1 In the month of Nisan, in the ^stwentieth year of King ^tArtaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. 2 And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid. 3 I said to the king, ^u“Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its ^vgates have been destroyed by fire?” 4 Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the ^wGod of heaven. 5 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it.” 6 And the king said to me (the queen sitting beside him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time. 7 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the ^xgovernors of the province Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah, 8 and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the ^yfortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for ^zthe good hand of my God was upon me.