Nehemiah 2:5 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

I said, If it please the king, &c. My request, whatever it is, I humbly and wholly submit to the king's good pleasure, in which I am resolved to acquiesce. If thy servant have found favour in thy sight I plead no merit, but humbly supplicate thy grace and favour, of which, having received some tokens, I am imboldened to make this farther request. That thou wouldst send me unto Judah, &c. Wouldst give me a commission to go and build the walls of Jerusalem, and thereby make it a city again, for it is now in a defenceless state, as an open town, exposed on all sides to the attacks of its enemies. “A generous spirit,” says Lord Clarendon, “can think of nothing but relieving his country while it is under a general misery and calamity.”