⁹ For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylonia, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, ^(A)for the good hand of his God was on him.

^28 (A)and who extended to me his steadfast love before the king and his counsellors, and before all the king's mighty officers. I took courage, for the hand of the Lord my God was on me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.

¹⁸ And ^(A)by the good hand of our God on us, they brought us a man of discretion, of the sons of ^(B)Mahli the son of Levi, son of Israel, namely Sherebiah with his sons and kinsmen, 18;

²² For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, ^(A)“The hand of our God is for good on ^(B)all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.”

³¹ Then we departed from the river Ahava ^(A)on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem. ^(B)The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes by the way.

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 ^(A)the fortress 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, ^(B)for the good hand of my God was upon me.

¹⁸ And I told them ^(A)of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” ^(B)So they strengthened their hands for the good work.

⁵ But ^(A)the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until the report should reach Darius and then an answer be returned by letter concerning it.