And I went out by night through the Valley Gate to the Jackals’ Fountain and the Dung Gate, and examined the walls of Yerushalayim which were broken down and its gates which were burned with fire.
And they said to me, “The remnant who are left of the captivity in the province are there in great evil and reproach. And the wall of Yerushalayim is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”
And I rose up in the night, I and a few men with me, but informed no one what my Elohim had put in my heart to do at Yerushalayim, nor was there any beast with me, except the beast on which I rode.
Then I said to them, “You see the evil which we are in, how Yerushalayim lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Yerushalayim, and let us no longer be a reproach.”
and said to the sovereign, “Let the sovereign live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?”