So I prayed to the God of heaven and I replied to the king, "If it seems good to you, and if your servant has found favor with you, would you send me to Judah, to the city where my ancestral sepulchers are located, so I can rebuild it?"

With his queen seated beside him, the king asked me, "How long will your journey take, and when will you return?" The king thought it was a good idea to send me, so I presented him with a prepared plan.

The local officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done I informed neither the Judeans, nor the priests, nor the nobles, nor the officials, nor any of the rest who would be doing the work.

He addressed his allies and the Samaritan officials, saying "What are these pathetic Jews doing? Are they intending to rebuild it by themselves? Do they intend to offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a single day? Can they make stones from this burned out rubble?"

Meanwhile, the people of Judah said, "The builders are tired and there's so much rubble that we can't reconstruct the wall!"

At the same time I told the people, "Let's have everyone sleep at night inside Jerusalem with their servants, so they can guard us at night and work during the day.

because certain of them kept claiming, "Since we have so many sons and daughters, we must get some grain so we can eat and survive."

Others were saying, "We're having to mortgage our fields, our vineyards, and our homes so we can buy grain during this famine."

So I sent messengers to them, replying "I am involved in a great endeavor, so I can't leave. Why should the work stop while I leave it to come down to you?"