⁷ And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me ^(A)for the governors of the provinces beyond the River, so that they will allow me to pass through until I come to Judah,

⁸ and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s ^(A)forest, so that he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of ^(B)the citadel which is by the ^[a]temple, for the wall of the city, and for the house to which I will go.” And the king granted them to me because ^(C)the good hand of my God was on me.

¹⁰ And when ^(A)Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite ^[a]official heard about it, it was very displeasing to them that someone had come to seek the welfare of the sons of Israel.

Nehemiah Inspects Jerusalem’s Walls

¹¹ So I ^(B)came to Jerusalem and was there for three days. ¹² And I got up in the night, I and a few men with me. I did not tell anyone what my God was putting into my ^[b]mind to do for Jerusalem, and there was no animal with me except the animal on which I was riding.