The present paragraph relates an extensive dialogue between King Artaxerxes and Nehemiah. The king began the dialogue in Nehemiah 2:2 and continues his part of it in Nehemiah 2:4 and Nehemiah 2:6. Nehemiah responded to the king initially in Nehemiah 2:3 and continued his part of the conversation in Nehemiah 2:5 and Nehemiah 2:7. The repeated to-and-fro of the conversation is crisp and holds the readers’ attention.
3 I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”