圣经In the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, in the month of Nisan, I set out wine before the king, and I took the wine and brought it to the king. I have never looked sad in front of the king.
The king said to me, “Since you are not sick, why is your face sad?”? This is nothing else, it must be a worry in your heart. So I was very afraid.
I said to the king, may he live forever. The city where my ancestors’ graves are located is desolate, and its gates are burned with fire. Can I not have a sad face?
Wang asked me, “What are you asking for?”. So I silently prayed to the God in heaven.
I said to the king, If my servant finds favor in his sight, and the king pleases me, please send me to Judah to the city where my ancestors’ graves are, so that I may rebuild it.
At that time, the queen sat next to the king. Wang asked me, how many days do you need to go. When will you be back. I set a date. So Wang likes to send me there.
I said to the king again, “If the king pleases, please give me a decree to inform the governor of the province west of the Great River to allow me to pass through until Judah.”.
I have also issued a decree notifying Asaph, who is in charge of the king’s garden, to give me wood for the crossbeams and walls of the palace and barracks, which will be used for my own house. The king allowed me, because the hand of my God’s grace helped me.
Wang sent a military commander and cavalry to escort me. I went to the governor of Hexi and handed over the king’s edict to them.
When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite, who was a slave, heard that someone came to seek good for the Israelites, they were very angry.
I arrived in Jerusalem and stayed there for three days.
I woke up at night, and a few people also got up together, but I did not tell anyone what God had set in my heart to do for Jerusalem. Apart from the animals I rode, there were no other animals with me.
That night, I went out of the valley gate and went to the Wild Dog Well. At the gate of the dung factory, I examined the walls of Jerusalem and saw that the walls were broken down and the gates were burned by fire.
I went further and arrived at Quanmen and Wangchi, but the livestock I was riding had nowhere to go.
So he went up the creek at night, inspected the city wall, turned around, and entered the valley gate, and then returned.
The official doesn’t even know where I’m going or what I’m doing. I haven’t told the common people, priests, nobles, officials, and other laborers of Judah yet.
Afterwards, I said to them, You have all seen the difficulties we have encountered, how Jerusalem has become desolate, and how the city gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the walls of Jerusalem so that we may not be subjected to further humiliation.
I told them how the hand of God’s grace helped me, and what the king said to me. They said, let’s get up and build. So they bravely did this good work.
But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite who was a slave, and Kishan the Arabite heard this, they mocked us and despised us, saying, What do you do? Are you going to betray the king?
I answered them, ‘The God of heaven will make us prosper.’. We, his servants, will rise up and build. But you have no share, no right, and no memory in Jerusalem.
