1And then in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artakhshesht the King, I was giving wine to drink before the King, and I took wine and I gave to the King, and I had not ever been sad before him. 2And the King said to me: “Why is your face sad, and you have not been sick? This is nothing but affliction of heart.” And I was very much afraid. 3And I said to the King: “King, live for eternity! Why would my face not be sad, because the city of the house of the kingdom of my fathers is wasted and its gates burned up in fire?” 4And the King said to me: “Because of this, you begged and you prayed before the God of Heaven.” 5And I said to the King: “If I am pleasing to the King, I am your Servant before you. Send me to Yehuda the city of David to the house of burial of my fathers, and I shall build it.” 6And the King said to me: “Madman! How long are you going?” And it happened also to be pleasing before the King, and he sent me and he gave me time. 7And I said to the King: “If it is pleasing to the King, let them write for me a letter to the Ruler of the Crossing of the River, that they would convey me over until I go to Yehuda 8And a letter to Asaph, Keeper of the Paradise of the King, to give me wood to make the gates of the house and of the palace and of streets of the city, and for the house that I may enter it.” And the King gave to me, according to the hand of my God who did good to me.

9And I came to the Ruler of the Crossing of the River, and I gave him the letter of the King, and the King had sent the Commander of the army and horsemen with me. 10And Samblat the Khornite and Tubia, Ammonite men, heard, and it was horribly evil to them, because a son of man came to seek good for the children of Israel.

11And I came to Jerusalem, and I was there three days. 12And I arose in the night, I and men who were with me, and I told no man the thing that my God put in my heart to do for Jerusalem, and no beast was with me except the beast upon which I was riding. 13And I went out in the gate of the valley in the night before the face of the Fountain of the Dragon and to the Dung Gate, and I was closing up the walls of Jerusalem that were broken, and the gates were burned up in fire. 14And I passed by the Gate of the Valley and to the Pool of the King, and there was no place for the beast to pass there. 15And I was going up by the valley in the night, and I was blocking in the wall, and I would come and I entered by the Gate of the Valley and I returned. 16And the Governors did not know where I went and what I did, and I had not shown the Jews, or the Priests, or the Rulers, or the Scribes, or the rest who did the work, until now.

17And I said to them: “You see the afflictions that we are in; behold, Jerusalem is desolate and its gates are burned up in fire! Come, we will build up the wall of Jerusalem and therefore we will not be a reproach!” 18And I revealed to them the hand of my God who was with me for good, also the words of the King that were spoken to me, and they said: “We are standing and we are building!” And they strengthened their hands to work hard. 19And Samblat the Khornite and Tubia the Ammonite men, and Geshum the Arabian heard, and they laughed at us, and they mocked us, and they said: “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the King?” 20And I returned them an answer, and I said to them: “The God of Heaven, he has delivered us, and we are working and we are standing and we are building! You have no right or memorial or portion in Jerusalem!”