Neh Nehemiah, chapter Book of Nehemiah, chapter 1
The Divrei Nechemyah ben Chakhalyah.
And it came to pass in the month Kislev, in the twentieth year,1:1 i.e., 445 B.C.E. as I was in Shushan the capital,1:1 of Persia Ezr 2:2That Chanani, one of my achim,1:2 See 7:2 came, he and certain men, from Yehudah; and I asked them concerning the remnant of the Yehudim that had survived the Exile,1:2 the Golus and concerning Yerushalayim. And they said unto me, The remnant that have survived the Exile1:3 the Golus there in the province are in ra'ah gedolah and reproach; the Chomat Yerushalayim also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with eish.2Ki 25:10; 2Ch 36:19
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for several yamim, and did a tzom, and davened before Elohei HaShomayim, And said, O Hashem Elohei HaShomayim, HaEl HaGadol v'HaNora, that is shomer habrit vachesed for them that love Him and are shomer mitzvot over His commandments, Neh 9:32; Dan 9:4Let Thine ear now be attentive, and Thine eyes open, that Thou mayest hear the tefillah of Thy eved, which I am davening before Thee now, yomam valailah, for the Bnei Yisroel Thy avadim, and mitvaddeh al chattot (confess the sins) of the Bnei Yisroel, which we have sinned against Thee. Both I and the Bais Avi have sinned. 1Ki 8:29We have dealt very corruptly against Thee, and have not been shomer mitzvot, neither over the chukkim, nor the mishpatim, which Thou commandedst Moshe Thy eved. Ezr 9:14Remember, the word that Thou commandedst Moshe Thy eved, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations, Deu 28:64But if ye make teshuvah and turn unto Me, and are shomer over My mitzvot, and do them; though there were of you those exiled unto the uttermost part of HaShomayim, yet will I gather them from there, and will bring them unto the place1:9 i.e., Yerushalayim that I have chosen to make dwell Shmi (My Name) there. Deu 12:11; Deu 30:4Now these are Thy Avadim and Thy Am, whom Thou hast redeemed by Thy ko'ach hagadol, and by Thy Yad HaChazakah. O Adonoi, let now Thine ear be attentive to the tefillah of Thy eved, and to the tefillah of Thy Avadim, who desire to fear Thy Shem; and give success to Thy eved today, and grant him rachamim in the sight of this man.
For I was the Mashkeh l'Melech.