Ezra 1

Chap. I. Ver. 1—11. Nehemiah is much distressed for his countrymen at Jerusalem, and offers prayer on their behalf.—Nehemiah, though a Jew and a captive, was one of the cupbearers to the King of Persia, and resided in his palace at Shushan. This was a post of great honour, inasmuch as it admitted him daily to the king’s presence; and to “see the King’s face,” is the highest object of ambition in an eastern court. It was also an office of trust, and one part of his duty was to taste the cup that he presented, to prevent the king from being poisoned. It was probably the known virtue and integrity of this man’s character, that recommended him to this promotion. The history before us also gives us abundant proofs of his prudence, vigilance, disinterestedness, and firmness to his principles; but the crown of all his other virtues was his piety, of which this chapter furnishes the most striking evidence.—His brother Hanani, and some other Jews from Jerusalem, coming to visit Nehemiah at the palace, he makes particular inquiry into the state of his brethren who had returned from captivity, and into the condition of the city and the temple.

This was probably at the time that the building had been stopped through the envy of the Samaritans; while

Notes on the verses

Ver. 1. Shushan.—Shushan, or Susa, was the capital of Susiana, a province of Persia, and the winter residence of the Persian monarchs; situated about 252 miles east of Babylon, and the same distance south-southeast of Ecbatana, in latitude 32 degrees, longitude 49 degrees. The circumference of its walls was above 120 stadia. Shouster is supposed to occupy its site.—Bagster.

Ver. 11. I was the king’s cup-bearer.—Xenophon says, the custom was for this officer to fill the king’s cup with wine, but, before he presented it, he poured some into his own hand, and drank it, to ascertain that there was no poison in it.

This book has many internal proofs of divine inspiration, and indeed as a continuation of the book of Ezra: it does not, however, seem to contain any prophecies, nor is it explicitly referred to in the New Testament.—T. Scott.

A. M. 3558. B. C. 446.

But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence.

Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.

And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it.

The wall remained in ruins, with the gates thereof, which had been burned with fire by Nebuchadnezzar.

When he heard this and that his brethren were the subjects of “great affliction and reproach,” he was so overwhelmed that he sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. The substance of his prayer is given us in this chapter, and evinces at once his patriotism and his piety; his attachment to the house of God and to his native country; but above all, his zeal for true religion, and his deep regret for that want of it that had plunged his nation into such distress and ruin: and in nothing, perhaps, more demonstrates his sincerity than the earnestness with which, like Ezra, he confesses the sins of his countrymen, as a partner in their guilt as well as sufferings; “both I and my father’s house have sinned.”

If we wish to be heard on the behalf of our fellow-sinners, we must mingle our case with theirs. Our Lord has taught us daily to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses.”