Nehemiah 2 commentary

EHEMIAH 2 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Artaxerxes Sends ehemiah to Jerusalem
1 In the month of isan in the twentieth year of
King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him,
I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not
been sad in his presence before,
BAR ES, "Nisan was the name given by the Persian Jews to the month previously
called “Abib,” the first month of the Jewish year, or that which followed the vernal
equinox. It fell four months after Chisleu Neh_1:1.
The twentieth year - As Artaxerxes ascended the throne in 465 B.C., his 20th year
would correspond to 445-444 B.C.
CLARKE, "Month Nisan - Answering to a part of our March and April.
I took up the wine - It is supposed that the kings of Persia had a different cup-
bearer for each quarter of the year, and that it had just now come to Nehemiah’s turn.
GILL, "And it came to pass in the month Nisan; in the twentieth year of
Artaxerxes,.... It was still but in the twentieth year of his reign; for though Nisan or
March was the first month of the year with the Jews, and from whence the reigns of their
kings were dated (l); yet, with other nations, Tisri or September was the beginning of the
reigns of their kings (m); so that Chisleu or November being since, see Neh_1:1, it was
no more in Nisan or March than the twentieth of the said king's reign, and was three or
four months after Nehemiah had first heard of the distress of his people; which time he
either purposely spent in fasting and prayer on that account, or until now his turn did
not come about to exercise his office, in waiting upon the king as his cupbearer: but now
it was
that wine was before him; the king; it was brought and set in a proper place, from
whence it might be taken for his use:

and I took up the wine, and gave it to the king; according to Xenophon (n), the
cupbearer with the Persians and Medes used to take the wine out of the vessels into the
cup, and pour some of it into their left hand, and sup it up, that, if there was any poison
in it, the king might not be harmed, and then he delivered it to him upon three fingers
(o):
now I had not been before time sad in his presence; but always pleasant and
cheerful, so that the sadness of his countenance was the more taken notice of.
HE RY, "When Nehemiah had prayed for the relief of his countrymen, and perhaps
in David's words (Psa_51:18, Build thou the walls of Jerusalem), he did not sit still and
say, “Let God now do his own work, for I have no more to do,” but set himself to forecast
what he could do towards it. our prayers must be seconded with our serious endeavours,
else we mock God. Nearly four months passed, from Chisleu to Nisan (from November
to March), before Nehemiah made his application to the king for leave to go to
Jerusalem, either because the winter was not a proper time for such a journey, and he
would not make the motion till he could pursue it, or because it was so long before his
month of waiting came, and there was no coming into the king's presence uncalled, Est_
4:11. Now that he attended the king's table he hoped to have his ear. We are not thus
limited to certain moments in our addresses to the King of kings, but have liberty of
access to him at all times; to the throne of grace we never come unseasonably. Now here
is,
I. The occasion which he gave the king to enquire into his cares and griefs, by
appearing sad in his presence. Those that speak to such great men must not fall abruptly
upon their business, but fetch a compass. Nehemiah would try whether he was in a good
humour before he ventured to tell him his errand, and this method he took to try him.
He took up the wine and gave it to the king when he called for it, expecting that then he
would look him in the face. He had not used to be sad in the king's presence, but
conformed to the rules of the court (as courtiers must do), which would admit no
sorrows, Est_4:2. Though he was a stranger, a captive, he was easy and pleasant. Good
men should do what they can by their cheerfulness to convince the world of the
pleasantness of religious ways and to roll away the reproach cast upon them as
melancholy; but there is a time for all things, Ecc_3:4. Nehemiah now saw cause both to
be sad and to appear so. The miseries of Jerusalem gave him cause to be sad, and his
showing his grief would give occasion to the king to enquire into the cause. He did not
dissemble sadness, for he was really in grief for the afflictions of Joseph, and was not like
the hypocrites who disfigure their faces; yet he could have concealed his grief if it had
been necessary (the heart knows its own bitterness, and in the midst of laughter is often
sad), but it would now serve his purpose to discover his sadness. Though he had wine
before him, and probably, according to the office of the cup-bearer, did himself drink of
it before he gave it to the king, yet it would not make his heart glad, while God's Israel
was in distress.
JAMISO , "Neh_2:1-20. Artaxerxes, understanding the cause of Nehemiah’s
sadness, sends him with letters and a commission to build again the walls of
Jerusalem.
it came to pass in the month Nisan — This was nearly four months after he had
learned the desolate and ruinous state of Jerusalem (Neh_1:1). The reasons for so long a
delay cannot be ascertained.

I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king — Xenophon has particularly
remarked about the polished and graceful manner in which the cupbearers of the
Median, and consequently the Persian, monarchs performed their duty of presenting the
wine to their royal master. Having washed the cup in the king’s presence and poured
into their left hand a little of the wine, which they drank in his presence, they then
handed the cup to him, not grasped, but lightly held with the tips of their thumb and
fingers. This description has received some curious illustrations from the monuments of
Assyria and Persia, on which the cupbearers are frequently represented in the act of
handing wine to the king.
K&D, "Neh_2:1-2
In the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, when wine was before him,
Nehemiah as cupbearer took the wine and handed it to the king. Nisan is, according to
the Hebrew calendar, the first month of the year; yet here, as in Neh_1:1-11, the
twentieth year of Artaxerxes is named, and the month Chisleu there mentioned (Neh_
1:1), which, after the Hebrew method of computing the year, was the ninth month and
preceded Nisan by three months, is placed in the same year. This can only be explained
on the grounds that either the twentieth year of Artaxerxes did not coincide with the year
of the calendar, but began later, or that Nehemiah here uses the computation of time
current in anterior Asia, and also among the Jews after the captivity in civil matters, and
which made the new year begin in autumn. Of these two views we esteem the latter to be
correct, since it cannot be shown that the years of the king's reign would be reckoned
from the day of his accession. In chronological statements they were reckoned according
to the years of the calendar, so that the commencement of a year of a reign coincided
with that of the civil year. If, moreover, the beginning of the year is placed in autumn,
Tishri is the first, Chisleu the third, and Nisan the seventh month. The circumstances
which induced Nehemiah not to apply to the king till three months after his reception of
the tidings which so distressed him, are not stated. It is probable that he himself
required some time for deliberation before he could come to a decision as to the best
means of remedying the distresses of Jerusalem; then, too, he may not have ventured at
once to bring his request before the king from fear of meeting with a refusal, and may
therefore have waited till an opportunity favourable to his desires should present itself.
‫יו‬ָ‫נ‬ ָ‫פ‬ ְ‫ל‬ ‫ן‬ִ‫י‬ַ‫,י‬ “wine was before the king,” is a circumstantial clause explanatory of what
follows. The words allude to some banquet at which the king and queen were present.
The last sentence, “And I have not been sad before him” (‫ע‬ ַ‫ר‬ according to ‫ים‬ ִ‫ע‬ ָ‫ר‬ ָ‫יך‬ֶ‫נ‬ ָ of
Neh_2:2, of a sad countenance), can neither mean, I had never before been sad before
him (de Wette); nor, I was accustomed not to be sad before him; but, I had not been sad
before him at the moment of presenting the cup to him (Bertheau), because it would not
have been becoming to serve the king with a sad demeanour: comp. Est_4:2. The king,
however, noticed his sadness, and inquired: “Why is thy countenance sad, since thou art
not sick? this is nothing but sorrow of heart, i.e., thy sadness of countenance can arise
only from sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid;” because the unexpected
question obliged him to explain the cause of his sorrow, and he could not tell how the
king would view the matter, nor whether he would favour his ardent desire to assist his
fellow-countrymen in Judah.
COFFMA , "Verse 1

EHEMIAH ARRIVES I JERUSALEM WITH AUTHORITY TO REBUILD
THE WALLS OF THE CITY;
ARTAXERXES GRA TED EHEMIAH'S REQUEST
" ow I was cupbearer to the king. And it came to pass in the month isan, in the
twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, when wine was beside him, that I took up the
wine and gave it unto the king. ow I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.
And the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick?
this is nothing but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid. And I said unto the
king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the
city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are
consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request?
So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and
if thy servant have found favor in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah,
unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it. And the king said unto
me (the queen sitting beside him), For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt
thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time. Moreover I said
unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond
the River, that they let me pass through till I come unto Judah; and a letter unto
Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for
the gates of the castle that pertaineth to the house, and for the wall of the city, and
for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good
hand of my God upon me." ( ehemiah 1:11b-2:8)
In all of the wonderful things that God did for the children of Israel, there are few
things any more astounding than this. That a Persian king should have reversed a
former decision stopping the work of the Jews on the walls of their city, and then
have sent a trusted emissary, accompanied by a military escort, and endowed with
full authority to reconstruct the walls and fortify the city of Jerusalem - only God
could have caused a thing like that to happen.
"In the month isan" ( ehemiah 2:1). This was four months after the time
mentioned in ehemiah 1:1, during which time ehemiah had fasted and prayed
"night and day" that something could be done to aid Jerusalem. During this period,
ehemiah had diligently tried to maintain his customary happy appearance; but his
great grief finally became evident in his appearance.
"I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king" ( ehemiah 2:1). Jamieson has a
description of how a cupbearer performed his service. "He washed the cup in the
king's presence, filled it with wine, then poured from the cup into his own left hand
a sufficient amount. Then he drank that in the king's presence and handed the cup
of wine to the king."[1]
ELLICOTT, "(1) isan.—The old Abib, the first month of the Jewish year,
following the vernal equinox. As we are still in the twentieth year of the king, the
beginning of his reign must be dated before Chisleu. The record adopts Persian

dates, and the two months fell in one year.
TRAPP, " And it came to pass in the month isan, in the twentieth year of
Artaxerxes the king, [that] wine [was] before him: and I took up the wine, and gave
[it] unto the king. ow I had not been [beforetime] sad in his presence.
Ver. 1. And it came to pass in the month isan] Time and place is to be registered of
special mercies received. "This shall be written for the generation to come: and the
people which shall be created shall praise the Lord," Psalms 102:18.
In the twentieth year of Artaxerxes] Surnamed Longhand, as our Edward I was
called Longshanks, and another Longespee, or Longsword. This Longhand is
renowned for the fairest among men in that age, Mακροχειρ, Omnium hominum
puleherrimus (Aemil. Prob.); of all men most handsome; and no wonder, if he were
(as is generally thought) the son of that fairest Esther.
That wine was before him] There was a feast, as ehemiah 2:6. ot by chance, but
by God’s providence; who of small occasions worketh greatest matters many times,
as he put small thoughts into the heart of Ahasuerus for great purposes, Esther 6:1.
And I took up the wine, &c.] As Esther was come to the kingdom, so ehemiah to
this office, for such a time as this, Esther 4:14. Though he were a prisoner, a
stranger, one of another religion, yet is he the king’s cupbearer and taster; and once
of great trust and credit. This was a strange work of God, to cause heathen princes
thus to favour the religion that they knew not, and to defend that people which their
subjects hated.
ow I had not been beforetime sad in his presence] Princes are usually set upon the
merry pin; and all devices are used, by jesters and otherwise, to make them merry;
no mourner might be seen in Ahasuerus’s court, Esther 4:4. But good ehemiah had
been, for certain months’ time, afflicting his soul and macerating his body, as in the
former chapter: hence his present sadness, which the king (being a wise man and a
loving master) soon observed.
BE SO , " ehemiah 2:1. In the month isan — Which answers to part of our
March and April. So that there were almost four months between the time of his
hearing the fore-mentioned sad tidings respecting the defenceless condition in which
Jerusalem lay, and his requesting leave of the king to go thither. The reason of this
long delay might be, either that his turn of attending upon the king did not come till
that time; or, that till then he wanted a fit opportunity to move it to him. That wine
was before him — He was at dinner or supper, and called for wine, which was ready
for him. ow I had not been beforetime sad in his presence — But always appeared
cheerful and well pleased, as young men, so advanced, are wont to do.

WHEDO , "1. The month isan — The name, after the exile, of the first month of
the Jewish year, corresponding nearly with April, and more anciently called Abib.
Exodus 13:4; comp. ehemiah 12:2. This was the first isan that followed the
Chisleu ( ehemiah 1:1) when ehemiah heard the sad tidings from Judah, and four
months after that time, but both these months fell in the twentieth year of
Artaxerxes. For a notice of this king, see note on Ezra 7:1.
Took up the wine, and gave it unto the king — This was a part of the business of the
royal cupbearer. See note above, on ehemiah 1:11.
Had not been beforetime sad — We may better omit beforetime and translate the
past tense of the verb, as is often proper, so as to express an habitual state or
condition, I was not accustomed to be sad in his presence. The Hebrew word for sad
( ‫רע‬ ) commonly means bad, ill-favoured, evil; and is appropriately used of the
troubled and dejected countenance of a cupbearer, which should naturally be
cheerful and happy, as became his business, to cheer the heart of the king. Various
ancient authors attest the propensity of the Persians for wine. Herodotus says, (i,
133,) “They are very fond of wine, and drink it in large quantities.” And, according
to H. Rawlinson, it is customary at the present day for the high livers among the
Persians “to sit for hours before dinner drinking wine and eating dried fruits. A
party often sits down at seven o’clock, and the dinner is not brought in till eleven.”
COKE, "Verse 1
ehemiah 2:1. In the month isan— Which answers to part of our March and
April. So that it was almost four months between his hearing of the disconsolate
condition wherein Jerusalem lay, and his requesting leave of the king to go thither.
ow, besides that it might not come to his own turn of waiting sooner, there might
be these further reasons assigned for his long silence and delay: that he could not
take so long and dangerous a journey in the winter; that he could not sooner meet
with a seasonable opportunity of speaking with the king upon so critical an affair:
or, as others will have it, that he retired all this intermediate while, and spent it in
fasting and prayer. See Patrick and Poole.
CO STABLE 1-8, " ehemiah prayed for four months about conditions in
Jerusalem before he spoke to Artaxerxes about them (cf. ehemiah 1:1; ehemiah
2:1). Artaxerxes" reign began in the seventh Jewish month, Tishri (late September
and early October), of464 B.C. [ ote: Edwin R. Thiele, The Mysterious umbers of
the Hebrew Kings, pp28-30 , 161.] Therefore ehemiah presented his request in late
March or early April of444 B.C.
ehemiah was probably very fearful ( ehemiah 2:2) because Artaxerxes could
have interpreted sadness in his presence as dissatisfaction with the king (cf. Esther
4:2). [ ote: J. Carl Laney, Ezra and ehemiah , p77.]
"Persian works of art such as the great treasury reliefs from Persepolis indicate that
those who came into the king"s presence did so with great deference, placing the

right hand with palm facing the mouth so as not to defile the king with one"s own
breath ..." [ ote: Edwin Yamauchi, " Ezra -, ehemiah ," in1Kings- Job , vol4of
The Expositor"s Bible Commentary, p684.]
ehemiah realized that the moment had arrived for him to ask Artaxerxes to revise
his official policy toward Jerusalem ( ehemiah 1:11; Ezra 4:21). This too could
have incurred the king"s displeasure. ehemiah"s walk with God is evident in that
he talked to God as he was conversing with the king ( ehemiah 2:4; cf. 1
Thessalonians 5:17). ehemiah 2:4 contains a beautiful example of spontaneous
prayer, one of the best in the Bible.
"One of the most striking characteristics of ehemiah was his recourse to prayer
(cf. ehemiah 4:4; ehemiah 4:9; ehemiah 5:19; ehemiah 6:9; ehemiah 6:14;
ehemiah 13:14)." [ ote: Ibid, p685.]
"Quick prayers are possible and valid if one has prayed sufficiently beforehand. In
this case ehemiah"s prayer is evidence of a life lived in constant communion with
God. ehemiah had prayed for months, but he knew he was completely dependent
on God"s work in the king"s heart at this moment." [ ote: Breneman, p176.]
Divine working and human planning are not necessarily contradictory.
"Prayer is where planning starts." [ ote: J. White, Excellence in Leadership, p35.]
ehemiah returned to Artaxerxes12years after the king had appointed him
governor of Judah ( ehemiah 5:14; ehemiah 13:6). evertheless he may have also
gone back sooner than that ( ehemiah 2:6). One writer calculated the date of
Artaxerxes" decree to rebuild Jerusalem as March5 , 444 B.C. [ ote: Harold W.
Hoehner, "Daniel"s Seventy Weeks and ew Testament Chronology," Bibliotheca
Sacra132:525 (January-March1975):64.]
"This date marks the beginning of Daniel"s Seventy Weeks ( Daniel 9:24-27). Sixty-
nine of those seventy weeks (173 ,880 days) were literally fulfilled when Jesus
entered Jerusalem, presented Himself at His "royal entry" as Israel"s messiah, on
March30 , A.D33. The prophecy of Daniel was fulfilled to the very day (cf. Luke
19:40-42). The seventieth week of Daniel , the Tribulation (cf. Matthew 24:4-28;
Revelation 6-19), will find its fulfillment in the future." [ ote: Laney, pp78-79.]
The fortress by the temple ( ehemiah 2:8) was a citadel that stood just north of the
temple. Its name in Hebrew was Birah (or in Greek, Baris). It was the forerunner of
the Antonia Fortress that Herod the Great built and to which Luke referred in the
Book of Acts ( Acts 21:37; Acts 22:24). [ ote: See Dan Bahat, "Jerusalem Down
Under: Tunneling along Herod"s Temple Mount Wall," Biblical Archaeology
Review21:6 ( ovember-December1995):45-46. This interesting article walks the
reader through archaeological discoveries along the Western Wall of Herod"s
Temple Mount from south to north.]

". . . there were good political reasons for Artaxerxes to grant ehemiah"s request.
Inaros had led a revolt in Lower Egypt in the late460s, aided and abetted by Athens.
The Persians had largely squashed this rebellion by455 , but pockets of resistance
held out in the delta marshes thereafter. Then, early in the440s, Megabyxos had led
a revolt in Syria, which was probably put down just before ehemiah made his
request. Also, just about445 the Athenians negotiated the Peace of Kallias with the
Persians and hostilities between the two powers ceased. At this point in time
Artaxerxes certainly recognized that a stronger Judah populated by loyal Jews
would help to bring greater stability to Syria and would provide a bulwark on the
border with Egypt." [ ote: Vos. p91.]
LA GE, " ehemiah 2:1. The month isan (called “Abib” in the Pentateuch,
Exodus 13:4)—the first month of the Hebrew national year. This name isan is
found in the Assyrian, but its derivation is obscure. It corresponded to parts of our
March and April. The twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king.—Artaxerxes’ reign-
years counted from some other month than isan, for the preceding Chisleu was in
the 20 th year. The unlikely supposition (as by Bp. Patrick) that the “twentieth
year” of chapter ehemiah 1:1 refers to ehemiah’s life, is thus unnecessary. (See
on ehemiah 1:1.) Wine was before him.—It is the custom among the modern
Persians to drink before dinner, accompanying the wine-drinking with the eating of
dried fruits. (See Rawlinson’s Herod. I:133, Sir H. C. R.’s note.) Compare the
“banquet of wine” in Esther 5:6. ow I had not been beforetime sad in his
presence.—Lit. And I was not sad in his presence. That Isaiah, it was not his wont to
be sad in the king’s presence. The exactions of Persian monarchs would not endure
any independence of conduct in their presence. Everybody was expected to reflect
the sunlight of the king’s majesty.
EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMME TARY, "THE PRAYER A SWERED
ehemiah 2:1-8
EHEMIAH’S prayer had commenced on celestial heights of meditation among
thoughts of Divine grace and glory, and when it had stooped to earth it had swept
over the wide course of his nation’s history and poured out a confession of the whole
people’s sin, but the final point of it was a definite request for the prospering of his
contemplated interview with the king. Artaxerxes was an absolute despot,
surrounded with the semi-divine honours that Orientals associate with the regal
state, and yet in speaking of him before "the God of heaven," "the great and
terrible God," ehemiah loses all awe for his majestic pomp, and describes him
boldly as "this man." [ ehemiah 1:10-11] In the supreme splendour of God’s
presence all earthly glory fades out of the worshipper’s sight, like a glow-worm’s
spark lost in the sunlight. Therefore no one can be dazzled by human magnificence
so long as he walks in the light of God. Here, however, ehemiah is speaking of an
absent king. ow it is one thing to be fearless of man when alone with God in the
seclusion of one’s own chamber, and quite another to be equally imperturbable in
the world and away from the calming influence of undisturbed communion with

Heaven. We must remember this if we would do justice to ehemiah, because
otherwise we might be surprised that his subsequent action did not show all the
courage we should have expected.
Four months passed away before ehemiah attempted anything on behalf of the city
of his fathers. The Jewish travellers probably thought that their visit to the court
servant had been barren of all results. We cannot tell how this interval was
occupied, but it is clear that ehemiah was brooding over his plans all the time, and
inwardly fortifying himself for his great undertaking. His ready reply when he was
suddenly and quite unexpectedly questioned by the king shows that he had made the
troubles of Jerusalem a subject of anxious thought, and that he had come to a clear
decision as to the course which he should pursue. Time spent in such fruitful
thinking is by no means wasted. There is a hasty sympathy that flashes up at the
first sign of some great public calamity, eager "to do something," but too blind in its
impetuosity to consider carefully what ought to be done, and this is often the source
of greater evils, because it is inconsiderate. In social questions especially people are
tempted to be misled by a blind, impatient philanthropy. The worst consequence of
yielding to such an influence-and one is strongly urged to yield for fear of seeming
cold and indifferent-is that the certain disappointment that follows is likely to
provoke despair of all remedies, and to end in cynical callousness. Then, in the
rebound, every enthusiastic effort for the public good is despised as but the froth of
sentimentality.
Very possibly ehemiah had no opportunity of speaking to the king during these
four months. A Persian sovereign was waited on by several cupbearers, and it is
likely enough that ehemiah’s terms of service were intermittent. On his return to
the court in due course he may have had the first occasion for presenting his
petition. Still it is not to be denied that he found great difficulty in bringing himself
to utter it, and then only when it was dragged out of him by the king. It was a
petition of no common kind. To request permission to leave the court might be
misconstrued unfavourably. Herodotus says that people had been put to death both
by Darius and by Xerxes for showing reluctance to accompany their king. Then had
not this very Artaxerxes sanctioned the raid upon Jerusalem which had resulted in
the devastation which ehemiah deplored and which he desired to see reversed? If
the king remembered his rescript to the Syrian governors, might he not regard a
proposal for the reversal of its policy as a piece of unwarrantable impertinence on
the part of his household slave-nay, as an indication of treasonable designs? All this
would be apparent enough to ehemiah as he handed the wine-cup on bended knee
to the Great King. Is it wonderful then that he hesitated to speak, or that he was
"very sore afraid" when the king questioned him about his sadness of countenance?
There is an apparent contradiction in ehemiah’s statement concerning this sad
appearance of his countenance which is obscured in our English translation by the
unwarrantable insertion of the word "beforetime" in ehemiah 2:1, so that the
sentence reads, " ow I had not been beforetime sad in his presence." This word is a
gloss of the translators. What ehemiah really says is simply, " ow I had not been
sad in his presence"-a statement that evidently refers to the occasion then being

described, and not to previous times nor to the cup-bearer’s habitual bearing. Yet in
the very next sentence we read how the king asked ehemiah the reason for the
sadness of his countenance. The contradiction would be as apparent to the writer as
it is to us, and if he left it ehemiah meant it to stand, no doubt intending to suggest
by a dramatic description of the scene that he attempted to disguise his sorrow, but
that his attempt was ineffectual-so strong, so marked was his grief. It was a rule of
the court etiquette, apparently, that nobody should be sad in the king’s presence. A
gloomy face would be unpleasant to the monarch. Shakespeare’s Caesar knew the
security of cheerful associates when he said:-
"Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o’ nights;
Yond’ Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much; such men are dangerous."
Besides, was not the sunshine of the royal countenance enough to drive away all
clouds of trouble from the minds of his attendants? ehemiah had drilled himself
into the courtier’s habitual pleasantness of demeanour. evertheless, though
passing, superficial signs of emotion may be quite reined in by a person who is
trained to control his features, indications of the permanent conditions of the inner
life are so deeply cut in the lines and curves of the countenance that the most
consummate art of an actor cannot disguise them. ehemiah’s grief was profound
and enduring. Therefore he could not hide it. Moreover, it is a king’s business to
understand men, and long practice makes him an expert in it. So Artaxerxes was not
deceived by the well-arranged smile of his servant; it was evident to him that
something very serious was troubling the man. The sickness of a favourite attendant
would not be unknown to a kind and observant king. ehemiah was not ill, then.
The source of his trouble must have been mental. Sympathy and curiosity combined
to urge the king to probe the matter to the bottom. Though alarmed at his master’s
inquiry, the trembling cup-bearer could not but give a true answer. Here was his
great opportunity-thrust on him since he had not had the courage to find it for
himself. Artaxerxes was not to be surprised that a man should grieve when the city
of his ancestors was lying desolate. But this information did not satisfy the king. His
keen eye saw that there was more behind. ehemiah had some request which as yet
he had not been daring enough to utter. With real kindness Artaxerxes invited him
to declare it.
The critical moment had arrived. How much hangs upon the next sentence - not the
continuance of the royal favour only, but perhaps the very life of the speaker, and,
what is of far more value to a patriot, the future destiny of his people! ehemiah’s
perception of its intense importance is apparent in the brief statement which he here
inserts in his narrative: "So I prayed to the God of heaven." [ ehemiah 2:4] He is
accustomed to drop in suggestive notes on his own private feelings and behaviour
along the course of his narrative. Only a few lines earlier we came upon one of these

characteristic autobiographical touches in the words, " ow I had not been sad in
his presence," [ ehemiah 2:1] soon followed by another, "Then I was very sore
afraid." [ ehemiah 2:2] Such remarks vivify the narrative, and keep up an interest
in the writer. In the present case the interjection is peculiarly suggestive. It was
natural that ehemiah should be startled at the king’s abrupt question, but it is an
indication of his devout nature that as the crisis intensified his fear passed over into
prayer. This was not a set season of prayer; the pious Jew was not in his temple, nor
at any proseuche; there was no time for a full, elaborate, and orderly utterance,
such as that previously recorded. Just at the moment of need, in the very presence of
the king, with no time to spare, by a flash of thought, ehemiah retires to that most
lonely of all lonely places, "the inner city of the mind," there to seek the help of the
Unseen God. And it is enough; the answer is as swift as the prayer; in a moment the
weak man is made strong for his great effort.
Such a sudden uplifting of the soul to God is the most real of all prayers. This at
least is genuine and heartfelt, whatever may be the case with the semiliturgical
composition the thought and beauty of which engaged our attention in the previous
chapter. But then the man who can thus find God in a moment must be in the habit
of frequently resorting to the Divine Presence; like the patriarchs, he must be
walking with God. The brief and sudden prayer reaches heaven as an arrow
suddenly shot from the bow, but it goes right home, because he who lets it off in his
surprise is a good marksman, well practised. This ready prayer only springs to the
lips of a man who lives in a daily habit of praying. We must associate the two kinds
of prayer in order to account for that which is now before us. The deliberate
exercises of adoration, confession, and petition prepare for the one sudden
ejaculation. There we see the deep river which supplies the sea of devotion from
which the momentary prayer is cast up as the spray of a wave. Therefore it was in a
great measure on account of his deliberate and unwearying daily prayers that
ehemiah was prepared with his quick cry to God in the crisis of need. We may
compare his two kinds of prayer with our Lord’s full and calm intercession in John
17:1-26 and the short agonised cry from the cross. In each case we feel that the
sudden appeal to God in the moment of dire necessity is the most intense and
penetrating prayer. Still we must recognise that this comes from a man who is much
in prayer. The truth is that beneath both of these prayers-the calm, meditative
utterance, and the simple cry for help-there lies the deep, true essence of prayer,
which is no thing of words at all, but which lives on, even when it is voiceless, in the
heart of one of whom it can be said, as Tennyson says of Mary, -
"Her eyes are homes of silent prayer."
Fortified by his moment’s communion with God, ehemiah now makes known his
request. He asks to be sent to Jerusalem to repair its ruins and fortify the city. This
petition contains more than lies on the surface of the words. ehemiah does not say
that he wishes to be appointed Governor of Jerusalem in the high office which had
been held by Zerubbabel, but the subsequent narrative shows that he was assigned
to this position, and his report of the king’s orders about the house he was to dwell
in at Jerusalem almost implies as much. [ ehemiah 2:8] For one of the royal

household servants to be appointed to such a position was doubtless not so strange
an anomaly in the East, in ehemiah’s day, as it would be with us now. The king’s
will was the fountain of all honour, and the seclusion in which the Persian monarchs
lived gave unusual opportunities for the few personal attendants who were admitted
into their presence to obtain great favours from them. Still ehemiah’s attitude
seems to show some self-confidence in a young man not as yet holding any political
office. Two or three considerations, however, will give a very different complexion
to his request. In the first place, his city was in a desperate plight, deliverance was
urgently needed, no help appeared to be forthcoming unless he stepped into the
breach. If he failed, things could hardly become worse than they were already. Was
this an occasion when a man should hold back from a sense of modesty? There is a
false modesty which is really a product of the self-consciousness that is next door to
vanity. The man who is entirely oblivious of self will sometimes forget to be modest.
Moreover, ehemiah’s request was at the peril of his life. When it was granted he
would be launched on a most hazardous undertaking. The ambition-if we must use
the word-which would covet such a career is at the very antipodes of that of the
vulgar adventurer who simply seeks power in order to gratify his own sense of
importance. "Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not." [Jeremiah 45:5]
That humbling rebuke may be needed by many men, but it was not needed by
ehemiah, for he was not seeking the great things for himself.
It was a daring request, yet the king received it most favourably. Again, then, we
have the pleasing spectacle of a Persian monarch showing kindness to the Jews. This
is not the first time that Artaxerxes has proved himself their friend, for there can be
no doubt that he is the same sovereign as the Artaxerxes who despatched Ezra with
substantial presents to the aid of the citizens of Jerusalem some twelve or thirteen
years before.
Here, however, a little difficulty emerges. In the interval between the mission of
Ezra and that of ehemiah an adverse decree had been extracted from the
compliant sovereign-the decree referred to in Ezra 4:1-24. ow the semi-divinity
that was ascribed to a Persian monarch involved the fiction of infallibility, and this
was maintained by a rule making it unconstitutional for him to withdraw any
command that he had once issued. How then could Artaxerxes now sanction the
building of the walls of Jerusalem, which but a few years before he had expressly
forbidden? The difficulty vanishes on a very little consideration. The king’s present
action was not the withdrawal of his earlier decree, for the royal order to the
Samaritans had been just to the effect that the building of the walls of Jerusalem
should be stopped. [Ezra 4:21] This order had been fully executed; moreover it
contained the significant words, "until another decree shall be made by me." [Ezra
4:21] Therefore a subsequent permission to resume the work, issued under totally
different circumstances, would not be a contradiction to the earlier order, and now
that a trusty servant of the king was to superintend the operations, no danger of
insurrection need be apprehended. Then the pointed notice of the fact that the chief
wife-described as "The Queen"-was sitting by Artaxerxes, is evidently intended to
imply that her presence helped the request of ehemiah. Orientalists have
discovered her name, Damaspia, but nothing about her to throw light on her

attitude towards the Jews. She may have been even a proselyte, or she may have
simply shown herself friendly towards the young cup-bearer. o political or
religious motives are assigned for the conduct of Artaxerxes here. Evidently
ehemiah regarded the granting of his request as a direct result of the royal favour
shown towards himself. "Put not your trust in princes" [Psalms 146:3] is a
wholesome warning, born of the melancholy disappointment of the pilgrims who
had placed too much hope in the Messianic glamour with which the career of poor
Zerubbabel opened, but it does not mean that a man is to fling away the advantages
which accrue to him from the esteem he has won in high places. Ever since the
Israelites showed no scruple in spoiling the Egyptians-and who could blame them
for seizing at the eleventh hour the overdue wages of which they had been
defrauded for generations?-"the people of God" have not been slow to reap harvests
of advantage whenever persecution or cold indifference has given place to the brief,
fickle favour of the world. Too often this has been purchased at the price of the loss
of liberty-a ruinous exchange. Here is the critical point. The difficulty is to accept
aid without any compromise of principle. Sycophancy is the besetting snare of the
courtier, and when the Church turns courtier she is in imminent danger of that, in
her, most fatal fault. But ehemiah affords a splendid example to the contrary. In
his grand independence of character we have a fine instance of a wise, strong use of
worldly advantages, entirely free from the abuses that too commonly accompany
them. Thus he anticipates the idea of the Apocalypse where it is said, "The earth
helped the woman." [Revelation 12:16]
The interest of the king in his cup-bearer is shown by his repeated questions, and by
the determined manner in which he drags out of ehemiah all his plans and wishes.
Every request is granted. The favourite servant is too much valued to get his leave of
absence without some limit of time, but even that is fixed in accordance with
ehemiah’s desire. He asks and obtains letters of introduction to the governors west
of the Euphrates. The letters were most necessary, because these very men had
bestirred themselves to obtain the adverse decree but a very few years before. It is
not likely that they had all veered round to favour the hated people against whom
they had just been exhibiting the most severe antagonism. ehemiah therefore
showed a wise caution in obtaining a sort of "safe conduct." The friendliness of
Artaxerxes went still further. The king ordered timber to be provided for the
building and fortifying operations contemplated by his cup-bearer; this was to be
furnished from a royal hunting park-a "Paradise," to use the Persian word-
probably one which formerly belonged to the royal demesne of Judah, somewhere in
the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, as the head-forester bore a Hebrew name,
"Asaph." [ ehemiah 2:8] Costly cedars for the temple had to be fetched all the way
from the distant mountains of Lebanon, in Phoenician territory, but the city gates
and the castle and house carpentry could be well supplied from the oaks and other
indigenous timber of Palestine.
All these details evince the practical nature of ehemiah’s patriotism. His last word
on the happy conclusion of the interview with Artaxerxes, which he had anticipated
with so much apprehension, shows that higher thoughts were not crushed out by the
anxious consideration of external affairs. He concludes with a striking phrase,

which we have met with earlier on the lips of Ezra. [Ezra 7:28] "And the king
granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me." [ ehemiah 2:8] Here
is the same recognition of Divine Providence, and the same graphic image of the
"hand" of God laid on the writer. It looks as though the younger man had been
already a disciple of the Great Scribe. But his utterance is not the less genuine and
heartfelt on that account. He perceives that his prayer has been heard and
answered. The strength and beauty of his life throughout may be seen in his
constant reference of all things to God in trust and prayer before the event, and in
grateful acknowledgment afterwards.
PARKER, ""And it came to pass in the month isan [the name given by the Persian
Jews to the month previously called "Abib," the first month of the Jewish year, or
that which followed the vernal equinox. It fell four months after Chisleu (see ch.
ehemiah 1:1)], in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes [it is generally agreed that the
Artaxerxes intended is Longimanus, who reigned from b.c465 to b.c425] the king,
that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king" (
ehemiah 2:1).
The Result of Hanani"s Message
The urn which held the ashes of Artaxerxes is in the British Museum, so that those
who have any curiosity about the urn which held the ashes of the king can easily
satisfy that curiosity. In the month of isan ehemiah had his chance. He received
the message about the month of December, and for some three months, more or less,
he had been turning over this message in his mind, wondering what to do with it,
eagerly looking for the gate being set ajar, that he might push it back a little farther
and go through it, and do the work upon which his heart was set. For three months
the gate seemed not to be opened at all, but in the month isan the opportunity
came. Whether Artaxerxes took a little more wine than usual is not stated in the
Scripture: we simply know that, whilst Artaxerxes had the wine in his hand and was
enjoying his goblet, a certain conversation took place between him and his
cupbearer which ended in very important consequences.
For three months ehemiah was steady to his vow. How long are you going to keep
that best vow you ever made in your life dumb in your heart? How long are you
going to allow it to lie unredeemed, unrealised? The king"s gate stands ajar: on it is
written "Welcome,"—on it is written, "Knock and it shall be opened;" still further,
" ow is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation!" Speak the word, it will be a
sound in thine ear for ever: repeat the oath, and say thou wilt fulfil it to the letter;
and the very utterance of the oath and the very repetition of the desire to be better
will themselves be elements in your education, and will help you onward a step or
two heavenward, Godward.
Let us follow the history and see what its modern applications may possibly be.
" ow I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. Wherefore the king said unto
me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but

sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid" ( ehemiah 2:1-2).
How beautifully, how exquisitely human and true is this! You have been waiting for
your chance: the chance suddenly comes, and you who were on tiptoe of expectation
for it, seeing it as it were face to face, fall back, and feel the chill of a great fear in
your half-misgiving heart It is so with all great crises in life. Little things may
happen, and we may say we expected these—they may come as mere matters of
course—we have been looking for them, and now they have come we care next to
nothing for them. But the great messages that make the soul new, that inspire the
life with a new determination, the great gospels, the infinite evangels that regenerate
and sanctify the soul, these, though waited for long, always awaken inexpressible
surprise, and in not a few cases they first create a great fear before bringing in their
complete and final joy. For three months ehemiah said, "O that he would speak to
me! I would be so glad." Artaxerxes spoke to him and he was sore afraid. Is that a
contradiction? Only to a wooden life and to a dullard, not to a living soul, not to a
sympathetic spirit, not to a man who has lived everywhere and through all time,
who by the variety of his experience has been the contemporary of all ages. Do you
know what is meant by waiting for a great opportunity—having a great opportunity
set before you, and then falling back from it out of the fear of a great surprise? Such
was ehemiah"s experience on that memorable day when Artaxerxes read the
writing of sorrow on the face of his faithful cupbearer.
PETT, " ehemiah’s Successful Approach To The King And His Subsequent
Commission ( ehemiah 2:1-8).
Having reached his decision before God ehemiah now carried it out into practise.
He came into the king’s presence revealing something of his grief while performing
his service.
ehemiah 2:1
‘And it came about in the month isan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king,
when wine was before him, that I took up the wine, and gave it to the king. ow I
had not (previously) been sad in his presence.’
The timing of the event may well have been important. isan was the first month of
the calendar year, and the new year may well have been a time when the king was
inclined to dispel favours. Thus ehemiah may well have been awaiting this
propitious time. In view of ehemiah 1:1, however, it appears that for dating
purposes ehemiah is using the regnal year, as there Chislev was also in the
twentieth year of Artaxerxes. This may have been with the intentional purpose of
linking ehemiah 2:1 with ehemiah 1:1 by placing them in the same regnal year.
isan would still, however, have been the month of the new year celebrations.
‘When wine was before him’ is simply a general indication that this occurred at
mealtime. It was, of course, then that ehemiah would be called on to perform his
duty of receiving the king’s wine, tasting it, and passing it on to the king something
which he proceeded to do. He then makes the general comment, ‘I had not been sad

in his presence’. The time indicator ‘previously’ is not strictly necessary, although
helping us with the sense. The point is that he was never ‘sad in his presence’ at any
time. It was something that was unheard of. Or alternately it may signify that even
though he had been fasting and praying he had not been sad in his presence. The
implication is that now he was, and deliberately so. His heart must have been
beating fast as he awaited the king’s reaction. He was aware that at any moment he
might immediately be arrested for ‘making the king sad’.
PULPIT, "In the month isan. The fourth month after Chisleu, corresponding
nearly to our April. How it came about that ehemiah did not put the king's favour
to the proof until more than three months had gone by we can only conjecture.
Perhaps the court had been absent from Susa, passing the winter at Babylon, as it
sometimes did, and he had not accompanied it. Perhaps, though present at the court,
he had not been called on to discharge his office, his turn not having arrived.
Possibly, though performing his duties from time to time, he had found no
opportunity of unbosoming himself, the king not having noticed his grief. He. may
even have done his best to conceal it, for Persian subjects were expected to be
perfectly happy in the presence of their king. He had probably formed no plan, but
waited in the confident hope that God's providence would so order events, that some
occasion would arise whereof he might take advantage. In the twentieth year of
Artaxerxes. Like Daniel, Zechariah, Haggai, and Ezra, ehemiah dates events by
the regnal year of the existing Persian king. His Artaxerxes is, by common consent,
the same as Ezra's, and can scarcely be supposed to be any monarch but
Longimanus, who reigned from b.c. 465 to b.c. 425. ow I had not been beforetime
sad in his presence. Other renderings have been proposed, but this is probably the
true meaning. Hitherto I had always worn a cheerful countenance before him—now
it was otherwise—my sorrow showed itself in spite of me
BI 1-8, "And it came to pass in the month Nizan.
Divine interposition
I. Was opportune.
1. That God’s plans are worked out with the utmost precision.
2. That God often interferes on His people’s behalf when they least expect it.
3. That God generally interferes on His people’s behalf in their most urgent
extremity.
II. required human co-operation.
III. was accompanied by providential coincidences.
1. Nehemiah was unusually sad.
2. The king was unusually friendly.
3. The queen also was present. (Homiletic Commentary.)
A true patriot

That is only a small part of the gospel which leads a man to ask, “What must I do to be
saved?” The glorious gospel of the blessed God goes forth with us interested in
everything that concerns us as men—at home, in business, in town, in country, in all
national affairs, in the whole world. A Christian may thoughtlessly throw himself into
political exitement with no other motive than that of party feeling; but because he is a
Christian he will be glad to let the light of God shine in upon his aims and motives, and
will be glad to see his duty in the quietness and sacredness of this hour. The Bible, which
gives us examples of men in every position where duty leads, has given us amongst its
most brilliant and noble characters this of the statesman. If any should think such a
position inseparable from ambitious craft and party ends, let them note this fact.
Nehemiah is living at the court of the king, occupying a position of high rank, of much
influence, of great trust. If the chief thing in life is to take care of one’s own ease and
luxury, and not to trouble much about the wants and sorrows of other people, then here
is a man who has all that heart can wish. There are men, thousands of them, who have
no thought or purpose in life beyond themselves. Surely that is to degrade our manhood.
But what of any man who should call himself a Christian and yet should live all taken up
in himself as if nothing were worth a thought but how he may be as happy as possible on
earth—and then happier still in another world? Now to the court where Nehemiah
dwells come certain Jews from Jerusalem, and he goes forth to inquire about the state of
his countrymen and the beloved city. As a man, as a brother, as a servant of the Living
God, he is bound to feel the deepest concern in the welfare of his nation. It is easy
enough to think of what Nehemiah might have said, if he had been easy-going and
selfish, “I really am sorry, very sorry—but I do not see that I can do anything, you know.
It is as much as I can do to look after my own duties here without troubling myself about
the affairs of the nation.” There are some good people who talk so to-day and think it
sounds pious. He might have given them a subscription, say of a guinea. And then he
could have turned into the palace thankful not to be mixed up in these worldly matters.
Or he might have sipped his wine out of a golden goblet and thought what a pity it was
that everybody could not be as comfortable as he was. Well, if he had, you may be sure
that neither this Book of God nor any other would have found a place for his name. Or he
might have pleaded that he was in a very delicate and responsible position, holding
office under the king, and that it would never do for him to get mixed up in these
matters. Those good people who separate themselves from the duties of citizenship can
find no example in the Scriptures. Of all false notions about regenerating the world, the
most utterly false, as well as the laziest, is to think that this is the victory which
overcometh the world to run away from it. This Book does not teach that the world is the
devil’s, and the less we can have to do with it the better. No, indeed! “The earth is the
Lord’s and the fulness thereof.” The men of the Bible are not monks and recluses; but
they are in the very midst of the world and busied with its affairs. Its prophets and
messengers are men whose whole life has to do with the councils of kings, with the ways
of cities and courts. Surely it is impossible to think of the religion of Jesus Christ as
anything but a profound and eager interest in the welfare of our fellow-men—of their
bodies as well as their souls; of their work as well as their worship; of their homes on
earth as well as their getting to heaven. Nor have any the right to hold themselves aloof
from politics because it is mixed up with party strife. We deplore and condemn the
bitterness of party politics—but is there not a great deal of nonsense talked about party
politics? How are you going ever to have polities at all without party politics? If you want
abuses overthrown, and iniquities set right, and the privileges of the few shared by the
many, and abominations like the opium trade swept away, and the great curses of drink
and lust and gambling east out, are we to fold our hands because we are Christians, and
let the devil have his own way because these things involve strife! Of course they do, and

always will. We must expect opposition, excitement, abuse. The blessed Lord Jesus
accepted and discharged the duties of citizenship. Together with His holiness, His
meekness, His majesty, there is another grace and virtue—there is in Him a perfect
patriotism. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets and stonest them that
are cent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen doth
gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold your house is left unto you
desolate.” And this example, sublime it is, is followed closely by the apostle Paul, whose
passionate love to his countrymen prompts that daring utterance (Rom_9:1). And now
to turn to ourselves. What think you? Can we dare to call ourselves by the name of Jesus
Christ and yet be indifferent to the needs, the sorrows, the wants, the burdens of our
country? Lastly, see how this brave man served his country. Nehemiah sees that his
power to help his country is not mostly in his rank, nor in his influence with royalty; it is
in his power to pray. This is the great truth we want to lay hold of. The greatest power to
bless this land is in our power to pray for it. Here all are on a level. Women as well as
men. We need not wait for Parliament in this matter. Women’s rights are as ours at the
throne of the heavenly grace. Beginning thus in prayer right speedily a glorious
reformation is wrought in the face of plotting foes. In spite of the poverty and fewness of
the people the city is rebuilt. So shall the city of God once more be set up in the midst of
men, if every Christian man and woman will take in upon their heart the wants, the
woes, the wrongs, the sorrows of our land, and will plead with God to send us a
parliament that shall seek first in all things His kingdom and its righteousness. (M. G.
Pearse.)
Religious patriotism exemplified in the history of Nehemiah
The patriotism of Nehemiah was based on religion; and hence the interest which he
discovered in his far distant but afflicted countrymen, and the sacrifices which he made
for their welfare. The love of country, because it is the country of our birth, and of
countrymen, is no narrow-minded bigotry, as some shallow infidels in their pretended
love of universal mankind have imagined. It is a principle of human nature implanted in
our hearts for the wisest purposes. There is a patriotism which is quite selfish in its
nature. Their own aggrandisement, or that of their friends and partisans, is the sum and
substance of their patriotism. True patriotism, like every other great virtue, must be
founded in true religion. Had not Nehemiah been a pious man, and loved the God of his
fathers with all his heart, and loved his countrymen because they bore the image of God,
he never would have relinquished his high advantages in the palace of Artaxerxes, and
sacrificed so largely for their benefit. The true way to love man is to begin by loving God.
On hearing of the affliction of his countrymen, who he might have expected by this time
would have been in prosperous circumstances, Nehemiah betakes himself to prayer. All
this shows Nehemiah’s acquaintance with his Bible, and also the warmth of his piety. We
might have expected that living at heathen court, remote from the means of grace, with
few to strengthen or encourage him, he, though a good man, would have discovered in
his piety the disadvantage of the circumstances in which he had been placed. But no—
God can and often does compensate in richer effusions of His grace, for an adverse
outward situation. And here let us mark the course which he pursued in seeking to
relieve and restore his afflicted countrymen. He did not say, as many would have done,
in a proud, vaunting spirit, “I am the king’s cup-bearer. Backed by his authority, and
armed besides with wealth and power, I will soon reduce Jerusalem and its people to a
right condition; I will soon quell all opposition, rebuild the wall, and set up the gates,
and make the city glorious as of old.” This had been the spirit of man flushed with the

pride of power; but he had been taught of God, and so begins with humility and prayer.
Let us, and let all, follow his example. All are occasionally in the providence of God
required to discharge great duties. Important undertakings, involving the glory of God
and the good of others, ever and anon call for our services. How should we engage in
them? In a spirit of pride and self-confidence? No. But in a spirit of prayer and
penitence. We are apt to despair of an undertaking when it is suspended on the will of
man, and he is high above us, and we have ground to apprehend his hostility. Let this
encourage us to be much in prayer for a good cause, even where it seems to hang upon
the will of man, and that will appear hopelessly opposed. Nehemiah having thus
prepared himself by prayer, is not slow in setting out in his work. Here we may notice
the prudence and piety of this excellent Jew. He showed prudence in addressing a
motive to the mind of the king for his journey, which the monarch could understand and
appreciate. He did not ask leave to go to Jerusalem for the sake of his religion, but for
the sake of his fathers’ sepulchres. This was an argument to which even a heathen would
defer. With regard, again, to his piety, he did not only pray to God for counsel before
making his request, but he strengthened and emboldened himself by prayer at the very
time he stood in the presence of Artaxerxes. And then, after he had been successful in
the petition, he did not refer the success to his own wisdom, or to his services as a
faithful servant, but to the good hand of God upon him. He arrogated nothing to himself;
he ascribed all to God. How much piety is here, and how beautiful is the union between
piety and prudence! Considering the difficulties with which Christians have to struggle,
well may the Saviour exhort His followers to be wise as serpents, at the same time that
they are harmless as doves. It is worthy of notice, that deeply prayerful and dependent
on God as Nehemiah was, he was not unmindful of the duty of using all legitimate means
to secure the important object which he had in view. Prayer rightly understood does not
destroy the use of means; it only strengthens and regulates its application. Prayer
without means, and means without prayer, are equally presumptuous. Duty lies in
employing both, but keeping both in their right place. This excellent man now set out on
his journey, received the aid of the heathen governors upon the way, and soon reached
Jerusalem in safety. With his usual prudence he did not, in the first instance, inform any
one—priests, nobles, or rulers—what his intentions were. He wished to see the city with
his own eyes, and draw his own conclusions, before acquainting them with the object of
his mission. This enabled him to speak from personal observation, and so to speak with
greater effect. (J. G. Lorimer.)
Why is thy countenance sad?—
Royal dislike of the sight of suffering
A late empress of Russia enacted a severe penalty, if any funeral procession should pass
within sight of her palace. A princess of France, on her way to the capital, once ordered
all beggars and persons suffering under disease to be removed from the line of her
journey that she might not behold them. This Persian monarch notes signs of grief on
his faithful servant with signs of displeasure. How different it is with our Saviour King!
His heart is the seat of compassion for the afflicted. (W. Ritchie.)
So I prayed to the God of heaven.
Effective ejaculatory prayer the outcome of the habit of prayer

It is he that cultivates the habit of prayer that will seize the fitting opportunity for such
ejaculations. Some think because they may pray in any place and at all times that
therefore seasons of prayer may be neglected with impunity; but only he who delights in
communion with God, and does not omit set times for such communion, finds that when
the emergency arises, and but a moment is given, he can pray as truly and with as much
calmness as in his own closet. (W. P. Lockhart.)
Ejaculatory prayer
I. The nature of ejaculatory prayer. It differs from other kinds of prayer, in that—
1. It is dependent upon no place. Prayer is founded upon a full conviction of the
natural perfection of God; His omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. On the
conviction that the object of prayer is everywhere present, and that we may in every
place make known our request. Artisan, merchant, physician can pray wherever they
may be.
2. It is dependent on no particular time.
3. It is dependent on no particular occasion. No need to wait for Sabbath or hour of
public worship.
II. Examples of ejaculatory prayer. Abraham’s servant (Gen_24:12); Samson (Jdg_
16:28); Stephen (Act_7:59-60); Christ on various occasions.
III. Necessary occasions for ejaculatory prayer.
1. When suddenly called to important and difficult duties.
2. The Sabbath day and the assembly of the faithful. If hearers were more engaged in
ejaculatory prayer, ministers would be more successful preachers.
3. The hour of temptation.
4. The hour of sickness.
IV. The advantages of ejaculatory prayer.
1. It main-rains an habitual sense of our dependence upon God.
2. It preserves our minds in a proper tone for the various exercises of devotion.
3. It is a powerful preventive against sin.
4. It makes us bold to contend with enemies or difficulties.
5. It quickens our zeal and activity in the cause of God. (J. A. James.)
Spiritual recollectedness
This is a remarkable illustration of religious presence of mind.
I. The outcome of a consecrated life.
II. The result of long habit.
III. A mark of self-distrusting humility.
IV. A source of incalculable blessing. (Homiletic Commentary.)

Ejaculatory prayer
It was—
I. Suddenly required.
II. Silently offered.
III. Suitably addressed.
IV. Very brief.
V. Completely successful. (Homiletic Commentary.)
Ejaculatory prayer
Nehemiah had made inquiry as to the state of the city of Jerusalem, and the tidings he
heard caused him bitter grief. “Why should not my countenance be sad,” he said, “when
the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are
consumed with fire?” He could not endure that it should be a mere ruinous heap. Laying
the matter to heart, he did not begin to speak to other people about what they would do,
nor did he draw up a wonderful scheme about what might be done if so many thousand
people joined in the enterprise; but it occurred to him that he would do something
himself. This is just the way that practical men start a matter. The unpractical will plan,
arrange, and speculate about what may be done, but the genuine, thorough-going lover
of Zion puts this question to himself—“What can you do?” Coming so far, he resolved to
set apart a time for prayer. He never had it off his mind for nearly four months. When he
slept he dreamed about Jerusalem. When he woke, the first thought was “Poor
Jerusalem!” The man of one thing, you know, is a terrible man; and when one single
passion has absorbed the whole of his manhood something will be sure to come of it.
Before long Nehemiah had an opportunity. Men of God, if you want to serve God and
cannot find the propitious occasion, wait awhile in prayer and your opportunity will
break on your path like a sunbeam. There was never a true and valiant heart that failed
to find a fitting sphere somewhere or other in His service. That opportunity came, it is
true, in a way which he could not have expected. It came through his own sadness of
heart. This matter preyed upon his mind till he began to look exceedingly unhappy. But
you see when the opportunity did come there was trouble with it, for he says, “I was very
sore afraid.” You want to serve God, young man; you want to be at work. Perhaps you do
not know what that work involves It is not all pleasure. Thus have we traced Nehemiah
up to the particular point where our text concerns him.
I. The fact that nehemiah prayed challenges attention. He had been asked a question by
his sovereign. The proper thing you would suppose was to answer it. Not so. Before he
answered he prayed to the God of heaven. I do not suppose the king noticed the pause.
Probably the interval was not long enough to be noticed, but it was long enough for God
to notice it. We are the more astonished at his praying, because he was so evidently
perturbed in mind. When you are fluttered and put out you may forget to pray. Do you
not, some of you, account it a valid excuse for omitting your ordinary devotion? At least,
if any one had said to you, “You did not pray when you were about that business,” you
would have replied, “How could I?” So habitually was he in communion with God that as
soon as he found himself in a dilemma he flew away to God, just as the dove would fly to

hide herself in the clefts of the rock.
1. His prayer was the more remarkable on this occasion, because he must have felt
very eager about his object. The king asks him what it is he wants, and his whole
heart is set upon building up Jerusalem. Are not you surprised that he did not at
once say, “O king, live for ever. I long to build up Jerusalem’s walls. Give me all the
help thou canst”? But no, eager as he was to pounce upon the desired object, he
withdraws his hand until it is said, “So I prayed to the God of heaven.” I would that
every Christian’s heart might have just that holy caution that did not permit him to
make such haste as to find ill-speed.
2. It is all the more surprising that he should have deliberately prayed just then,
because he had been already praying for the past three or four months concerning
the selfsame matter. Some of us would have said, “That is the thing I have been
praying for; now all I have got to do is to take it and use it. Why pray any more?” But
no, you will always find that the man who has prayed much is the man to pray more.
If you are familiar with the mercy-seat you will constantly visit it.
3. One thing more is worth recollecting, namely, that he was in a king’s palace, and
in the palace of a heathen king, too; and he was in the very act of handing up to the
king the goblet of wine. But this devout Israelite, at such a time and in such a place,
when he stands at the king’s foot to hold up to him the golden goblet, refrains from
answering the king’s question until first he has prayed to the God of heaven.
II. The manner of this prayer.
1. It was what we call ejaculatory prayer—prayer which, as it were, hurls a dart and
then it is done. It was not the prayer which stands knocking at mercy’s door.
2. Notice, how very short it must have been. It was introduced—slipped in,
sandwiched in—between the king’s question and Nehemiah’s answer.
3. We know, also, that it must have been a silent prayer; and not merely silent as to
sounds but silent as to any outward signs—perfectly secret. Artaxerxes never knew
that Nehemiah prayed, though he stood probably within a yard of him. In the
innermost shrine of the temple—in the holy of holies of his own secret soul—there
did he pray. It was a prayer on the spot. He did not go to his chamber as Daniel did,
and open the window.
4. I have no doubt from the very wording of the text that it was a very intense and
direct prayer. That was Nehemiah’s favourite name for God—the God of heaven. He
knew whom he was praying to. He did not draw a bow at a venture and shoot his
prayers anyhow.
5. It was a prayer of a remarkable kind. I know it was so, because Nehemiah never
forgot that he did pray it.
III. To recommend to you this excellent style of praying.
1. To deal with this matter practically, then, it is the duty and privilege of every
Christian to have set times of prayer.
2. But now, having urged the importance of such habitual piety, I want to impress on
you the value of another sort of prayer, namely, the short brief, quick, frequent
ejaculations of which Nehemiah gives us a specimen. And I recommend this, because
it hinders no engagement and occupies no time. It requires you to go to no particular
place. No altar, no church, no so-called sacred place is needed, but wherever you are,

just such a little prayer as that will reach the ear of God, and win a blessing. Such a
prayer as that can be offered anywhere, under any circumstances. The advantage of
such a way of praying is that you can pray often and pray always. Such prayer may be
suggested by all sorts of surroundings.
3. These prayers are commendable, because they are truly spiritual. This kind of
prayer is free from any suspicion that it is prompted by the corrupt motive of being
offered to please men. If I see sparks coming out of a chimney I know there is a fire
inside somewhere, and ejaculatory prayers are like the sparks that fly from a soul
that is filled with burning coals of love to Jesus Christ. Short, ejaculatory prayers are
of great use to us. Oftentimes they check us. Bad-tempered people, if you were
always to pray just a little before you let angry expressions fly from your lips, why
many times you would not say those naughty words at all. The bit of offering these
brief prayers would also check your confidence in your self. It would show your
dependence upon God.
4. Besides, they actually bring us blessings from heaven. I believe it is very suitable
to some persons of a peculiar temperament who could not pray for a long time to
save their lives. Their minds are rapid and quick. But if I must give you a selection of
suitable times I should mention such as these. Whenever you have a great joy, cry,
“Lord, make this a real blessing to me.” Do not exclaim with others, “Am I not a
lucky fellow?” but say, “Lord, give me more grace, and more gratitude, now that
Thou dost multiply Thy favours.” When you have got any arduous undertaking on
hand or a heavy piece of business, do not touch it till you have breathed your soul out
in a, short prayer. When you have a difficulty before you, and you are seriously
perplexed, when business has got into a tangle or a confusion which you cannot
unravel or arrange, breathe a prayer. Are the children particularly troublesome to
you? Do you think that there is a temptation before you? Do you begin to suspect
that somebody is plotting against you? Now for a prayer, “Lead me in plain path,
because of mine enemies.” Are you at work at the bench, or in a shop, or a
warehouse, where lewd conversation and shameful blasphemies assail your ears?
Now for a short prayer. Does sin begin to fascinate you? Now for a prayer—a warm,
earnest, passionate cry, “Lord, hold Thou me up.” And when the shadow of death
gathers round you, and strange feelings flush or chill you, and plainly tell that you
near the journey’s end, then pray. Oh! that is a time for ejaculation. “Hide not Thy
face from me, O Lord”; or this, “Be not far from me, O God,” will doubtless suit you.
“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” were the thrilling words of Stephen in his extremity.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Ejaculatory prayer
Such a sudden uplifting of the soul to God is the most real of all prayers. The man who
can thus find God in a moment must be in the habit of frequently resorting to the Divine
presence. This ready prayer only springs to the lips of a man who lives in a daily habit of
prayer. The deliberate exercises of adoration, confession, and petition prepare for the
one sudden ejaculation. There we see the deep river which supplies the sea of devotion
from which the momentary prayer is cast up as the spray of a wave. We may compare
Nehemiah’s two kinds of prayer with our Lord’s full and calm intercession in Joh_17:1-
26. and the short, agonised cry from the Cross. (W. F. Adeney, M. A.)

Ejaculatory prayer
I. The person named.
1. As patriot.
2. As statesman.
3. As a man of God. Not guided by the policy of the world. He did nothing without
prayer.
II. The occasion. A moment needing great wisdom.
III. The lesson taught. The great duty of ejaculatory prayer. Various uses:
1. Throws light on such texts as 1Th_5:17 and 1Co_10:31.
2. Comfort in bodily pain (Psa_103:13; Psa_119:2).
3. Helps to victory over sin. (Canon Titcomb, M. A.)
Prayer before choosing
At the outset two things strike us here.
1. A rare opportunity for worldly advancement. Here is a king saying to his
cupbearer, “What dost thou want me to do for thee?” What a chance this for any
man! Wealth, dignity, influence, all put within his reach, left to depend upon his
choice.
2. A rare treatment of such an opportunity. What should we say if our sovereign
should speak thus to us? Most would say, “Give us a mansion to live in, lordly estate
as our inheritance, dazzling titles and extensive patronage.” What said Nehemiah?
He paused and reflected, and then he prayed. He would not choose for himself. Man
is a choosing creature; his daily life is made up of a series of choices; he has to reject
and accept in order to live.
I. God alone knows what is best for us. “Who knoweth what is good for man in this life,
all the days of his vain life?” Man is constantly making mistakes in this matter. What he
wants and struggles for as a prize sometimes turns out to be one of his sorest calamities.
Because Moses looked to heaven in such a case, he chose a life which to unregenerate
man would be revolting.
II. God always desires what is best for us. He made us to be happy. That He desires our
happiness is clear—
1. From the capacity of enjoyment with which He has endowed us.
2. From the elements of happiness with which the world abounds.
3. From the mission of His only-begotten Son.
III. God, in answer to prayer, is ever ready to bestow what is best for us. “Ask, and it
shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.”
Conclusion: Let us act ever upon the principle that prayer should precede choice.
(Homilist.)

The spiritual telegraph
I. How great is the privilege of prayer. Great indeed is the privilege of all this access to
the mercy-seat, but how unspeakable is the joy and the consolation of habitual
communion with God, and of taking occasion from duties, trials, or mercies, as they
follow one another, to lift up the heart in pious ejaculation. The word ejaculation is
derived from the Latin “jaculum,” an arrow, and suggests the rapidity and earnestness
with which such a prayer can be winged up to the God of heaven. We have seen how
Nehemiah interposed a prayer of this kind as a devout parenthesis between the king’s
request and his own reply. And there is no book of Scripture so remarkable for
ejaculatory prayer as the Book of Nehemiah. Such an acknowledgment of God in our
ways is no hindrance, but rather a mighty help in business. That which calms the mind,
fixes the purpose, and strengthens moral principle, must be a great assistance, whether
in duty or trial. As Fuller remarks, “Ejaculations take not up any room in the soul. They
give liberty of callings, so that at the same instant one may follow his proper vocation.
The husbandman may dart forth an ejaculation, and not make a halt the more. The
seaman nevertheless steers his ship right in the darkest night. The field wherein the bees
feed is no whir the barer for their biting: when they have taken their full repast on
flowers or grass, the ox may feed, the sheep fatten on their reversions. The reason is
because those little chemists distil only the refined part of the flower, leaving the greaser
substance thereof. So ejaculations bind not men to any bodily observance, only busy the
spiritual half, which maketh them consistent with the prosecution of any other
employment.” The rapidity and brevity of ejaculatory prayer has frequently been
illustrated by a reference to the electric telegraph, the greatest achievement of modern
science. Christ has opened a pathway down which redeeming mercy may flow into the
heart of the sinner, and by which the aspirations and longings of that penitent sinner
may climb up to his reconciled God and Father. Christians, however, can tell of
something quicker far than electricity. Thought, winging its way by prayer, travels
instantaneously from the depths of a penitent’s need to the height of God’s throne in
heaven. Who can estimate the distance thus travelled, or the relief thus experienced?
The child cries, and the Father answers. The sinner weeps, and the Saviour draws near to
wipe away his tears, and to fill him with an overflowing gladness.
II. But if the privilege of prayer be great, How intensely joyous is the answer. Recurring
to the narrative, let us observe in the gracious answer to Nehemiah’s prayer that delay is
not denial. Four weary months passed before Nehemiah had the opportunity of bringing
under the king’s notice the desolation of Zion. The answer to prayer is as sure as Divine
power, faithfulness, and love can make it. The providence of God concurs sweetly with
His grace in this answer. The answer, moreover, to Nehemiah’s request, through the
good hand of his God upon him, was overflowing and abundant. The utmost, probably,
that he had anticipated would be a full permission to resign his duties at court, and to go
to Jerusalem. But he received much more than this. He had the large-hearted sanction of
his master for all his undertakings. He was provided with a cavalry escort, with letters
for safe conduct beyond the river, and ample material for his work. Our God is able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. (J. M. Randall.)
Ejaculatory prayer in critical junctures
This kind is a short petition, hurled like a dart at its mark.
I. When? In critical junctures.

1. Before choice.
2. Before sudden action.
3. In danger. (The sinking Peter.)
II. Why?
1. Because critical junctures admit of no other kind.
2. Because it leads to wisdom (Pro_3:6).
3. Because it tranquilises the mind.
4. Because it would prevent sudden action.
III. How?
1. Do we pray at all?
2. Do we cultivate the spirit of prayer? (1Th_5:17).
3. Do occasions arise for ejaculatory prayer?
4. Would it help us when buying or selling, when making calls and tempted to gossip
or tell “white lies”? (L. O. Thompson.)
The praying patriot
The true secret of his success was Divine interposition in his behalf.
1. Nehemiah, under God, made the most of this opportunity. He had waited patiently
for it; and now, when it came, he did not fail to turn it to the best account. It is not
always that this is done. Many, we fear, if they had the chance, would be more ready
to injure the servants of Christ than to do them good, and to cripple and damage His
cause rather than extend it. And where another spirit prevails, have we not often to
mourn over lost opportunities of doing good? or over opportunities of doing good
that have been very imperfectly improved?
2. We are reminded that prayer does not supersede efforts in other directions.
Nehemiah did not content himself with the thought that he had prayed for
Jerusalem, and for its poor inhabitants. He supple mented his praying by using his
best endeavours to secure such help as man could render. And did he under-estimate
the power of prayer by this procedure? We think not. His conduct showed that he
was neither irreligious, on the one hand, nor fanatical on the other. Some objects are
best accomplished by prayer alone. Some persons are so placed now that all we can
do in their behalf is to pray for them; and some objects are of such a nature that we
cannot advance them other wise than by giving them an interest in our prayers. But,
as a rule, we may, and ought, to do something more than this for a good cause.
3. Answers to prayer should be gratefully acknowledged. (T. Rowson.)
Ejaculatory prayer
In hard havens, so choked up with the envious sands that great ships, drawing many feet
of water, cannot come near, lighter and lesser pinnaces may freely and safely arrive.
When we are time-bound, place-bound, so that we cannot compose our selves to make a

large, solemn prayer, this is the right instant for ejaculations, whether orally uttered or
only poured forth inwardly in the heart. (A. Fuller.)
The flame of devotion constant
The sacrifices of prayer and praise cannot be always ascending; but the flame of devotion
to kindle them, as opportunity may serve, ought never to wax dim. (Hugh Stowell, M.
A.)
The devotional spirit
Of all the habits of the new man, there is none more distinctive, none more conducive to
his soul’s health and happiness, none more essential to his consistency of conduct and
beauty of holiness, than the devotional spirit. (Hugh Stowell, M. A.)
Prayer in few words
We make a great many mistakes about prayer; and one of them is that we don’t think we
have prayed properly unless we have prayed a certain time. But a few moments of real
prayer are better than many minutes of only formal prayer. “For my own part,” says a
friend, “if one may talk of a ‘best’ in the matter of one’s prayers, I find that the best
prayers I can make are very short ones indeed. Sometimes they have only one sentence,
and they are by no means always said upon my knees. They are offered up while I am
walking about, or lying awake at night, or riding in the train.” When Bengel, the great
commentator, was too weary to pray, all he said was, “Lord, Thou knowest that it is
between us to-day as it was yesterday”; and so he went to sleep. A young man, who was
worn by sick ness and suffering, had only strength to pray in short and broken sentences
His heart was filled with foreboding as Satan whispered that the great God could never
listen to such a prayer. Suddenly he came upon these words: “God is in heaven, and thou
upon earth, therefore let thy words be few.” “Ah!” he said, “I have found a verse written
expressly for me. God will accept the few words I can utter; now I will trust and not be
afraid.” If no man is heard for his much speaking, no man is rejected for his little
speaking—if compressed into that little be the earnestness of his heart. (Signal.)
Prayer in perplexity
A little child, playing with a handful of cords, when they begin to get into a tangle, goes
at once to her mother, that her patient fingers may unravel the snarl. How much better
this than to pull and tug at the cords till the tangle becomes inextricable I May not many
of us learn a lesson from the little child? Would it not be better for us, whenever we find
the slightest entanglement in any of our affairs, or the arising of any perplexity, to take it
at once to God, that His skilful hands may set it right?
Prayer heard in heaven
Ejaculatory prayer is like the rope of a belfry; the bell is in one room, and the end of the
rope which sets it a-ringing in another. Perhaps the bell may not be heard in the
apartment where the rope is, but it is heard in its own apartment. Moses laid hold of the

rope and pulled it hard on the shore of the Red Sea; and though no one heard or knew
anything about it in the lower chamber, the bell rang loudly in the upper one. (Williams
of Wern.)
The swiftness of prayer
We may, if we please, have a mail to heaven, conveying in a moment intelligence of our
condition and concerns, our wants and our desires, to our God and Father, and bringing
back to us a gracious answer, with advice and comfort, protection and help. Prayer is the
swift courier, and sighs are the winged messengers. Doves have been trained to fly from
place to place, carrying letters in a little casket fastened to their neck or foot. They are
swift of flight; but our prayers and sighs are swifter, for they take but a moment to pass
from earth to heaven, and bear the troubles of our heart to the heart of God. (R. Scriver.)
Ejaculatory prayer possible to busy people
The following extract is from a letter addressed by a poor woman to the editor of the
Banner of Faith: “Poor women with large families often think they have little time for
prayer or praise. As I am a poor woman with a large family, and know the value of prayer
and praise, I will tell them how I find time for it. Whilst I am cleaning the house I lift my
heart to God and say, ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within
me, for Christ’s sake. Amen.’ When I am washing the clothes I say, ‘Wash me in Thy
blood, O Jesus; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.’ Then as I get to each of my
children’s clothes I pray for them separately, not aloud, but in my heart. Again, if I pick
up the shirt of one who drinks, I ask God to change his heart, to show him his state in
God’s sight, and to help him to give up drink and become a sober, godly youth. If I am
washing the shirt of another who has a horrid temper, that is a terror to us all, I pray to
God to break his stubborn temper, to soften his heart of stone, and give him a heart of
flesh. If I am washing anything belonging to a girl who is idle, then I pray God to show
her her sin, and change her whole nature, by the Holy Spirit. Yes, I pray for each as I
know their need. Then when I am sewing I find lots of time both for prayer and praise.
When I light or mend the fire, I say in my heart, ‘Kindle, O Lord, a sacred fire in this cold
heart of mine.’“ (E. J. Hardy, M. A.)
2 so the king asked me, “Why does your face look
so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing
but sadness of heart.”
I was very much afraid,

BAR ES, "I was very sore afraid - A Persian subject was expected to be perfectly
content so long as he had the happiness of being with his king. A request to quit the
court was thus a serious matter.
CLARKE, "Then I was very sore afraid - Probably the king spoke as if he had
some suspicion that Nehemiah harboured some bad design, and that his face indicated
some conceived treachery or remorse.
GILL, "Wherefore the king said unto me, why is thy countenance sad,
seeing thou art not sick?.... He had no disorder upon him to change his countenance
and make him sorrowful, and therefore asks what should be the reason of it:
this is nothing else but sorrow of heart; this is not owing to any bodily disease or
pain, but some inward trouble of mind; or "wickedness of heart" (p), some ill design in
his mind, which being conscious of, and thoughtful about, was discovered in his
countenance; he suspected, as Jarchi intimates, a design to kill him, by putting poison
into his cup:
then I was very sore afraid; lest the king should have suspicion of an ill design on
him; or lest, since he must be obliged to give the true reason, he should not succeed in
his request, it being so large, and perhaps many about the king were no friends to the
Jews.
HE RY, " The kind notice which the king took of his sadness and the enquiry he
made into the cause of it (Neh_2:2): Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not
sick? Note, 1. We ought, from a principle of Christian sympathy, to concern ourselves in
the sorrows and sadnesses of others, even of our inferiors, and not say, What is it to us?
Let not masters despise their servants' griefs, but desire to make them easy. The great
God is not pleased with the dejections and disquietments of his people, but would have
them both serve him with gladness and eat their bread with joy. 2. It is not strange if
those that are sick have sad countenances, because of what is felt and what is feared;
sickness will make those grave that were most airy and gay: yet a good man, even in
sickness, may be of good cheer if he knows that his sins are forgiven. 3. Freedom from
sickness is so great a mercy that while we have that we ought not to be inordinately
dejected under any outward burden; yet sorrow for our own sins, the sins of others, and
the calamities of God's church, may well sadden the countenance, without sickness.
JAMISO 2-5, "the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad? — It
was deemed highly unbecoming to appear in the royal presence with any weeds or signs
of sorrow (Est_4:2); and hence it was no wonder that the king was struck with the
dejected air of his cupbearer, while that attendant, on his part, felt his agitation
increased by his deep anxiety about the issue of the conversation so abruptly begun. But
the piety and intense earnestness of the man immediately restored [Nehemiah] to calm

self-possession and enabled him to communicate, first, the cause of his sadness (Neh_
2:3), and next, the patriotic wish of his heart to be the honored instrument of reviving
the ancient glory of the city of his fathers.
COFFMA , "Then I was sore afraid" ( ehemiah 2:2). "It was contrary to court
behavior for a servant to appear sad."[2]"Being sad in the king's presence was a
serious offense in Persia (Esther 4:2); and, besides that, ehemiah was well aware
that the request which he would ultimately make of the king might indeed anger
him."[3]
ELLICOTT, "(2) Then I was very sore afraid.—Waiting on Providence, ehemiah
had discharged his duties for three months without being sad in the king’s presence;
but on this day his sorrow could not be repressed. His fear sprang from the king’s
abrupt inquiry. A sad countenance was never tolerated in the royal presence; and,
though Artaxerxes was of a milder character than any other Persian monarch, the
tone of his question showed that in this respect he was not an exception.
TRAPP, " ehemiah 2:2 Wherefore the king said unto me, Why [is] thy countenance
sad, seeing thou [art] not sick? this [is] nothing [else] but sorrow of heart. Then I
was very sore afraid,
Ver. 2. Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad?] Some would
have chided him, and bid him be packing, for they liked not his looks, there might
be treason hatching in his heart; he was a man of an ill aspect. But love thinks no
evil.
Seeing thou art not sick?] Sickness will cause sadness in the best. Those stoics that
said a wise man must be merry, though sick, when sickness came, were convinced, se
magnificentius locutos esse quam verius, that they spake rather bravely than truly.
And therefore Cicero to a merry life requireth three things: 1. To enjoy health. 2. To
possess honour. 3. ot to suffer necessity. Faith in Christ is more to the purpose
than any or all of these.
This is nothing else but sorrow of heart] The heart commonly sitteth in the
conntenance, and there showeth how it stands affected. Momus needeth not carp at
man’s make, and wish a window in his breast, that his thoughts might be seen; for,
"a merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of heart the spirit is
broken," Proverbs 15:13. The Hebrews say that a man’s inside is turned out and
discovered, in oculis, in loculis, in poculis, in his eyes, purse, and cup.
Then I was very sore afraid] Grieved before, now afraid. Thus, aliud ex alio malum:
fluctus fluctum trudit, One sorrow followeth another, and a Christian’s faith and
patience is continually exercised. But in the multitude of ehemiah’s perplexed
thoughts within him, God’s comforts refreshed his soul, Psalms 94:19. He casts his

suit or his burden upon the Lord, Psalms 55:22, and doubteth not but he will effect
his desire.
BE SO , " ehemiah 2:2. The king said, Why is thy countenance sad? — His
fasting, joined with inward grief, had made a sensible change in his countenance.
Then I was sore afraid — It was an unusual and ungracious thing to come into the
king of Persia’s presence with any token of sorrow. And he feared a disappointment,
because his request was great and invidious, and odious to most of the Persian
courtiers.
WHEDO , "2. I was… sore afraid — The king’s question was probably altogether
unexpected, and coming on that public occasion, when the queen was also present,
( ehemiah 2:6,) and, perhaps, many nobles of the court, he was filled with
confusion, and feared that the presenting of his cause on such an occasion might
expose it to failure, and himself to scorn and punishment. Perhaps he feared, too,
that the king might suspect some foul designs in his heart.
PETT, "‘And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick?
This is nothing else but sorrow of heart.” Then I was very deeply afraid.’
The king, who was always surrounded by smiling faces, immediately discerned what
the situation was. ehemiah was clearly not sick, so why the sad face? What was the
sad news that ehemiah wanted to convey to him? Perhaps he expected to hear of
the death of a beloved relative. That alone could justify ehemiah bringing his
sorrows to the king’s attention. The fact that the queen was present at the feast
( ehemiah 2:6) was probably an indication that it was a private feast.
‘Then I was very deeply afraid.’ He had reason to be afraid. He was about to ask
Artaxerxes to put aside his temporary decree which had prevented the building of
the walls of Jerusalem (Ezra 4:21). Depending on how serious a matter the king saw
that to be it could have been seen as a request of great significance, and it might
certainly be seen as questionable whether such a political plea justified ‘making the
king sad’. An element of treason might even have been seen as involved. If the king
was annoyed about it he could order his immediate execution. But ehemiah had
not come unprepared. He had considered carefully how to phrase his request. He
presented it in terms of the disgrace brought on his father’s sepulchre. He was
indicating that his concern was a matter of family honour. This was something that
the king would appreciate for to both royalty and the aristocracy the family
sepulchre was seen as of huge importance. It will be noted that ehemiah makes no
mention of Jerusalem.
PULPIT, "The king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad? This "kindly
question" put by the great king to his humble retainer is his best claim to the
favourable judgment of later ages. History puts him before us as a weak monarch,
one who could compromise the royal dignity by making terms with a revolted
subject, while he disgraced it by breaking faith with a conquered enemy. But if
weak as a king, as a man he was kind-hearted and gentle. Few Persian monarchs
would have been sufficiently interested in their attendants to notice whether they

were sad or no; fewer still would have shown sympathy on such an occasion. A
Xerxes might have ordered the culprit to instant execution. Longimanus feels
compassion, and wishes to assuage the grief of his servant. Then I was very sore
afraid. otwithstanding the king's kind and compassionate words, ehemiah feels
his danger. He has looked sad in the king's presence. He is about to ask permission
to quit the court. These are both sins against the fundamental doctrine of Persian
court life, that to bask in the light of the royal countenance is the height of felicity.
Will the king be displeased, refuse his request, dismiss him from his post, cast him
into prison, or will he pardon his rudeness and allow his request?
3 but I said to the king, “May the king live
forever! Why should my face not look sad when
the city where my ancestors are buried lies in
ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”
BAR ES, "The city ... of my fathers’ sepulchres - We may conclude from this
that Nehemiah was of the tribe of Judah, as Eusebius and Jerome say that he was.
CLARKE, "Let the king live for ever - Far from wishing ill to my master, I wish
him on the contrary to live and prosper for ever. Aelian, Hist. Var. lib. i. c. 32, uses the
same form of speech in reference to Artaxerxes Mnemon, one of the Persian kings,
Βασιλευ Αρταξερξη, δι’ αιωνος βασιλευοις, “O King Artaxerxes, may you reign for ever,”
when speaking of the custom of presenting them annually with an offering of earth and
water; as if they had said, May you reign for ever over these!
GILL, "And I said unto the king, let the king live for ever,.... Which some think
he said to take off the king's suspicion of his having a design upon his life, though it
seems to be a common salutation of the kings in those times, see Dan_6:6,
why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my
fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with
fire? a man's native place, and where his ancestors lie interred, being always reckoned
near and dear, the king and his nobles could not object to his being concerned for the

Nehemiah 2 commentary

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (9)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (19)

Similar to Nehemiah 2 commentary

Similar to Nehemiah 2 commentary (20)

More from GLENN PEASE

More from GLENN PEASE (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Nehemiah 2 commentary