Nehemiah 2:3

_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?_ NO JFB COMMENTARY ON THESE VERSES....

1-8 Our prayers must be seconded with serious endeavours, else we mock God. We are not limited to certain moments in our addresses to the King of kings, but have liberty to go to him at all times; approaches to the throne of grace are never out of season. But the sense of God's displeasure and the afflictions of his people, are causes of sorrow to the children of God, under which no earthly delights can comfort. The king encouraged Nehemiah to tell his mind. This gave him boldness to speak; much more may the invitation Christ has given us to pray, and the promise that we shall speed, encourage us to come boldly to the throne of grace. Nehemiah prayed to the God of heaven, as infinitely above even this mighty monarch. He lifted up his heart to that God who understands the language of the heart. Nor should we ever engage in any pursuit in which it would be wrong for us thus to seek and ex...

Verse Nehemiah 2:3. _LET THE KING LIVE FOR EVER_] Far from wishing ill to my master, I wish him on the contrary to live and prosper for ever. AELIAN, _Hist. Var_. lib. i. c. 32, uses the same form of speech in reference to Artaxerxes Mnemon, one of the Persian kings, Βασιλευ Αρταξερξη, δι' αιωνος βασιλευοις, "O King Artaxerxes, may you reign for ever," when speaking of the custom of presenting them annually with an offering of earth and water; as if they had said, _May you reign for ever over these_!...

THE CITY ... OF MY FATHERS’ SEPULCHRES - We may conclude from this that Nehemiah was of the tribe of Judah, as Eusebius and Jerome say that he was....

EXPOSITION NEHEMIAH 2:1 IN THE MONTH NISAN. The fourth month after Chisleu, corresponding nearly to our April. How it came about that Nehemiah did not put the king's favour to the proof until more than three months had gone by we can only conjecture. Perhaps the court had been absent from Susa, passing the winter at Babylon, as it sometimes did, and he had not accompanied it. Perhaps, though present at the court, he had not been called on to discharge his office, his turn not having arrived. Possibly, though performing his duties from time to time, he had found no opportunity of unbosoming himself, the king not having noticed his grief. He. may even have done his best to conceal it, for Persian subjects were expected to be perfectly happy in the presence of their king. He had probably formed no plan, but waited in the confident hope that

CHAPTER 2 _ 1. The King's question (Nehemiah 2:1)_ 2. The King's permission (Nehemiah 2:3) 3. The arrival in Jerusalem and the night-ride (Nehemiah 2:9) 4. The resolution to build the wall (Nehemiah 2:17) 5. The ridicule of the enemy, and Nehemiah's answer (Nehemiah 2:19) Nehemiah 2:1. The last sentence of the previous chapter, “For I was the king's cupbearer,” belongs to this chapter. Nehemiah is seen exercising the

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 bes

LET THE KING LIVE. The usual Oriental salutation. LIETH WASTE. Compare Nehemiah 1:3. Impossible if Ezra with his 42,360 returned exiles were already there, and had rebuilt the temple! See notes on Nehemiah 1:2; Nehemiah 5:5, and on the Chronological Structure (p. 617, with the notes on p. 618). See also note on Ezra 4:12, p. 624. GOD OF HEAVEN. See note on Nehemiah 1:5....

_Let the king live for ever_ For this formula opening an address to a king see Daniel 2:4; Daniel 3:9. Cf. 1 Kings 1:31. _why should not my countenance be sad?_ i.e. how could it be otherwise than sad? _the place of my fathers" sepulchres_ -the place," literally -the house:" compare 1 Samuel 25:1; 1 Kings 2:34, where Samuel and Joab are said to have been buried each -in his own house." This is explained by comparing 2 Kings 21:18, -Manasses … was buried in the g

WHY SHOULD NOT MY COUNTENANCE BE SAD, &C.— There is a piety due to one's own country, which cannot be extinguished by the pleasure or plenty of any other. It is no weakness to be deeply affected with the misfortunes or for the death of our nearest friends and relations, at what distance soever we are from them; nor can any prosperity in another country hinder or excuse a man from being grieved for a calamity which befals his own. Nehemiah was in no mean station when he was cup-bearer to Artaxerxes; and we may very reasonably believe, by the grace and bounty which the king shewed him, that he might have had great preferment in that flourishing empire, if he had asked it; yet, when that great king discerned that there was sorrow of heart in his countenance, and demanded the reason of it, he made no other excuse than this: _the place of my fathers' sepulchres lieth waste:_ and when the king...