Nehemiah 1 - 2 — Legacy Standard Bible

Nehemiah Prays for the Sons of Israel

1The words of ^aNehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in ^bthe month Chislev, ^cin the twentieth year—and I was in ^dSusa the ¹capitol— ²that ^aHanani, one of my brothers, and ¹some men from Judah came; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and remain from the captivity, and about Jerusalem. ³They said to me, “The remnant there in the ^aprovince who remain from the captivity are in great calamity and ^breproach, and ^cthe wall of Jerusalem is broken down and ^dits gates are burned with fire.”

⁴Now it happened that when I heard these words, ^aI sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before ^bthe God of heaven. ⁵I said, “I beseech You, O ¹Yahweh, the God of heaven, ^athe great and fearsome God, ^bwho keeps the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, ⁶^alet Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your slave which I am praying before You today, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your slaves, ^bconfessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; ^cI and my father’s house have sinned. ⁷“^aWe have worked in utter destruction against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments ^bwhich You commanded Your ¹servant Moses. ⁸“Remember the word which You commanded Your ¹servant Moses, saying, ‘^aIf you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples; ⁹^abut if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been banished were at the ends of the sky, I ^bwill gather them from there and will bring them ^cto the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.’ ¹⁰“^aThey are Your slaves and Your people whom You redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand. ¹¹“O Lord, I beseech You, ^amay Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your slave and the prayer of Your slaves who delight to fear Your name, and make Your slave successful today and grant him compassion before this man.” Now I was the ^bcupbearer to the king.

God’s Hand Was on Nehemiah

2Now it happened in the month Nisan, ^ain the twentieth year of King ^bArtaxerxes, that wine was before him, and ^cI took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. ²So the king said to me, “Why is your face sad though you are not sick? ^aThis is nothing but sadness of heart.” Then I was very much afraid. ³I said to the king, “^aLet the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad ^bwhen the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste and its gates have been consumed by fire?” ⁴Then the king said to me, “What would you request?” ^aSo I prayed to the God of heaven. ⁵I said to the king, “If it is good for the king, and if your servant is good before you, send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.” ⁶Then the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, “How long will your journey be, and when will you return?” So it was good to the king to send me, and ^aI gave him a set time. ⁷And I said to the king, “If it is good to the king, let letters be given me ^afor the governors of the provinces beyond the ¹River, that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah, ⁸and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s ^aforest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of ^bthe fortress which is by the house of God, for the wall of the city and for the house to which I will go.” And the king granted them to me because ^cthe good hand of my God was on me.

⁹Then I came to ^athe governors of the provinces beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. Now ^bthe king had sent with me commanders of the military force and horsemen. ¹⁰Then ^aSanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite ¹official heard about it, and it was a very great evil to them that someone had come to seek the good of the sons of Israel.

Nehemiah Inspects Jerusalem’s Walls

¹¹So I ^acame to Jerusalem and was there three days. ¹²And I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. I did not tell anyone what my God was putting into my heart to do for Jerusalem; and there was no animal with me except the animal on which I was riding. ¹³So I went out at night by ^athe Valley Gate in the direction of the Dragon’s Spring and on to the ¹Dung Gate, inspecting the walls of Jerusalem ^bwhich were broken down and its ^cgates which were consumed by fire. ¹⁴Then I passed on to ^athe Spring Gate and ^bthe King’s Pool, but there was no place for ¹my animal to pass. ¹⁵So I went up at night by the ^aravine and inspected the wall. Then I turned and entered the Valley Gate and turned around. ¹⁶Now the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing; nor had I as yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the rest who were doing the work.

¹⁷Then I said to them, “You see the calamity we are in, that ^aJerusalem lies waste and its gates burned by fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that we will no longer be a reproach.” ¹⁸And I told them how the hand of my God had been good to me and also about the king’s words which he had said to me. Then they said, “Let us arise and build.” ^aSo they strengthened their hands for the good work. ¹⁹But Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite ¹official and ^aGeshem the Arab heard it. And ^bthey mocked us and despised us and said, “What is this thing you are doing? ^cAre you rebelling against the king?” ²⁰So I responded to them with a word and said to them, “^aThe God of heaven will give us success; therefore we His slaves will arise and build, ^bbut you have no portion, right, or remembrance in Jerusalem.”