Nehemiah 2:1-8 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Nehemiah 1:11 b - Nehemiah 2:8. Nehemiah Receives Permission from Artaxerxes to Go to Jerusalem and Rebuild the City Walls.

Nehemiah 1:1. the twentieth year of Artaxerxes: 444 B.C. I had not been aforetime sad: this cannot be got out of the Heb. which says simply I was not sad; the meaning would appear to be that Nehemiah, knowing as a courtier that it was contrary to usage at court for a royal servant to appear sad in the presence of the king, had determined that he would not offend in this manner even though he had received the bad news about his brethren in Judah; nevertheless, his looks betrayed him in spite of his resolution; hence his words, then I was very sore afraid when the king noticed this. To the best of his knowledge Nehemiah had not appeared sad.

Nehemiah 1:2. And the king said. : better, nevertheless the king said..

Nehemiah 1:3. Let the king live for ever: cf. Daniel 2:4; Daniel 3:9.

Nehemiah 1:6. For how long shall. : Nehemiah 5:14 *.

Nehemiah 1:8. the castle: cf. Nehemiah 7:2; the word in Heb., birah, is a loan-word, perhaps from the Babylonian; in the Greek it is called baris, so too, by Josephus. This castle was intended as a defence for the Temple (the house). That Nehemiah should have had all these particulars ready to explain to the king without ever having been in Jerusalem is not easy to account for. Probably the Chronicler's hand has to some extent filled in the details.

Related Commentaries of Nehemiah 2:1

Nehemiah 2:1-8

1 And it came to pass in the month Nisan, 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. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.

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,

3 And 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?

4 Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.

5 And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it.

6 And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by 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.

7 Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah;

8 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 palace which appertained 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.