11 `I beseech Thee, O Lord, let, I pray Thee, Thine ear be attentive unto the prayer of Thy servant, and unto the prayer of Thy servants, those delighting to fear Thy Name; and give prosperity, I pray Thee, to Thy servant to-day, and give him for mercies before this man;' and I have been butler to the king.
And it cometh to pass, in the month of Nisan, the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, wine `is' before him, and I lift up the wine, and give to the king, and I had not been sad before him;
let Thine ear be, I pray Thee, attentive, and Thine eyes open, to hearken unto the prayer of Thy servant, that I am praying before Thee to-day, by day and by night, concerning the sons of Israel Thy servants, and confessing concerning the sins of the sons of Israel, that we have sinned against Thee; yea, I and the house of my father have sinned;
and a letter unto Asaph, keeper of the paradise that the king hath, that he give to me trees for beams `for' the gates of the palace that the house hath, and for the wall of the city, and for the house into which I enter;' and the king giveth to me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
Pray for us, for we trust that we have a good conscience, in all things willing to behave well,
Also, `in' the path of Thy judgments, O Jehovah, we have waited `for' Thee, To Thy name and to Thy remembrance `Is' the desire of the soul. `With' my soul I desired Thee in the night, Also, `with' my spirit within me I seek Thee earnestly, For when Thy judgments `are' on the earth, The inhabitants of the world have learned righteousness.
Rivulets of waters `is' the heart of a king in the hand of Jehovah, Wherever He pleaseth He inclineth it.
Because that they have hated knowledge, And the fear of Jehovah have not chosen.
Hear, O Jehovah, my prayer, And attend to the voice of my supplications.
`Deliver me, I pray Thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I am fearing him, less he come and have smitten me -- mother beside sons;
Blessed `is' Jehovah, God of our fathers, who hath given such a thing as this in the heart of the king, to beautify the house of Jehovah that `is' in Jerusalem, and unto me hath stretched out kindness before the king and his counsellors, and before all the mighty heads of the king: and I have strengthened myself as the hand of Jehovah my God `is' upon me, and I gather out of Israel heads to go up with me.
Ezra himself hath come up from Babylon, and he `is' a scribe ready in the law of Moses, that Jehovah God of Israel gave, and the king giveth to him -- according to the hand of Jehovah his God upon him -- all his request.
And in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, at the completion of the word of Jehovah from the mouth of Jeremiah, hath Jehovah waked up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, and he causeth an intimation to pass over into all his kingdom, and also in writing, saying,
And the chief of the butlers speaketh with Pharaoh, saying, `My sin I mention this day:
and the chief of the butlers hath not remembered Joseph, but forgetteth him.
And the chief of the butlers recounteth his dream to Joseph, and saith to him, `In my dream, then lo, a vine `is' before me! and in the vine `are' three branches, and it `is' as it were flourishing; gone up hath its blossom, its clusters have ripened grapes; and Pharaoh's cup `is' in my hand, and I take the grapes and press them into the cup of Pharaoh, and I give the cup into the hand of Pharaoh.' And Joseph saith to him, `This `is' its interpretation: the three branches are three days; yet, within three days doth Pharaoh lift up thy head, and hath put thee back on thy station, and thou hast given the cup of Pharaoh into his hand, according to the former custom when thou wast his butler.
and Pharaoh is wroth against his two eunuchs, against the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers,
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Nehemiah 1
Commentary on Nehemiah 1 Matthew Henry Commentary
An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of
The Book of Nehemiah
Chapter 1
Here we first meet with Nehemiah at the Persian court, where we find him,
Such is the rise of this great man, by piety, not by policy.
Neh 1:1-4
What a tribe Nehemiah was of does nowhere appear; but, if it be true (which we are told by the author of the Maccabees, 2 Mac. 1:18) that he offered sacrifice, we must conclude him to have been a priest. Observe,
Neh 1:5-11
We have here Nehemiah's prayer, a prayer that has reference to all the prayers which he had for some time before been putting up to God day and night, while he continued his sorrows for the desolations of Jerusalem, and withal to the petition he was now intending to present to the king his master for his favour to Jerusalem. We may observe in this prayer,