THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH --------------------------------- _Chronological Notes relative to this Book_ Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, whose system of chronology is the most generally received, 3558. -Year before the birth of Christ, 442. -Year before the vulgar era of Christ... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Nehemiah 1:2. _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 matter... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Nehemiah 1:3. _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 cou... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Nehemiah 1:4. _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 f... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Nehemiah 1:5. _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.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Nehemiah 1:6. _LET THINE EAR_] _Hear_ what we _say_ and _confess_. _Thine eyes open _- _see_ what we _suffer_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Nehemiah 1:7. _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.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Nehemiah 1:8. _THY SERVANT MOSES_] See the parallel places in the margin, and the notes there Leviticus 26:33 (note), Deuteronomy 4:25-5 (note), Deuteronomy 28:64 (note). Though in an enemy's country, and far from the ordinances of God, Nehemiah did not forget the law: he read his Bible well,... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Nehemiah 1:11. _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 kin... [ Continue Reading ]