Nehemiah 2:9-17

New King James Version

⁹ Then I went to the governors in the region beyond the River, and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with 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. ¹³ And I went out by night ^(C)through the Valley Gate to the Serpent Well and the ^[b]Refuse Gate, and ^[c]viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were ^(D)broken down and its gates which were burned with fire. ¹⁴ Then I went on to the ^(E)Fountain Gate and to the ^(F)King’s Pool, but there was no room for the animal under me to pass. ¹⁵ So I went up in the night by the ^(G)valley,^[d] and ^[e]viewed the wall; then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. ¹⁶ And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done; I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the others who did the work.

¹⁷ Then I said to them, “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies ^[f]waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be ^(H)a reproach.”