Nehemiah 1

Ver.l. JSoWit came to pass, in the days of Ahasuerus. This was a Persian, but which of them is a great doubt; for learned men think several of them had this name. There are, I think, eight several opinions about him here mentioned. Our great primate Usher takes him to have been Darius Hystaspcs; but he married the daughter of the great Cyrus, to confirm himself in his kingdom, and would not have so easily parted with her as Ahasuerus did with Vashti. The great Scaligcr therefore thinks him to have been his successor Xerxes; whose wife’s name being Amystris, he takes her for Esther, this name being in the Persian language Ham-Esther. But this hath been con- CHAP. I.]

Nehemiah 1:1

JL HE words of Nehemiah. Or, as Pellicanus translates it, gesta (for so the Hebrew word often signifies), the things which Nehemiah did. The son of JHachaliah.] We are no where told who this was, nor of what tribe: Eusebius and others say of the tribe of Judah. Audit came to pass in the month Chisleu.] Which answers to our November, and part of December. In the twentieth year.] Not of Artaxerxes, but of Nehemiah’s life, (See chap. ii. 1.) > As I was in Sliushan the palace.’] In the region ofElymais, where the Persian kings kept their court in winter, and, from its pleasant and beautiful situation, was.called by heathen writers Susa, which signifies a lily; or (as Athenaeus saith, lib. xii.) a rose. Stephanus Byzantinus gives this account of it: It was called 2ov<xa, aTro rwv Kpivwv a ttoX- Xa iv ttJ x&PZ ntyvKu tKcivfl, from the lilies that grew in abundance in that country. Our Dr. Hyde hath a peculiar fancy, that the Persians called itjSus, which signifies licorice; but the Jews, to compliment Ahasuerus, called it in these books by this name, of a better sound, which signifies a lily, (Hist. Relig. Vet. Pers. cap. 35. p. 414.)

Nehemiah 1:2

That Hanani, one of my brethren J. And, I suppose, one of his family. Came, he and certain men of Judah.] Came from Jerusalem to Shushan, either about business, or finding things very hard with them in Judea. And I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which ivereteft of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.] He inquired of the condition wherein they were who returned out of Babylon into Judea, and whether Jerusalem were again become a flourishing city; as it was natural for him to do, especially being a man that loved his nation exceedingly.

Nehemiah 1:3

And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province. So Judea is called, Ezra v. 8. (See there.) Are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire.] They answer to both parts of this inquiry, that the people were in great distress and contempt by their insolent neighbours, wherewitb they were surrounded, and Jerusalem lay without any walls or gates to defend it from their injuries. He knew very well that it was burnt by Nebuchadnezzar, and the walls beaten down; therefore their meaning is, that the walls and gates lay as the Chaldeans left them after that devastation, and were not repaired, though the temple was built again.

Nehemiah 1:4

And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down. Upon the ground, as the manner was, in great sorrow, and, perhaps, in ashes. * And wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven.] With his face towards Jerusalem.

Nehemiah 1:5

And said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven. In this style they all spake of God (as 1 observed, Ezra i.) after the captivity: signifying, as Conrad. Pellicanus observes, his sovereign dominion over all things that are contained within the compass.of the heavens; the sun, moon, and stars, angels, and men, and all creatures. Tlie great and terrible God.] He is called great, not with respect to those petty gods that the heathen worshipped, who had no power at all, but with respect to all potentates either in heaven or in earth; and he is called terrible, because he is most humbly to be worshipped and reverenced by them alL Tliat keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him, and observe his commandments.] Next, he celebrates his faithfulness and truth in performing his promises to those that plainly declare they sincerely love him, by keeping his commandments. These he never fails to bless, because they are faithful to him.

Nehemiah 1:6

Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou may est hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned.] A deep sense of our own unworthiness, is a good qualification for the mercy we beg of God. This Nehemiah expresses veiy sensibly, both here and in the next verse.

Nehemiah 1:7

We have dealt very corruptly against thee. Some of the Jews expound it, We have despised and contemned thee. And have not kept the commandments,?ior the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou comviandedst thy servant Moses.] But violated every one of them, to the high offence both of God and man. Digitized toy Microsoft ® 4T2 [chap. IX.

Nehemiah 1:8

Rernentber, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, I/ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations.) Which they had seen fulfilled by the Assyrians and Chaldeans.

Nehemiah 1:9

But if ye turn unto nie, and keep my commandments, and do them. As he hoped some of them now did. Though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gathet* them from thence, and xvill bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.’] This promise made by Moses he hoped God would fulfil, as he had done the threatening. It is a very pious observation of Dr. Jackson, (book iii. chap. 17.)thatNehejniah framed this prayer to God, and directed his enterprise for the restoration of Jerusalem, by the rule of Moses, mentioned in Deut. xxx. 1 — 4. and he plainly found the truth of that prediction in the readiness of the king of Persia to grant his petition: which confirmed his belief of what Moses there saith, although a prophet by profession dissuaded his enterprise, as likely to prove dangerous to his person, (chap. vi. 10, 11.) Ver. lo. Noiv these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.] For nothing but the overruling power of God could have moved Cyrus to dismiss this whole nation out of captivity, and let them return to their own land. Or, as some think, he beseeches his compassion to them, because they were his peculiar people, redeemed out of the Egyptian bondage by many miracles.

Nehemiah 1:11

O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, vjho desire to fear thy name. He was not alone in this petition for mercy, but there were many others, who would worship him sincerely. So the words are in the Hebrew, who will fear, or delight to fear, thy name. And prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day.~] He prayed night and day, as he saith, ver. 6. But this was the prayer he made on that day when he went to wait upon the king. And grant him mercy in the sight of this man.] He means the king, unto whom he pointed as it were with his finger, when he was going to attend upon him. 1 For I was the king’s cup-bearer.] And perhaps, as he came into his presence, he secretly made this prayer to God in his own breast. 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 good man, who was advanced to this place of cup-bearer, when he was but a youth, as our Rainoldus hath shewn, in his Censura, Lib. Apocryph. p. 1496.