Nehemiah 13:31 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Remember me, O my God, for good— It has appeared extraordinary to some, that Nehemiah should be so lavish of his own praise, so ostentatious of his good works, as frequently to call upon God to remember him for good, and not to wipe out his good deeds which he had done, &c. See Nehemiah 13:14; Nehemiah 13:22, and ch Nehemiah 5:19. Now to this may be replied, that, as Nehemiah appears in the character of the writer of his own administration over Judea, in which it cannot misbecome him to give the world a narrative how himself behaved in that high station; in doing of this he could not avoid the saying of something in his own commendation, unless he had been disposed, out of his excessive modesty, to conceal from posterity (which it had been invidious to do) an excellent example of his extraordinary virtue and love for his country. Compare ch. Nehemiah 5:18 with 2 Corinthians 11:7; 2 Corinthians 11:33. He who made us, and set the springs in our nature, knows very well that we are principally actuated, by hopes and fears; and, for this reason, has proposed rewards and punishments to us; nor do we ever find it accounted a defect in the characters of the worthies of old, or an indication of their mercenary spirit, that, in all their good works or sufferings, they had a respect to the recompence of the reward, which God the righteous judge hath promised to give unto his faithful servants. See Balguy's first Letter to a Deist. How long Nehemiah lived after he had made the reformations mentioned in this chapter; whether he continued in his place of governor, and whether he died in Judea or in Persia, neither the text nor Josephus inform us; only the latter says, that he died in an advanced age; and, indeed, even at the time where his book ends, he must have been at least seventy years of age. It is most probable, however, that he continued in his government till the time of his death, supporting his character by the most exemplary zeal for religion, justice, and the good of his nation, and the dignity of his office by a magnificent hospitality. We just add, that Dean Prideaux concludes the seven first weeks of the seventy of Daniel's prophesy with this last reformation of Nehemiah; which was finished, according to him, in the fifteenth year of Darius Nothus. See also Univ. Hist.