The king of Persia sends Nehemiah to Jerusalem
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📚And it happened in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him, and I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now before this I had not been sad in his presence.2 📚Therefore the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart”. Then I was very much afraid 📖, 3 📚and said to the king, “May the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad, when the city 📖, the place of the tombs of my fathers, lies waste and its gates have been consumed by fire?”
4 📚Then the king said to me, “What do you request?” So I prayed 📖 to the God of heaven. 5 📚And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favour in your sight, that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may build 📖 it”.
6 📚And the king said to me (the queen also was sitting by him), “How long will your journey be? And when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me. And I set him a time.
7 📚Moreover, I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the River 📖, that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah, 8 📚and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel which is by the house 📖, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I will occupy”. And the king 📖 granted me my requests, in accordance with the good hand of my God 📖 on me.
2:7-8 Nehemiah was a man of foresight, and careful planning. He had obviously considered beforehand what was involved in the project and he was ready to see it through to the end. Compare Luke 14:28-29.⚜
9 📖Then I went to the governors beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.
10 📚When Sanballat 📖 the Horonite, and Tobiah the Ammonite, a servant of the king, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that a man had come to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.
Nehemiah inspects the walls of Jerusalem
11 📚So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days. 12 📚And I arose at night, I and a few men with me. I did not tell anyone what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem; nor was there any animal with me, except the animal that I rode on.
13 📚And I went out at night by the Gate of the Valley, toward the Dragon 📖 Well and to the Refuse Gate, and inspected the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down, and its gates which were consumed by fire. 14 📚Then I went on to the Gate of the Fountain and to the King’s Pool, but there was no room for the animal under me to get through. 15 📚Then I went up at night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back and entered by the Gate of the Valley, and so returned. 16 And the rulers did not know where I went, or what I did; nor had I as yet told it to the Jews or to the priests or to the nobles or to the rulers or to the rest who did the work.
2:12-16 Nehemiah wanted to see what needed to be done before attempting to speak or start the work – compare vs 7,8. ⚜
“Let us build”
17 📚Then I said to them, “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste 📖, and its gates burned by fire. Come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, so that we are no longer an object of reproach”. 18 📚Then I told them of the hand of my God who had been gracious to me, and also the king’s words that he had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build”. So they put their hands to this good work.
2:18 Verse 8.⚜
The beginning of opposition
19 📚But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the Ammonite, a servant of the king, and Geshem 📖 the Arabian, heard it, they laughed at us and scorned 📖 us and despised us, and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”
20 📚Then I answered them and said to them, “The God of heaven will give us success 📖. Therefore we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion 📖 or right or memorial in Jerusalem”.