7 Moreover I said unto HaMelech, If it please HaMelech, let iggrot be given me to the governors Beyond the River, that they may provide me safe conduct till I come into Yehudah;
8 And an iggeret unto Asaph the Shomer of the forest of HaMelech, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress by the Beis, and for the Chomat HaIr, and for the bais that I shall occupy. And HaMelech granted me, according to the Yad Elohai Hatovah upon me.
9 Then I came to the governors Beyond the River [Euphrates], and gave them the Iggrot HaMelech. Now HaMelech had sent captains of the army and parashim (a troop of horsemen) with me.
10 When Sanvalat the Choroni, and Toviyah the eved (official), the Ammoni, heard of it, it grieved them with a ra'ah gedolah that there was come an adam to seek the welfare of the Bnei Yisroel.
11 So I came to Yerushalayim; was there 3 yamim.
12 And I arose in the lailah, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what Elohai had put in my lev to do for Yerushalayim; neither was there any mount with me, save the mount that I rode upon.
13 And I went out by lailah by the Valley Gate, even before the Dragon's Spring, and to the Dung Gate [3:13], and made inspection of the Chomat Yerushalayim, which had been broken down, and the gates thereof that were consumed with eish.