Nechemyah 1:3

3 And they said unto me, The remnant that have survived the Exile [the Golus] there in the province are in ra’ah gedolah and reproach; the Chomat Yerushalayim also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with eish.

Nechemyah 1:3 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 1:3

And they said unto me, the remnant that are left of the
captivity there in the province
In Judea, now reduced to a province of the Persian empire:

are in great affliction and reproach;
harassed and distressed, calumniated and vilified, by their enemies the Samaritans:

the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are
burnt with fire;
that is, its wall and gates were in the same condition in which Nebuchadnezzar had left them, for since his times as yet they had never been set up; for this is not to be understood of what was lately done by their adversaries, which is not at all probable.

Nechemyah 1:3 In-Context

1 The Divrei Nechemyah ben Chachalyah. And it came to pass in the month Kislev, in the twentieth year [i.e., 445 B.C.E.], as I was in Shushan the capital [of Persia],

2 That Chanani, one of my achim [see 7:2], came, he and certain men, from Yehudah; and I asked them concerning the remnant of the Yehudim that had survived the Exile [the Golus], and concerning Yerushalayim.

3 And they said unto me, The remnant that have survived the Exile [the Golus] there in the province are in ra’ah gedolah and reproach; the Chomat Yerushalayim also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with eish.

4 And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for several yamim, and did a tzom, and davened before Elohei HaShomayim,

5 And said, O Hashem Elohei HaShomayim, HaEl HaGadol vHaNora, that is shomer habrit vachesed for them that love Him and are shomer mitzvot over His commandments,