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Nehemiah
Chapter One
New King James Version
(NKJV)
Nehemiah 1:1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. It came to pass in the
month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan[a] the
citadel,
YLT Words of Nehemiah son of Hachaliah. And it
cometh to pass, in the month of Chisleu, the twentieth year, and I have been in
Shushan the palace,
The words of
Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah,....
Or his transactions and
deeds; for דברי "dibre" signifies things
done, as well as words spoken; who Hachaliah his father was is not known; the
Arabic version adds, the high priest, without any foundation; though some have
thought that Nehemiah was a priest, from a passage in"Therefore whereas we
are now purposed to keep the purification of the temple upon the five and
twentieth day of the month Chisleu, we thought it necessary to certify you
thereof, that ye also might keep it, as the feast of the tabernacles, and of
the fire, which was given us when Neemias offered sacrifice, after that he had
builded the temple and the altar.' (2 Maccabees 1:18)and from
signing and sealing the covenant at the head of priests, Nehemiah 10:1, but
he rather seems to be of the tribe of Judah, see Nehemiah 2:3, and
Nehemiah may be the same that went up with Zerubbabel, and returned again, and
then became the king's cupbearer; though some are of another opinion; see Gill
on Ezra 2:2,
and it came to
pass in the month Chisleu;
the ninth month, as the
Arabic version; of which see Ezra 10:9,
in the twentieth
year;
not of Nehemiah's age,
for, if he went up with Zerubbabel, he must be many years older; but in the
twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes, Nehemiah 1:1
as I was in
Shushan the palace;
a city in Persia, the
royal seat of the kings of it; as Ecbatana was in the summer time, this in the
spring, as Cyrus made it, according to XenophonF2Cyropaedia, l. 8.
c. 44. ; but others sayF3Athenaeus, l. 12. c. 1. it was their seat
in winter, and this was the season now when Nehemiah was with the king there;
for Chisleu was a winter month, answering to part of November and of December;
of Shushan; see Gill on Daniel 8:2, to
which may be added what a traveller of the last century saysF4Cartwright's
Preacher's Travels, p. 87, 88. of it,"we rested at Valdac, once the great
city Susa, but now very ruinous; it was first built by Tythonus, and his son
Memnon, but enlarged by Darius the son of Hystaspes; in the building whereof
Memnon was so exceeding prodigal, that, as Cassiodorus writeth, he joined the
stones together with gold--such was the beauty and delectableness of it for situation,
that they called it "Susa", which in the Persian tongue signified a
"lily", but now it is called Valdac, because of the poverty of the
place;'and it is generally supposed to have its name from the abundance of
lilies about it; but Dr. HydeF5Hist. Relig. Vet. Pers. c. 35. p.
414. gives another signification of its name, he says the Persians called it,
"Sus", which signifies "liquorice", but for what reasons he
says not. There is a city now called Shustera, and is thought by some
travellers to be built at least very near where Shushan formerly stoodF6Tavernier,
tom. 1. l. 4. c. 1. .
Nehemiah 1:2 that
Hanani one of my brethren came with men from Judah; and I asked them concerning
the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning
Jerusalem.
YLT and come in doth Hanani, one of my brethren,
he and men of Judah, and I ask them concerning the Jews, the escaped part that
have been left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem;
That Hanani,
one of my brethren,....
Either in natural
relation, Nehemiah 7:2, or
being a Jew of the same nation and religion; so Jarchi interprets it, one of my
companions or acquaintance:
he and certain
men of Judah;
who came from thence to
Shushan on some account or another:
and I asked
them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity;
who were returned from it
to their own land; he inquired of their health and prosperity, in what
circumstances they were, whether prosperous or adverse, whether they
flourished, or were in distress:
and concerning
Jerusalem;
whether it was rebuilt,
the houses and walls of it, and in what condition it was.
Nehemiah 1:3 And
they said to me, “The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province
are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is
also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”
YLT and they say to me, `Those left, who have
been left of the captivity there in the province, [are] in great evil, and in
reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been
burnt with fire.'
And they said
unto me, the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province,....
In Judea, now reduced to a
province of the Persian empire:
are in great
affliction and reproach;
harassed and distressed,
calumniated and vilified, by their enemies the Samaritans:
the wall of
Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire;
that is, its wall and
gates were in the same condition in which Nebuchadnezzar had left them, for
since his times as yet they had never been set up; for this is not to be
understood of what was lately done by their adversaries, which is not at all
probable.
Nehemiah 1:4 So
it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for
many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
YLT And it cometh to pass, at my hearing these
words, I have sat down, and I weep and mourn [for] days, and I am fasting and
praying before the God of the heavens.
And it came to
pass, when I heard these words,....
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.
Nehemiah 1:5 And
I said: “I pray, Lord
God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your
covenant and mercy with those who love You[b] and
observe Your[c]
commandments,
YLT And I say, `I beseech thee, O Jehovah, God of
the heavens, God, the great and the fearful, keeping the covenant and kindness
for those loving Him, and for those keeping His commands,
And said, I
beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven,....
He prayed not to the host
of heaven, the sun in it, as the Persians, but to the God of it, in an humble
supplicant manner:
the great and
terrible God;
who is to be feared, and
had in reverence of all his creatures, because of his greatness and glory,
being God over all, blessed for ever, and his name holy and reverend:
that keepeth
covenant and mercy for them that love him, and observe his commandments;
who keep them from a
principle of love to him; to those he has made gracious promises in his
covenant, which he truly and faithfully performs; and the consideration of
these perfections in God animates and encourages good men in prayer to him.
Nehemiah 1:6 please
let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of
Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of
Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we
have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned.
YLT let Thine ear be, I pray Thee, attentive, and
Thine eyes open, to hearken unto the prayer of Thy servant, that I am praying
before Thee to-day, by day and by night, concerning the sons of Israel Thy
servants, and confessing concerning the sins of the sons of Israel, that we
have sinned against Thee; yea, I and the house of my father have sinned;
Let thine ear
be now attentive,....
To his prayer, as in Nehemiah 1:11,
and thine eyes
open;
to behold with pity and
compassion the distressed case of Jerusalem, and the Jews in it:
I pray before
thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants;
this he had continued to
do ever since he heard of their trouble and calamity:
and confess the
sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and
my father's house have sinned;
he considered sin as the
cause of all this evil that had befallen his people, and confesses it with
sorrow and humiliation, and not their sins only, but his own personal and
family sins.
Nehemiah 1:7 We
have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the
statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.
YLT we have acted very corruptly against Thee,
and have not kept the commands, and the statutes, and the judgments, that Thou
didst command Moses Thy servant.
We have dealt
very corruptly against thee,....
Corrupted his covenant,
laws, and precepts, as well as themselves, ways, and works; all which were
against the Lord, contrary to his nature, mind, and will:
and have not
kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou
commandedst thy servant Moses;
the laws, moral,
ceremonial, and judicial.
Nehemiah 1:8 Remember,
I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you
are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations;[d]
YLT Remember, I pray Thee, the word that Thou
didst command Moses Thy servant, saying, Ye -- ye trespass -- I scatter you
among peoples;
Remember, I
beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses,....
To publish and declare to
the children of Israel, Deuteronomy 28:64,
saying, if ye
transgress;
the law of God:
I will scatter
you abroad among the nations;
as now they had been among
the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Medes, and Persians.
Nehemiah 1:9 but
if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some
of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will
gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a
dwelling for My name.’[e]
YLT and ye have turned back unto Me, and kept My
commands, and done them -- if your outcast is in the end of the heavens, thence
I gather them, and have brought them in unto the place that I have chosen to
cause My name to tabernacle there.
But if ye
return unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them,...
Return by repentance, and,
as a proof of the genuineness of it, yield obedience to the commands of God,
and continue therein:
though there
were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven;
that is, the uttermost
parts of the earth, the most distant regions; so called, because at the extreme
parts of the horizon, according to our apprehension, the heavens and earth
touch each other; so that what is the uttermost part of the one is supposed to
be of the other:
yet will I
gather them from thence and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen
to set my name there;
that is to Jerusalem where
the temple was built, and his name was called upon.
Nehemiah 1:10 Now
these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your
great power, and by Your strong hand.
YLT And they [are] Thy servants, and Thy people,
whom Thou hast ransomed by Thy great power, and by Thy strong hand.
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.
Nehemiah 1:11 O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be
attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who
desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and
grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” For I was the king’s cupbearer.
YLT I beseech Thee, O Lord,
let, I pray Thee, Thine ear be attentive unto the prayer of Thy servant, and
unto the prayer of Thy servants, those delighting to fear Thy Name; and give
prosperity, I pray Thee, to Thy servant to-day, and give him for mercies before
this man;' and I have been butler to the king.
O Lord, I
beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant,....
To the prayer of Nehemiah,
put up at this time:
and to the
prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name;
the prayer of the Jews in
Judea, whose desire was to worship the Lord in his temple, according to his
will:
and prosper, I
pray thee, thy servant this day; meaning himself, who was to wait on the
king of Persia that day, and, if he had opportunity, intended to lay the case
of the Jews before him, and therefore entreats he might meet with success:
and grant him
mercy in the sight of this man;
King Artaxerxes, who was
but a man, and whose heart was in the hands of God, and he could easily move
him to pity and compassion towards his poor people the Jews:
for I was the
king's cupbearer;
in the execution of which
office he was often in the king's presence, and hoped to have an opportunity of
speaking to him in the behalf of the Jews; this with the Persians was reckoned
a very honourable officeF7Herodot. Thalia, sive, l. 3. c. 34.
Xenophon. Cyropaedia, l. 5. c. 36. . A son of Prexaspes, a very honourable man,
was made cupbearer to Cambyses; and so it was with the Greeks and RomansF8Vid.
Athenaei Deipnosophist. l. 10. ; and the poets not only make Ganymedes to be
Jupiter's cupbearerF9Homer. Iliad. 21. ver. 234. , but even Vulcan
himself is put into this officeF11Homer. Iliad. 1. prope finem. .
──《John Gill’s
Exposition of the Bible》
New
King James Version (NKJV)
a.
Nehemiah 1:1 Or
Susa
b.
Nehemiah 1:5
Literally Him
c.Nehemiah 1:5
Literally His
d.
Nehemiah 1:8 Leviticus 26:33
e.
Nehemiah 1:9 Deuteronomy 30:2–5