upon.
13
And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and
to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof
were consumed with fire.
14
Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king’s pool: but
there was
no place for the beast
that was
under me to pass.
15
Then went I up in the night by the
brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and
so
returned.
16
And the rulers knew not whither I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told
it
to the Jews, nor
to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work.
17
Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we
are
in, how Jerusalem
lieth
waste, and the
gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no
586
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