With the use of the word when,
our translation suggests that this final phrase in Nehemiah 2:6 happened chronologically before the king sent
him; that is, the sending occurred in response to Nehemiah suggesting a responsible time. But the Hebrew does not require that understanding. As other translations also suggest, the Hebrew simply has the king deciding to send Nehemiah and Nehemiah in turn suggesting a responsible time frame for his absence. Nehemiah is committed to his employer and would be happy to return to Susa once the city of his fathers’ graves had been refortified.
6 And the king said to me (the queen sitting beside him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time.