Nehemiahchapter 2

Speaks with:Nehemiah 2×5 Nehemiah 1×6 Ezra 7×4 Ezra 8×3 Nehemiah 6×3 Jeremiah 31×2

Nehemiah Views the Ruins of Jerusalem's Walls — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

Summary

Chapter summary

Four months later, in Nisan, Nehemiah carries his grief into the throne room, and the king asks why his countenance is sad: 'Then I was very sore afraid.' He answers plainly: the city of his fathers' sepulchres lies waste. Asked what he requests, he prays mid-conversation ('So I prayed to the God of heaven'), then asks for letters of passage and timber from the king's forest, granted 'according to the good hand of my God upon me.' Sanballat and Tobiah are grieved. In Jerusalem he rides out alone by night to survey the ruined gates, telling no man, then calls the city: 'Come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.'

Context

History · Nehemiah — Nehemiah overview

A. 1–8 A sad face before the king, and a prayer between two sentences
B. 9–16 Riding the ruins by night and telling no one
C. 17–20 Let us rise and build: the God of heaven will prosper us

The outline

A.A sad face before the king, and a prayer between two sentencesvv. 1 to 8
Read vv. 1 to 8 →
B.Riding the ruins by night and telling no onevv. 9 to 16
Read vv. 9 to 16 →
C.Let us rise and build: the God of heaven will prosper usvv. 17 to 20
Read vv. 17 to 20 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

The hand of our God upon us

Pattern

One formula explains every success Ezra and Nehemiah record: the good hand of his God upon him. It falls seven times in Scripture and all seven are in these two books, covering a royal grant, a safe road home, the right Levites found, and timber from the king's forest.

Ezra was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers after telling him that the hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him, so the caravan traveled guarded by the claim itself. The refrain is the books' doctrine of providence: every success is received from the hand, never seized.

Ezra 7:6
The king grants all Ezra asks
According to the hand of the Lord his God upon him.
Ezra 7:9
Four months from Babylon to Jerusalem
Ezra 8:18
A man of understanding found for the caravan
Ezra 8:22
Ashamed to ask the king for soldiers
The claim already made to the king becomes the caravan's only escort.
Ezra 8:31
Delivered from the enemy by the way
Nehemiah 2:8 you are here
Timber granted from the king's forest
Nehemiah 2:18 you are here
The people rise up and build

The world behind this chapter

Nehemiah 2

When

The commission and the arrival · The month Nisan in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, c. April 445 BC

Where

The king's table at Susa, then a night ride around the ruins of Jerusalem

Who first heard it

A community that had learned to expect its building projects to be stopped

The history

A cupbearer was not a waiter. He tasted the king's wine against poison, which meant the king trusted him with his life and saw him daily — a position of real access held by trusted courtiers. Persian court protocol also required a serene face before the king; showing grief in the royal presence was a serious breach, which is why Nehemiah says he was very sore afraid.

What he asks for is a package: leave, safe-conduct letters to the governors of Beyond the River, and timber from the keeper of the king's forest, named as Asaph. Royal estates and managed woodland were a normal part of Persian provincial holdings. He is also given army officers and horsemen — the escort Ezra had been ashamed to request.

The opponents appear immediately and by name: Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and later Geshem the Arabian. All three are more than literary figures. A Jewish letter from the garrison at Elephantine in Egypt refers to the sons of Sanballat, governor of Samaria, and an inscribed silver bowl from Egypt names a king of Qedar called Geshem.

What it meant to them

Nehemiah's first act in Jerusalem is to tell nobody. He rides out at night with a few men, inspects the broken walls and burned gates, and in places the rubble is too deep for the animal to pass. Then he speaks.

His pitch is short and includes himself: "Ye see the distress that we are in… come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach." The reproach was the point. A city without walls was a city anyone could enter and nobody respected.

Sources cited

Edwin Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible
Herodotus, Histories (public domain)
K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Nehemiah 2. 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 C. F. Keil, The Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

Study this chapter

Nehemiah 25 verses
- Nehemiah 2:3and replied to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should I not be sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”
- Nehemiah 2:4“What is your request?” replied the king. So I prayed to the God of heaven
- Nehemiah 2:9Then I went to the governors west of the Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me.
- Nehemiah 2:17Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned down. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we will no longer be a disgrace.”
- Nehemiah 2:19But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about this, they mocked us and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”
- Read Nehemiah 2 →
Nehemiah 14 verses
- Nehemiah 1:1These are the words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: In the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa,
- Nehemiah 1:3And they told me, “The remnant who survived the exile are there in the province, in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”
- Nehemiah 1:4When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
- Nehemiah 1:11O Lord, may Your ear be attentive to my prayer and to the prayers of Your servants who delight to revere Your name. Give Your servant success this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” (At that time I was the cupbearer to the king.)
- Read Nehemiah 1 →
Ezra 74 verses
- Ezra 7:1Many years later, during the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,
- Ezra 7:6this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted Ezra all his requests, for the hand of the LORD his God was upon him.
- Ezra 7:21I, King Artaxerxes, decree to all the treasurers west of the Euphrates: Whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven, may require of you, it must be provided promptly,
- Ezra 7:27Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who has put into the heart of the king to so honor the house of the LORD in Jerusalem,
- Read Ezra 7 →
Ezra 83 verses
- Ezra 8:22For I was ashamed to ask the king for an escort of soldiers and horsemen to protect us from our enemies on the road, since we had told him, “The hand of our God is gracious to all who seek Him, but His great anger is against all who forsake Him.”
- Ezra 8:32So we arrived at Jerusalem and rested there for three days.
- Ezra 8:36They also delivered the king’s edicts to the royal satraps and governors of the region west of the Euphrates, who proceeded to assist the people and the house of God.
- Read Ezra 8 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

Nehemiah 62 verses
- Nehemiah 6:1When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left—though to that time I had not yet installed the doors in the gates—
- Nehemiah 6:6that read: “It is reported among the nations—and Geshem agrees—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and this is why you are building the wall. According to these reports, you are to become their king,
- Read Nehemiah 6 →
Jeremiah 312 verses
- Jeremiah 31:33“But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.
- Jeremiah 31:38“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when this city will be rebuilt for Me, from the tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.
- Read Jeremiah 31 →
2 Chronicles 322 verses
- 2 Chronicles 32:5Then Hezekiah worked resolutely to rebuild all the broken sections of the wall and to raise up towers on it. He also built an outer wall and reinforced the supporting terraces of the City of David, and he produced an abundance of weapons and shields.
- 2 Chronicles 32:30It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Spring of Gihon and channeled it down to the west side of the City of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all that he did.
- Read 2 Chronicles 32 →
Proverbs 151 verse
- Proverbs 15:13A joyful heart makes a cheerful countenance, but sorrow of the heart crushes the spirit.
- Read Proverbs 15 →