Nechemyah 1:1-4

1 The Divrei Nechemyah ben Chachalyah. And it came to pass in the month Kislev, in the twentieth year [i.e., 445 B.C.E.], as I was in Shushan the capital [of Persia],

2 That Chanani, one of my achim [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 [the Golus], and concerning Yerushalayim.

3 And they said unto me, The remnant that have survived the Exile [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.

4 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,