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Nehemiah 1

KJV · Chapter 1/13

1The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,

2That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.

3And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.

4And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,

5And said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:

6Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest 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.

7We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.

8Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:

9But 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, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.

10Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.

11O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king’s cupbearer.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Nehemiah, cupbearer to the Persian king in Susa, receives word that the walls of Jerusalem are still broken down and its gates burned. He weeps, fasts, and prays, asking God for favor before the king so he can help.

Explanation

More than a hundred years after Jerusalem's destruction, and decades after other exiles had returned, the city was still vulnerable, without protective walls — a sign of shame and weakness for the people. Nehemiah, who lived comfortably in the Persian court, allows himself to be deeply moved by the suffering of a people he did not even live physically close to. His prayer is remarkable for combining sincere confession of the people's sins with remembrance of God's promises, ending with a practical, specific request for favor. Nehemiah's example teaches that true intercession begins with a broken heart and ends willing to act.

Fun facts

  • The role of royal cupbearer was no minor job: it involved tasting the king's wine to make sure it was not poisoned, which required extreme trust from the monarch — Nehemiah therefore had unusual access and influence at court.
  • Susa, where Nehemiah served, was one of the capitals of the Persian empire, the very city where the story of Esther takes place, decades earlier.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Nehemiah 1:1The book opens in Shushan, one of the capitals of the Persian empire, in the month of Chisleu, around November, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes. It is there that Nehemiah, living at the Persian court, receives the news that will change his life.
  2. Nehemiah 1:2Hanani arrives from Judah with news about those who remained in the province after the exile, and this conversation sets off the entire action of the book. Nehemiah lives in Shushan, far from Jerusalem, and depends on exactly these traveler's reports to learn what is happening in the land of his ancestors.
  3. Nehemiah 1:3The answer Nehemiah receives is harsh: those who remained in Judah live in misery, exposed to the scorn of their neighbors, because the wall is broken down and the gates burned — more than a century after the first return from exile.
  4. Nehemiah 1:4On hearing that the wall has fallen and the gates are burned, Nehemiah weeps, fasts, and spends days in prayer before taking any practical action. It is a grief that comes before action: he processes the news with real sorrow before even thinking about asking the king for help.
  5. Nehemiah 1:5Nehemiah begins his prayer by calling God great and terrible, and recalling that He keeps covenant faithfulness with those who love and obey Him — a way of opening the prayer grounded in old promises, not new requests.
  6. Nehemiah 1:6He asks God to pay attention to his prayer day and night, and makes a point of including himself and his own family in the collective confession of sin — he does not speak as someone standing outside the problem.
  7. Nehemiah 1:7The confession continues by acknowledging that the people failed to keep both the commandments and the statutes and judgments that God had given through Moses.
  8. Nehemiah 1:8Nehemiah cites an old promise made to Moses: if the people disobeyed, they would be scattered among the nations — exactly what had happened with the exile.
  9. Nehemiah 1:9But the same promise also guaranteed the opposite: if the people turned back to God, He would bring them back even if they were scattered to the ends of the earth.
  10. Nehemiah 1:10Nehemiah closes by recalling that this struggling people still belongs to God, the same God who had already redeemed Israel before with great power, likely a reference to the Exodus from Egypt.
  11. Nehemiah 1:11At the end of the chapter it is revealed that Nehemiah was the Persian king's cupbearer — the trusted person who tasted the king's drink before he did, to make sure there was no poison. It was a position of extreme closeness to the sovereign, which explains why he had direct access to ask for such a great favor later on.

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