1. And it came to be in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaḥshashta the sovereign, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the sovereign. And I had never been sad in his presence.
2. And the sovereign said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is none else but sorrow of heart.” Then I was very much afraid,
3. and said to the sovereign, “Let the sovereign live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?”
4. And the sovereign said to me, “What are you asking for?” Then I prayed to the Elohim of the heavens,
5. and said to the sovereign, “If it seems good to the sovereign, and if your servant is pleasing before you, I ask that you send me to Yehuḏah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, so that I build it.”
6. And the sovereign, with the sovereigness sitting beside him, said to me, “How long would your journey take? And when do you return?” So it seemed good before the sovereign to send me. And I set him a time.
7. And I said to the sovereign, “If it seems good to the sovereign, let letters be given to me for the governors beyond the River, that they should let me to pass through till I come to Yehuḏah,
8. and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the sovereign’s forest, that he should give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace that belongs to the House, and for the city wall, and for the house I would enter.” And the sovereign gave them to me according to the good hand of my Elohim upon me.
9. Then I came to the governors beyond the River, and gave to them the letters of the sovereign. Now the sovereign had sent commanders of the army and horsemen with me.