Nehemiah 2:1-10

TEXT AND VERSE-BY-VERSE COMMENTS

B. Nehemiah comes to Jerusalem
1. Nehemiah is given permission by Artaxerxes to make the trip.

TEXT, Nehemiah 2:1-10

1

And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, that wine was before him, and I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence.

2

So the king said to me, Why is your face sad though you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart. Then I was very much afraid.

3

And I said to the king, Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my fathers-' tombs, lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?

4

Then the king said to me, What would you request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.

5

And I said to the king, If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers-' tombs, that I may rebuild it.

6

Then the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, How long will your journey be, and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a definite time.

7

And I said to the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me for the governors of the provinces 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 fortress which is by the temple, for the wall of the city, and for the house to which I will go. And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was on me.

9

Then I came to the governors of the provinces beyond the River and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen.

10

And when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about it, it was very displeasing to them that someone had come to seek the welfare of the sons of Israel.

COMMENT

Nehemiah 2:1: Nisan was the first month of the year, corresponding to our March-April, the beginning of Spring. It was the twentieth year, but Nehemiah 1:1 has spoken of the twentieth year, the ninth month! One explanation is that if Artaxerxes began to rule between the first and ninth months, for example in the fifth, then the twentieth year of his reign would begin in a fifth month and end a year later in a fourth month; thus the ninth month (Chislev) of the twentieth year would come before the first month (Nisan) of the twentieth year. Also, there were two calendars in use: the religious, which began with Nisan, (springtime), and the agricultural, which began six months later, in the Fall, after harvest was completed. Nehemiah may have used this. The Jewish year still begins with Rosh Hashonah, the first day of the seventh month (about our September).

This would indicate a space of four months since Nehemiah had gotten the disturbing news described in the previous chapter. Evidently Nehemiah had been spending the time in prayer, awaiting the propitious moment to introduce his subject, or else the king had been occupied in another city for these months (See comments on Ezra 6:2.), and this was Nehemiah's first opportunity to come before him with his request. The delay would have heightened Nehemiah's tension and concern.

King Artaxerxes in this passage is traditionally identified with Artaxerxes Longimanus, who ruled from 465 to 424 B.C. The time had arrived for the serving of the wine to the king; Nehemiah had evidently tasted it and was in the act of serving it to the king.

Nehemiah 2:2 reveals something of the intimacy that would have existed between a king and his cupbearer. The king observed Nehemiah's obvious sadness; he surmised it was caused by grief; his question was a mark of his concern. Nehemiah's fear arose most likely from his recognition of the responsibility to be cheerful, particularly at that point in the meal or banquet. In Nehemiah 2:3 we see Nehemiah's method of conveying his message to the king. First there is the polite form of address: Let the king live forever, which even the top ranking servant must not forget. Then there was the reference to the desolation of the cemetery of his ancestors, which would strike a responsive cord in an oriental monarch's mind; one's ancestors must always be respected.

In Nehemiah 2:4, when the king asked what request this was leading up to, Nehemiah prayed. It is a small intimate detail from Nehemiah's diary, and it reminds us of the possibility of our being so conscious of God's constant presence that we may breathe a short prayer even between hearing a question and responding.

Nehemiah 2:5 again shows Nehemiah's close conformity to court decorum. The pleasure of the king is foremost. The only compulsion laid upon him must arise out of his favorable regard for his servant, based on his satisfactory past performance. The request is that Nehemiah be sent to Judah, where the aforementioned cemetery is located, to rebuild his home city, which he still has not identified. There is no mention of the walls either, which had been the subject of an earlier controversy (Ezra 4:13).

In Nehemiah 2:6 details are spelled out. The mention of the queen's presence[52] speaks of two things: (1) it was a very intimate and private moment, rather than a public occasion. The queen ordinarily would not appear in public; she was not a public official, but rather the king's consort, meeting his personal needs, in the oriental manner, (2) The fact that she is mentioned suggests that she added her influence to make up the king's mind.

[52] The position of the queen sitting by or before the king corresponds with representations in the monuments. Compare especially the representation of Ashurbanipal reclining at a banquet, his queen being seated on a chair at the foot of his couch. Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, Ezra-Nehemiah, p. 162.

The two questions in the text are not answered, but the meaning back of them is explained. The question, How long will your journey be? is a way of saying It pleased the king to send (him); and when will you return? indicated the king's desire to make it only a temporary mission; whereupon Nehemiah set a date for his return. Many of our questions also are disguised statements.

In Nehemiah 2:7 Nehemiah asked for the necessary papers to get him to his destination; he would need documents showing his authority and the backing of the Persian court to pass through various provinces along the Euphrates and Jordan valleys.

In Nehemiah 2:8 he asked for supplies to accomplish his objective on his arrival; timber from the king's forest, possibly in Lebanon or in Solomon's ancient gardens or elsewhere close by Jerusalem. This he would need to (1) rebuild the fortress by the Temple, probably in the N.T. the Tower of Antonia just to the north; (2) repair the walls, that is, towers and gates in particular; (3) build himself a house as his own headquarters as governor. He believed it was God's approval that caused the king to grant his wishes.

Nehemiah 2:9-10 trace his progress through the provinces, especially Samaria and Amnion, on his approach to. Jerusalem. While these two lands in particular were hostile to him, his possession of papers from their superiors and his in Persia, and especially the Persian military guard accompanying him, would convince them of the necessity of allowing his passage. This was in contrast to Ezra's trip without escort (Ezra 8:22).

Sanballat, in Nehemiah 2:10 was the governor of Samaria; his name appears in contemporary literature, the Elephantine Papyri from Egypt; the Jewish colony there asked for his support in building a temple to Jehovah there, but received no assistance. His name means Sin (an Assyrian moon god) gives life; it is not clear whether he worshiped the god Horon, or whether Horonite indicates that he was from Horonaim, in Moab; at any rate, his very name would be an offense to a loyal Israelite.

Tobiah (The name means Pleasing to Jehovah; a similar name, Tabeel, Pleasing to God, is in Ezra 4:7.) was possibly a half-descendant of the Jews, appointed to govern the Ammonites north and east of Judah. Ruins of a place with his name clearly carved into the stone by the doorway has been located a ways east of the Jordan; from here his descendants, many with the same name, continued to rule for several centuries.[53]

[53] For a description see the article, The -Araq el-Emir and the Tobiads, Biblical Archaeologist, Sept., 1957, pp. 63-76.

The word official here is literally slave (cf. Word Studies for Ezra 9); in this context it would represent high rank, as a head of a province, though he was still subservient to the Persian king.