Nehemiah 2:3-13

3 I said to the king, "¹Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad ²when 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?" ³So I prayed to the God of heaven.

5 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 ⁴I gave him a definite time.

7 And I said to the king, "If it please the king, let letters be given me ⁵for 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 ⁶forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of ⁷the fortress which is by the ^[a]temple, for the wall of the city and for the house to which I will go." And the king granted them to me because ⁸the good hand of my God was on me.

9 Then I came to ⁹the governors of the provinces beyond the River and gave them the king's letters. Now ¹⁰the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen.

10 When ¹¹Sanballat 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.

Nehemiah Inspects Jerusalem's Walls

11 So I ¹²came to Jerusalem and was there three days.

12 And I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. I did not tell anyone what my God was putting into my mind to do for Jerusalem and there was no animal with me except * the animal on which I was riding.

13 So I went out at night by ¹³the Valley Gate in the direction of the Dragon's Well and on to the Refuse Gate, inspecting the walls of Jerusalem ¹⁴which were broken down and its ¹⁵gates which were consumed by fire.

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Nehemiah 2:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NEHEMIAH 2

Nehemiah being sorrowful in the king's presence, the reason of it was asked by the king, which he declared, and then took the opportunity to request of the king that he might be sent to Jerusalem to rebuild it, which was granted him, Ne 2:1-8, upon which he set out, and came to Jerusalem, to the great grief of the enemies of Israel, Ne 2:9-11 and after he had been three days in Jerusalem, he privately took a survey of it, to see what condition it was in, unknown to the rulers there, Ne 2:12-16, whom he afterwards exhorted to rise up and build the wall of the city, which they immediately set about, Ne 2:17,18 not regarding the scoffs and taunts of their enemies, Ne 2:19,20.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 15

1. Daniel 2:4
2. 2 Kings 25:8-10; 2 Chronicles 36:19; Nehemiah 1:3; Jeremiah 52:12-14
3. Nehemiah 1:4
4. Nehemiah 13:6
5. Ezra 7:21; Ezra 8:36
6. Ecclesiastes 2:5, 6
7. Nehemiah 7:2
8. Ezra 7:6; Nehemiah 2:18
9. Nehemiah 2:7
10. Ezra 8:22
11. Nehemiah 2:19; Nehemiah 4:1
12. Ezra 8:32
13. Nehemiah 3:13
14. Nehemiah 1:3
15. Nehemiah 2:3, 17

Footnotes 4

[a]. Lit "house"
[b]. Lit "servant"
[c]. Lit "heart"
[d]. Lit "Gate of Ash-heaps"