Nehemiah 2:1-3

New King James Version

Nehemiah Sent to Judah

2 And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of ^(A)King ^[a]Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that ^(B)I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before. ² Therefore the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but ^(C)sorrow of heart.”

So I became ^[b]dreadfully afraid, ³ and said to the king, ^(D)“May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when ^(E)the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with ^(F)fire?”