Nehemiah’s sorrow over Jerusalem and his prayer
1
📚The words of Nehemiah 📖 the son of Hachaliah. And it came about in the month Kislev, in the twentieth year 📖, as I was in Shushan 📖 the palace 📖, 2 📚that Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and some men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.3 📚And they said to me, “The survivors who are left from the captivity there in the province are in great distress and reproach. Also the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire”.
1:3 2 Kings 25:8-10; Ezra 4:12-23. This meant the people in Jerusalem were exposed to attack from their enemies on all sides.⚜
4 📚And it happened when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for some days, and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,
1:4 Ezra 9:3; 10:1, 6; Jer 9:1; 13:17; 14:17; Luke 19:41; Acts 20:19. Often they will weep most who care most for the Word of God.⚜
5 📚and said, “I beg you, O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome 📖 God, who keeps covenant and mercy for those who love 📖 him and observe his commandments, 6 📚let your ear now be attentive, and your eyes open, that you may hear the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you now, day and night 📖, for your servants the children of Israel, and confess 📖 the sins of the children of Israel, which we have committed against you. Both I and my father’s household have sinned. 7 📚We have dealt very corruptly 📖 against you, and have not kept the commandments or the statutes or the judgments which you commanded 📖 your servant Moses.
8 📚“Remember, I beg you, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you transgress, I will scatter you among the nations, 9 📚but if you turn to me, and keep my commandments, and do them, even though some of you were driven to the uttermost part of the heavens 📖, yet I would gather 📖 them from there and bring them to the place that I have chosen to cause my name 📖 to dwell.’
10 📚“Now these are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand.
11 📚O Lord, I beg you, now let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who desire to fear your name 📖, and make, I pray you, your servant successful this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man 📖”. For I was the king’s cupbearer 📖.