Nehemiahchapter 1
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Key verse
The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,
It stands in The wall broken down and the gates burned with fire, verses 1 to 3.
The chapter
Chapter summary
In Chislev, in Shushan the palace, Hanani comes from Judah with the report that breaks the book open: 'The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach; the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.' Nehemiah sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven: confessing the sins of Israel and of his own father's house, then pleading the word given to Moses: scattering for trespass, gathering for return, even from the uttermost part of the heavens. 'Prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day.' The last line sets it all up: 'Now I was cupbearer to the king.'
Context
History · Nehemiah · Nehemiah overview
Where the chapter sits
Nehemiah 1 falls in Rebuilding the walls (chapters 1–7). Nehemiah's prayer; his commission from Artaxerxes; Jerusalem's walls in ruin; the wall built in fifty-two days amid external threats (Sanballat) and internal pressures (debt crisis); the dedication.
Nehemiah's prayer. ‘Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open.’
After it: Covenant renewal under Ezra's teaching, chapters 8–10.
The whole shape of Nehemiah→The world behind this chapter
Nehemiah 1The history
Susa was one of several royal residences. Persian kings moved with the seasons, Susa in the cooler months, Ecbatana in the summer heat, Persepolis for ceremony, Babylon for administration. Nehemiah is in Susa in December, which is exactly where the court would be.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The news that arrives is not about the old destruction. Jerusalem's walls had been down since 586, more than a century; nobody weeps for four months over hundred-year-old news. Ezra 4 records a later attempt at rebuilding that officials stopped "by force and power," and the report here, the wall broken down and the gates burned with fire, reads as a fresh setback.
What Nehemiah does with the report is fast, and then slow. He sits down and weeps, then mourns and fasts and prays for days, and does nothing about it for four months until the season is right.
What it meant to them
His prayer is built out of Scripture. He quotes God's warning to Moses about scattering and His promise about gathering, and holds God to His own words, "remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses."
And, like Ezra and Daniel before him, he puts himself inside the guilt: "both I and my father's house have sinned." Then the last line of the chapter turns practical, asking for mercy "in the sight of this man", and only then does the reader learn that this man is the king, and Nehemiah is his cupbearer.
Sources cited
- Edwin Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible
- Herodotus, Histories (public domain)
- K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. The wall broken down and the gates burned with fire
1. (vv. 1-2)
Nehemiah 1:1
“The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah - The prophetical books commence generally with a title of this kind (see Jer 1:1); but no other extant historical book begins thus. Nehemiah, while attaching his work to Ezra, perhaps marked in this manner the point at which his own composition commenced. (See the introduction of the Book of Nehemiah.)”
Read the whole quotation
Chisleu - The ninth month, corresponding to the end of November and beginning of December. In the twentieth year - i. e. of Artaxerxes Longimanus (465-425 B.C.). Compare Neh 2:
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Nehemiah 1:1evangelical
Nehemiah 1:1, 1 more voiceWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Nehemiah 1:1
“The words - Or rather, the acts, as the word often signifies. Chisleu - Which is the ninth month, containing part of November, and part of December. Shushan - The royal city of Persia.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)· Nehemiah 1:1evangelical
Nehemiah 1:2
“I asked them concerning the Jews - Josephus gives a probable account of this business: “Nehemiah, being somewhere out of Susa, seeing some strangers, and hearing them converse in the Hebrew tongue, he went near; and finding they were Jews from Jerusalem, he asked them how matters went with their brethren in that city, and what was their state?””
Read the whole quotation
And the answer they gave him is, in substance, that recorded in the text; though with several aggravations in Josephus. - Joseph. Ant. lib. xi., c. 5.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Nehemiah 1:2evangelical
Nehemiah 1:2, 1 more voice
Nehemiah 1:2
“The dignity to which he was advanced. Though he was a great man, and probably rising higher, yet he did not think it below him to take cognizance of his brethren that were low and despised, nor was he ashamed to own his relation to them and concern for them.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)· Nehemiah 1:2puritan
a.in Shushan the palace: The book opens as a dated memoir: Chisleu, the ninth month, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, with Nehemiah in Shushan the palace, the Persian court far from the city he has never seen. Hanani, one of his brethren, arrives with men of Judah, and Nehemiah asks after two things, the remnant that escaped the captivity and Jerusalem itself. A cupbearer with standing at court still calls exiled countrymen his brethren and asks for news of a city that is not his home.
2. (v. 3)
Nehemiah 1:3
“The attempt to rebuild the wall in the time of the Pseudo-Smerdis Ezr 4:12-24 had been stopped. It still remained in ruins. The Assyrian sculptures show that it was the usual practice to burn the gates.”
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Nehemiah 1:3evangelical
Nehemiah 1:3-4
a.are burned with fire: Hanani's answer is stark: the wall of Jerusalem lies broken down and its gates are burned with fire, a report reaching Shushan more than a century after the first return under Zerubbabel. Nehemiah sits down and weeps, mourns certain days, and fasts and prays before the God of heaven, grief that comes long before any request for leave to act. The mourning falls in Chisleu; the asking of the king waits until Nisan, four months later at 2:1, so the praying runs far ahead of the chance to act on it. A man with wine in his hand at the world's court grieves first over stones he has never touched.
B. Nehemiah weeps, fasts, and pleads the promise made to Moses
1. (v. 4)
Nehemiah 1:4
“And it came to pass, when I heard these words,....”
Read the whole quotation
This sad and melancholy account of things: that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days; sat down upon the ground in dust and ashes, after the manner of mourners, and wept bitterly, and mourned in a most sorrowful manner, see Job 2:8, and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven; that made it, and dwells in it.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Nehemiah 1:4reformed
Nehemiah 1:4, 1 more voice
Nehemiah 1:4
“And mourned certain days - From the month Chisleu to the month Nisan; about four months from the time he received the above information, till the time that Artaxerxes noticed his grief, Neh 2:1. All this time he probably spent in supplication to God; waiting for a favorable opening in the Divine providence.”
Read the whole quotation
Every good work is not to be undertaken hastily; prayer and watchfulness are necessary to its completion. Many good works have been ruined by making haste.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Nehemiah 1:4evangelical
2. (vv. 5-6)
Nehemiah 1:5
“Lord God of heaven - What was, before the captivity, Jehovah, God of hosts or armies. Great - Able to do mighty things. Terrible - able to inflict the heaviest judgments.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Nehemiah 1:5evangelical
Nehemiah 1:6
“His penitent confession of sin; not only Israel has sinned (it was no great mortification to him to own that), but I and my father's house have sinned,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)· Nehemiah 1:6puritan
a.the great and terrible God: The prayer opens with a title before a petition: O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments. Nehemiah asks first that God's ear be attentive and his eyes open to a prayer he has kept praying day and night, then turns the prayer on himself, both I and my father's house have sinned. Confession begins with the whole nation but does not stay there; he counts his own house inside Israel's guilt rather than standing over it.
3. (vv. 7-9)
Nehemiah 1:7
“Have not kept thy commandments - The moral precepts by which our lives should be regulated. Statutes - What refers to the rites and ceremonies of thy religion. Judgments - The precepts of justice relative to our conduct to each other.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Nehemiah 1:7evangelical
Nehemiah 1:8
But I say, Has the Lord used iniquity to snatch the nations from the power of his enemies and recall them to faith in him and to his dominion? By no means.
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For "Israel" was once "the Lord's portion," but they made Israel turn from their God in sin, and because of their sins God said to them, "Behold, you have been separated by your sins and because of your sins you have been scattered under the whole heaven."
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· HOMILIES ON GENESIS 9.7· Nehemiah 1:8patristic
Nehemiah 1:8, 2 more voices
Nehemiah 1:8
“Thy servant Moses - See the parallel places in Lev 26:33 (note), Deu 4:25-27 (note), Deu 28:64 (note), and the notes there. Though in an enemy’s country, and far from the ordinances of God, Nehemiah did not forget the law: he read his Bible well, and quotes correctly.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Nehemiah 1:8evangelical
Nehemiah 1:8
“This he quotes from Deut. xxx. 1-5 , and begs leave to put God in mind of it (though the Eternal Mind needs no remembrancer) as that which he guided his desires by, and grounded his faith and hope upon, in praying this prayer: Remember, I beseech thee, that word; for thou hast said, Put me in remembrance.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)· Nehemiah 1:8puritan
Nehemiah 1:9
“But if ye return unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them,....”
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Nehemiah 1:9reformed
a.dealt very corruptly against thee: The confession names three categories at once, commandments, statutes and judgments, all commanded through Moses and all broken. Verse 8 turns the prayer's engine: remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, and Nehemiah recites the scatter clause of Deuteronomy 30 back to the God who spoke it, if ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations. Verse 9 completes the same passage's other half, the promise to gather the scattered again from the uttermost part of heaven if they turn back and keep the commandments, so the petition rests on a promise already on record rather than a new claim. Nehemiah is not informing God of anything; he is holding God to his own recorded word.
4. (vv. 10-11)
Nehemiah 1:10
“Now these are thy servants, and thy people,.... Meaning those that were in Jerusalem and Judah, gathered out of several countries, and returned to Jerusalem: whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand; touching and moving the heart of Cyrus to proclaim liberty to them.”
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Nehemiah 1:10reformed
Nehemiah 1:11
“Mercy in the sight of this man - Favour before the king, Ahasuerus. He seems then to have been giving him the cup.”
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For I was the king’s cup-bearer - The king’s butler, (the Persians call him saky), which gave him the opportunity of being frequently with the king; and to be in such a place of trust, he must be in the king’s confidence. No Eastern potentate would have a cup-bearer with whom he could not trust his life, poison being frequently administered in this way.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Nehemiah 1:11evangelical
Nehemiah 1:11, 4 more voices
Nehemiah 1:11
“NEHEMIAH was earnest in his prayer for the good of his sorrow-stricken nation, but he did not make the mistake of thinking that he was the only praying man in the world. He said, "Be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants, who desire to fear Your name."”
Read the whole quotation
In this one respect, I like Nehemiah better than Elijah.
Charles Spurgeon· written before 1892· The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2714: “Those Who Desire” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)· Nehemiah 1:11Particular Baptist
Nehemiah 1:11
“I was the king's cupbearer--This officer, in the ancient Oriental courts, was always a person of rank and importance; and, from the confidential nature of his duties and his frequent access to the royal presence, he possessed great influence.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)· Nehemiah 1:11reformed
Nehemiah 1:11
“Observe, He is not forward to tell us what great preferment he had at court; it is not till the end of the chapter that he tells us he was the king's cup-bearer (a place of great trust, as well as of honour and profit), when he could not avoid the mentioning of it because of the following story; but at first he only said, I was in Shushan the palace.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)· Nehemiah 1:11puritan
Nehemiah 1:11
“Who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a man? Mercy in the sight of this man is what he prays for, meaning not the king's mercy, but mercy from God in his address to the king. Favour with men is then comfortable when we can see it springing from the mercy of God.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)· Nehemiah 1:11puritan
a.redeemed by thy great power: The prayer closes by naming Israel thy servants and thy people, redeemed already by God's great power and strong hand, the ground for the request rather than the request itself. Nehemiah asks for his own prayer to be heard alongside the prayers of those who desire to fear God's name, and then for one day's success, prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. The world's most powerful throne is reduced in that last clause to this man, a person standing under the God of heaven rather than over him. The chapter's final line names the access behind the prayer, for I was the king's cupbearer, a post of trust that put Nehemiah within reach of Artaxerxes' own table.
This page carries no textual note on Nehemiah 1. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765); Matthew Henry and Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON GENESIS 9.7.
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