We are given no account of Nehemiah assembling a group to travel with him nor any details of his departure from Susa and his journey through the provinces (contrast Ezra 8:1–36). We are to understand that the same God who answered his petitions provided for his needs and sustained him on his journey to the lands beyond the Euphrates. Once there, he showed his royal letters to the various governors through whose district he had to travel. Presumably those letters were sufficient to permit his passage safely.
9 Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen.