⁷ Furthermore I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the ^(A)governors of the region beyond ^[a]the River, that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah,

⁸ and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the ^[a]citadel which pertains ^(A)to the ^[b]temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy.” And the king granted them to me ^(B)according to the good hand of my God upon me.

¹⁰ When ^(A)Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite ^[a]official heard of it, they were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel.

Nehemiah Views the Wall of Jerusalem

¹¹ So I ^(B)came to Jerusalem and was there three days. ¹² Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem; nor was there any animal with me, except the one on which I rode.