Nehemiah 2:9-18

⁹ Then I came to the governors beyond the River, and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent with me captains of the army and horsemen. ¹⁰ When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly, because a man had come to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.

Nehemiah Encourages the People to Rebuild the Walls

¹¹ So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days. ¹² I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God put into my heart to do for Jerusalem; neither was there any animal with me, except the animal that I rode on. ¹³ I went out by night by the valley gate, even toward the jackal’s well, and to the dung gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and its gates were consumed with fire. ¹⁴ Then I went on to the spring gate and to the king’s pool: but there was no place for the animal that was under me to pass. ¹⁵ Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall; and I turned back, and entered by the valley gate, and so returned. ¹⁶ The rulers didn’t know where I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest who did the work. ¹⁷ Then said I to them, You see the evil case that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. ¹⁸ I told them of the hand of my God which was good on me, as also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me. They said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good work.