Nehemiah · Chapter 1

ver. 1-3.

He fasts and prays, ver. 4-11.

V. 1. The words-Or rather, the acts, as the word often signifies. Chisleu-Which is the ninth month, containing part of November, and part of December. Year-Of Artaxerxes. Shushan-The royal city of Persia.

Verse 1. The words of Nehemiah] That this book was compiled out of the journal or memoranda made by Nehemiah himself, there can be no doubt: but that he was not the compiler is evident from several passages in the work it. self. As it is written consecutively as one book with Ezra, many have supposed that this latter was the author: but whoever compares the style of each, in the Hebrew, will soon be convinced that this is not correct; the style is so very different, that they could not possibly be the work of the same person.

It is doubtful even whether the Nehemiah who is mentioned Ezra 2:2, who came to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel, be the same with him who is the reputed author of this book. By the computation of the best chronologists, Zerubbabel came to Jerusalem in A. M. 3468; and Nehemiah, who is here mentioned, did not come before the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes, which falls in with A. M. 3558, ninety years after: and as his account here is carried down to A. M. 3570, nearly twenty years later, he must at his death have been about a hundred and thirty, allowing him to have been only twenty years old at the time that Zerubbabel went up to Jerusalem. This is by no means likely, as this would make him the king’s cupbearer when he was upwards of a hundred years of age! It seems, therefore, evident that the Nehemiah of Ezra cannot be the same with the reputed author of this book, and the cup-bearer of the Persian king. Son of Hachaliah] Of what tribe or lineage he was, we cannot tell: this is all we know of his parentage. Some suppose he was a priest, and of the house of Aaron, on the authority of 2 Mac. i. 18, 21; but this is but slender evidence. It is likely he was of a very eminent family, if not of the blood royal of Judah, as only persons of eminence could be placed in the office which he sustained in the Persian court.

The month Chisleu] Answering to a part of our November and December.

Twentieth year] That is, of Artaxerxes, A. M. 3558, B. C. 446. Shushan the palace] The ancient city of Susa; called in Persian [Persian] Shuster: the winter residence of the Persian kings.

Verse 1. The words of Nehemiah — Or, the acts, as the Hebrew word here used often signifies; that is, the things which Nehemiah did. In the month Chisleu — Which answers to part of our November and December. In the twentieth year — Namely, of the reign of Artaxerxes. As I was in Shushan the palace — In the region of Elimais, where the Persian kings kept their court in the winter, and which, from its pleasant and beautiful situation, was called by heathen writers Susa, which signifies a lily, or, as Athenaeus says, a rose.

Verse 1. The words of Nehemiah. Poole, in his Synopsis of the Critics, having examined very accurately what antiquity has said concerning the author of this book, I cannot do better than translate the whole of his enquiry.

“Question 1. Who was the author of this book? Answer 1. Ezra. So Athanasius in his Synopsis, and Chrysostom, and Bede; and they infer it, because in the Hebrew the books of Ezra and Nehemiah follow each other. Answer 2. Nehemiah was the author, as the first words demonstrate. ‘The words of Nehemiah.’ Both Ezra and Nehemiah wrote out their own affairs in separate books. Besides, the diversity of the style indicates the diversity of the authors: for the language of Nehemiah is much more easy and plain than that of Ezra, who recites many occurrences in Chaldea. Question 2. Who was Nehemiah; was he not the same with Ezra? Answer. He was of the tribe of Levi, as appears from 2 Mac. 12:13. “[See 2 Mac. 1:18, 21.]” He was also the same Nehemiah of whom Ezra speaks, chap. 2.; because in both books he is called Athersata, that is, Tirshatha, or governor, and the same action is attributed to the same Nehemiah. Ezra 2:63. Nehemiah 7:65.

Question 3. What was this Nehemiah? Answer. It is said that he came to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel and Joshua: chap. 7:7. It is also said, chap. 8:9, that he with Ezra interpreted the law; he was therefore the companion of Ezra, though younger than he.

Objection 1. Then Nehemiah was one hundred and sixteen years of age, because from the first year of Cyrus to the thirty second of Artaxerxes, to which he attained, Nehemiah 13:6, was ninety six years. Answer. It is true that Nehemiah was preserved by the Lord to a very old age for the good of the people.

Objection 2. The scriptures speak of Nehemiah as the companion of Ezra in the third person, as appears from Nehemiah 7:65 and 8:9. Answer. Nehemiah is the author of this book, and therefore speaks of himself in the first person, but sometimes in the third, as Nehemiah 7:7 and 8:9. But Wolpius contends that this Nehemiah is another, from the Nehemiah of Ezra: chap. 2:2. The book of Nehemiah not being separate in the Hebrew from the book of Ezra, both the books form one continued history. The journey of Nehemiah took place seventy two years after that of Ezra. Hence he saw Ezra and outlived him. He was one of the chief men of the captivity, and a member of that convention called the Great Synagogue.” In the above extract Poole assigns no proof that Ezra’s journey was seventy two years before Nehemiah; but the history of those times is very obscure. Herodotus and Xenophon glaringly contradict each other. Besides, Ezra returned to Babylon after having accompanied Zerubbabel. The son of Hachaliah. Who this eminent man was is not known; history is silent; but the Jews conclude, from the high office of cup-bearer to the king, which his son Nehemiah held, that Hachaliah was a man of princely rank.

In the twentieth year of Artaxerxes. In the year of the world 3558, and before Christ about 446 years.

I was in Shushan the palace. The name of this city is equivalent to a lily, distinguished for its beauty. He was cup-bearer to the king, ver. 11; a place of very great honour in the Persian court, as appears from Xenophon’s Cyropediæ, cap. 1.

THE SAD TIDINGS FROM JUDAH, 1-3.

1. The words of Nehemiah — Like each book of the twelve minor prophets, this Book of Nehemiah opens with an announcement of its author’s name. In thus it differs from all the other historical books. Nehemiah is here called the son of Hachaliah, but otherwise his genealogy is unknown. He was, probably, like Zerubbabel, a descendant of the house of Judah, and of the family of David. His words are here to be understood, not merely as his discourses, but his acts and experiences also. The month Chisleu — The ninth month of the Jewish year, corresponding nearly with our December. It was amid the rains of this same month, twelve years before, that the Jews assembled at Jerusalem to Ezra to confess their sins, and to put away their heathen wives. Ezra 10:9. The twentieth year — Of Artaxerxes, king of Persia. Comp. Nehemiah 2:1. Shushan the palace — So called because it was the seat of the principal palace of the Persian Empire. Strabo says (xv, 3, 3) that the palace of this place was embellished more than the other palaces of the empire. Shushan, or, as it is more commonly called, Susa, was the winter residence of the kings of Persia, as Ecbatana was their summer residence. See note on Ezra 6:2. It has been identified with the modern Sus, or Shush. Its ruins cover a space six thousand feet long, by four thousand five hundred feet broad. By excavations made in these mounds of rubbish, Mr. Loftus, in 1852, discovered what he regards as the remains of the identical palace mentioned here and in the Book of Esther. He ascertained the position of the seventy-two columns of the ancient palace, and was thus enabled to present the following ground-plan. In this plan there is a great central hall of thirty-six columns, surrounded on three sides by great porches, each having twelve columns. These columns were over eight feet in diameter, and stand about twenty-seven feet apart. The same plan appears, also, in the great palace of Xerxes at Persepolis. See note on Esther 5:1. These exterior porches were, according to Fergusson, the great audience halls, and served the same purpose as the “house of the forest of Lebanon” in Solomon’s palace. It was at this great palace that Daniel saw his vision of the ram and the he goat, (Daniel 8:2;) here Xerxes “sat on the throne of his kingdom” when he ordered the feast at which he proposed to exhibit the beauty of his queen Vashti, (Esther 1:2;) and here Nehemiah served as cupbearer.

Shushan was one of the most ancient and celebrated cities of the East, and was wisely fixed upon by the kings of Persia as the chief seat of their court and empire. Its ruins are situated about one hundred miles north of the northern end of the Persian Gulf, in a fertile region watered by the rivers Kherkhah and Dizful.

Verse 2. I asked them concerning the Jews] Josephus gives a probable account of this business: “Nehemiah, being somewhere out of Susa, seeing some strangers, and hearing them converse in the Hebrew tongue, he went near; and finding they were Jews from Jerusalem, he asked them how matters went with their brethren in that city, and what was their state?” And the answer they gave him is, in substance, that recorded in the text; though with several aggravations in Josephus.-Joseph. Ant. lib. xi., c. 5.

Verse 2. I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped — Either concerning those who were not carried captives when others were, but remained in the land; or rather, those that had escaped out of the slavery which they had endured in Assyria, Babylon, and other strange lands. Which were left of the captivity — The remnant of those numerous captives, now returned and settled in Jerusalem, and other parts of Judea. Though Nehemiah lived in ease, honour, and affluence himself, he could not forget that he was an Israelite, nor shake off the thoughts of his brethren, or his concern for their welfare. He therefore inquires in what condition they were, and whether Jerusalem was again become a flourishing city.

2. Hanani, one of my brethren — Called emphatically his own brother in Nehemiah 7:2. I asked them — Hence it does not seem that they were sent, as some suggest, expressly to inform Nehemiah of the sad state of things at Jerusalem. Jews that had escaped — Those that had survived all the calamities and dangers to which the new community at Jerusalem had been exposed. Which were left of the captivity — Or, which remained. This further defines the preceding clause, as meaning those returned exiles who were still to be found in Judea; those who remained out of multitudes that had fallen.

V. 3. The province-In Judea, now a province under the Persian monarchs. The wall, &c.-The walls and gates continue as Nebuchadnezzar left them; the Jews not being in a condition to rebuild them, nor having commission from the kings of Persia to do so.

Verse 3. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down] This must refer to the walls, which had been rebuilt after the people returned from their captivity: for it could not refer to the walls which were broken down and levelled with the dust by Nebuchadnezzar; for to hear of this could be no news to Nehemiah.

Verse 3. They said, The remnant that are left in the province — In Judea, which was now made a province under the Persian kings; are in great affliction and reproach — Despised and distressed by the neighbouring nations. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, &c. — The walls and gates continue as the Chaldeans left them after their conquest of the city, the Jews not being in a condition to rebuild them, nor having commission from the kings of Persia to do so, but only to build the temple, and their own private houses. This made their condition both very despicable, under the abiding marks of poverty and slavery, and very dangerous, for their enemies might, when they pleased, make an easy prey of them.

3. There in the province — The province of Judea. Comp. Ezra 5:8. In great affliction and reproach — From the time of the arrival there of Zerubbabel and the first body of exiles until this date, the returned Jews had been vexed and troubled by neighbouring enemies — the descendants of the nations whom the eastern kings had settled in the cities of Samaria. And though by the favour of the Persian kings they had succeeded in rebuilding the temple, they were still in a comparatively weak and helpless state, and their now implacable enemies, the Samaritans, would naturally take every opportunity that offered to trouble and distress them. The wall… broken down, and the gates… burned — This partly explains their affliction and reproach. The returned exiles had never been able to rebuild the walls and gates of their loved city; and because they still remained in the ruined condition to which the Chaldean army had reduced them more than a century before, (2 Kings 25:9, 10,) it was a standing affliction and reproach to the Jews.

Some critics aver that this ruinous state of the wall and gates of Jerusalem must have been caused by some recent calamity — probably by those neighbouring heathen tribes whose daughters had been married to certain Jews, but had been lately put away by Ezra’s legislation, as described in Ezra 10. They urge that the destruction effected by Nebuchadnezzar’s army more than a hundred years before could have been no news to Nehemiah. But this, like the position of these same critics on the passage in Ezra 4:6-23, (where see notes,) lacks support in the Scripture history. If the walls of Jerusalem had ever been rebuilt since their destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, it is strange that no mention of it occurs in these histories. Their rebuilding by Nehemiah was considered of such importance that a considerable portion of this book is given to a description of it, and any previous work of the kind must have been of sufficient importance to demand, at least, a passing notice. But no such notice is found. The complaint of the Jews’ enemies in Ezra 4:12-16, that the returned exiles were building up the walls of the city, was, as we have shown in the notes there, a crafty misrepresentation, a perversion of the truth, for they were rebuilding the temple, not the city. A work of such importance as the rebuilding of the walls and gates of Jerusalem needs stronger evidence than that letter of the enemies of Judah, so manifestly given to misrepresentation, as the whole context shows.

It may not have been positively news to Nehemiah to be told that the walls and gates of Jerusalem were broken down and destroyed, but this fact was mentioned as showing the great cause or occasion of the affliction and reproach of the Jews at Jerusalem, and seems to have first suggested to Nehemiah the importance of having those walls and gates rebuilt. A work of such magnitude as the rebuilding of that ancient city, and especially of its defences, could not have been undertaken without express permission from the king, and no such permit had ever yet been granted since its destruction by the king of Babylon. The proclamations of Cyrus and Darius authorized only the rebuilding of the temple, and that any thing more than this had yet been attempted by the Jews is without proof.

V. 4. The God of heaven-Who seeth in secret; secret; having no opportunity of doing it openly.

Verse 4. And mourned certain days] From the month Chisleu to the month Nisan; about four months from the time he received the above information, till the time that Artaxerxes noticed his grief, Nehemiah 2:1. All this time he probably spent in supplication to God; waiting for a favourable opening in the Divine providence. Every good work is not to be undertaken hastily; prayer and watchfulness are necessary to its completion. Many good works have been ruined by making haste.

Verse 4. When I heard these words I sat down — Probably upon the ground, as the manner was, in great sorrow, and perhaps in ashes; and wept and mourned certain days — Thus the desolations and distresses of the church of Christ ought to be the matter of our grief, how much soever we live at ease. And fasted and prayed — Not in public, which he had no opportunity of doing, but before the God of heaven — Who sees in secret, and will reward openly.

Ver. 4. Mourned certain days. Four months; viz. from the month Chisleu to the month Nisan, as appears from chap. 2:1. See the table of Hebrew time, Exodus 12.

NEHEMIAH’S GRIEF AND PRAYER, 4-11.

4. I sat down and wept — Perhaps now for the first time a deep, keen sense of his people’s woes came over his soul.

Verse 5. Lord God of heaven] What was, before the captivity, Jehovah, God of hosts or armies.

Great] Able to do mighty things. Terrible-able to inflict the heaviest judgments.

Ver. 5. Oh Lord God of heaven, alluding to the prayer of Solomon, whom the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain. The grandeur of the divine nature affords supreme consolation to a devout mind, crying to heaven in the depth of affliction.

5. The great and terrible God — As his fearful judgments on his own people showed. Mercy for them that love him — As the law and his word by the prophets, and the whole history of Israel, abundantly testified.

V. 6. Which I pray, &c.-He refers to all the prayers, which he had for some time been putting up.

Verse 6. Let thine ear] Hear what we say and confess. Thine eyes open-see what we suffer.

Verse 6. Which I pray before thee night and day — He refers to all the prayers which he had for some time been addressing to God, during his sorrow for the desolations of Jerusalem.

6. Thine ear… thine eyes — He that formed the ear, shall he not hear his children’s cry? He that made the eye, shall he not see the sufferings of his people?

Verse 7. Have not kept thy commandments] The moral precepts by which our lives should be regulated.

Statutes] What refers to the rites and ceremonies of thy religion. Judgments] The precepts of justice relative to our conduct to each other.

7. Commandments… statutes… judgments — Embracing respectively the moral precepts, like the ten commandments, the established rites and ceremonies of worship, and the judicial decision in respect to sin and righteousness. Thy servant Moses — Moses and the law were then associated as now, and here is evidence that the Pentateuch was familiar to Nehemiah. Compare the marginal references in the next two verses.

Verse 8. Thy servant Moses] See the parallel places in the margin, and the notes there. Though in an enemy’s country, and far from the ordinances of God, Nehemiah did not forget the law: he read his Bible well, and quotes correctly.

NEHEMIAH’S GRIEF AND PRAYER, 4-11.

4. I sat down and wept — Perhaps now for the first time a deep, keen sense of his people’s woes came over his soul.

Verse 9. But if ye turn unto me, I will gather them from thence, &c. — This promise made by Moses he trusted God would fulfil, as he had the threatening. It is to be observed, that Nehemiah was directed in this prayer to God, and in his efforts for the restoration of Jerusalem, by the predictions of Moses, Deuteronomy 30:1-4. And he plainly found the truth of that prophecy in the readiness of the king of Persia to grant his petition, which, no doubt, confirmed his faith in what Moses there declares.

NEHEMIAH’S GRIEF AND PRAYER, 4-11.

4. I sat down and wept — Perhaps now for the first time a deep, keen sense of his people’s woes came over his soul.

Verse 10. Whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, &c. — In days of old, and thy power is still the same; wilt thou not therefore still redeem them, and perfect their redemption? Let not them be overpowered by the enemy that have a God of infinite power on their side.

NEHEMIAH’S GRIEF AND PRAYER, 4-11.

4. I sat down and wept — Perhaps now for the first time a deep, keen sense of his people’s woes came over his soul.

V. 11. To fear thy name-Those who truly desire to fear his name, shall be graciously accepted of God. This man-The king: who is but a man and therefore his heart is wholly at thy disposal. Favour with men is then comfortable, when we see it springing from the mercy of God. Cup-bearer-Whereby I had opportunity to speak to him, and some favour with him.

Verse 11. Mercy in the sight of this man.] Favour before the king, Ahasuerus. He seems then to have been giving him the cup. For I was the king’s cup-bearer.] The king’s butler, (the Persians call him [Arabic] saky,) which gave him the opportunity of being frequently with the king; and to be in such a place of trust, he must be in the king’s confidence. No Eastern potentate would have a cup-bearer with whom he could not trust his life, poison being frequently administered in this way. This verse seems to have been a mental prayer, which Nehemiah now put up as he was delivering the cup into the king’s hand.

NEHEMIAH

Verse 11. Who desire to fear thy name — Who are not only called by thy name, but really have a reverence for it: who now worship thee, and thee only, according to thy will, and have an awful sense of all the discoveries which thou art pleased to make of thyself. Those who truly desire to fear his name shall be graciously accepted of God. Grant him mercy in the sight of this man — The king, upon whom he was going to attend: who, though a god by office, was but a man by nature, and therefore his heart was wholly at God’s disposal. Favour with men is then comfortable, when we see it springing from the mercy of God. For I was the king’s cup-bearer — Whereby I had opportunity to speak to him, and some favour with him, which encouraged me to make this prayer, and to hope for some success. Many of the Jews, by the singular favour of God, obtained considerable dignities in their captivity, as Daniel and his companions, Zerubbabel and others; among whom was this pious man, who was advanced to this office of cup-bearer when he was but a youth; which, it must be observed, was a place of great honour and advantage in the Persian court, because of the privilege which it gave him who bore it, of being daily in the king’s presence, and the opportunity which he had thereby of gaining his favour for the procuring of any petition he should make to him. That it was a place of great temporal advantage, seems evident by Nehemiah’s gaining those immense riches which enabled him, for so many years, (Nehemiah 5:14, 19,) out of his own privy purse only, to live in his government with great splendour and expense, without burdening the people at all. See Prideaux, Anno 445.

11. Mercy in the sight of this man — Favour before king Artaxerxes. Upon hearing of the great affliction and reproach of the Jews at Jerusalem, Nehemiah seems to have conceived the design of obtaining authority from the king to rebuild Jerusalem. This he made a matter of prayer night and day for about four months, (see note on Nehemiah 2:1,) and in these verses we doubtless have the substance of the prayer he offered continually until he obtained his desire. This man — “The mighty monarch of the Persian empire would be addressed by his flatterers as if he were more than man; yet Nehemiah knew that in the sight of God he was upon a level with his meanest subjects.” — Scott. The king’s cupbearer — An officer of high rank in the ancient oriental courts, whose business was to take charge of the royal wines, and pour them out and bear them in drinking vessels to the king. In Genesis 40:1, the original word is rendered butler. Rabshakeh is supposed to have held this office in the Assyrian court. See note on 2 Kings 18:17.