And I said to the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it.
Nehemiah has carried a burden for four months. Now the Persian king asks him what he wants, and everything hangs on the reply. The pause before he answers, and the words he chooses, are the heart of this verse.
Nehemiah does answer the king. But he speaks to God first, and one commentator makes that order the whole point.
"The king said to me, 'What are you requesting?'" What does he do? Does he make his request to the king? No, he makes his request to God. "So I prayed to the God of heaven." It is not that he fails to tell the king. But even at that very moment, standing before the king himself, his heart was toward the Lord. No wonder he got his request. No wonder God listened and heard, and he could take it as from Him. Why? Because he prayed to the Lord first.
Nehemiah could not step away to pray. As the king's cupbearer he had to answer at once, and that is what makes the moment instructive.
Here we have a prayer offered in the interval between the king's question and Nehemiah's reply. The interval must have been brief. Eastern kings were not in the habit of waiting long for their cupbearers to answer them. But there was time enough for the prayer to ascend and for help to come. The case was urgent and the relief was instantaneous.
He could have simply named Jerusalem. He described it instead by its graves — not by anything his fathers had achieved there.
He emphasizes "the place of my fathers' tombs"; he does not say the place of my fathers' achievements. Generation had followed generation on divine territory. Nehemiah seems to say that this is the place where he ought to be, keeping up what they kept up when they were there.
The description also differs from the language he had used in private. Alone with God he had confessed the family failure; in front of Artaxerxes he speaks of the land God had given.
He did not say to the king, the place where my fathers have sinned. Before the king he speaks of divine territory; before God he says, "Both I and my father's house have sinned."
His request is short and plain. Months of carrying it had made it clear.
The city was clearly before Nehemiah. He had carried this burden for months. Is it not interesting and challenging that, when challenged about it, he could speak of it so clearly? He knew exactly what he wanted. He was not vague about the concern he carried. He could put four months of that concern into one sentence and say what he desired.
His request also settles who should go, and it shows how he weighed up the king he was asking.
Nehemiah intended to act. He would not only pray and leave it there. He did not pray that God would send someone to Jerusalem to help the suffering remnant. Since he knew and felt the sorrow of their condition, he considered he was the man to go. Though Artaxerxes was king, Nehemiah considered him simply a man in whose heart God could work as easily as in any man.
The permission Nehemiah asked for here was not only a personal favour. One commentator dates the start of a prophetic period — the seventy weeks of Daniel — from the king's word here.
This decree applied to the building of the city and its defences (B.C. 445). In the twentieth year of his reign, Artaxerxes gave letters, or warrants, to Nehemiah, allowing him to build the city of his "fathers' tombs." In this "word" of the Persian king lay the appointed sign that the seventy weeks of Daniel were beginning.
The king agreed readily. Nehemiah credits that answer to God, not to his own skill with words.
At once Nehemiah recognises that the ready compliance of the king was the result of the good hand of God. Before he asked, Nehemiah had turned to God. Now that the king has granted his request, he acknowledges the good hand of God. We may remember to turn to God in our difficulties and forget to acknowledge the goodness of God when they are met. It is well to enter a difficulty in a spirit of prayer, and to come out of it in a spirit of praise.
- Prayer first. The king asked; Nehemiah asked God before he asked the man in front of him. That order is why he could take the answer as from God.
- Prayer brief. The whole prayer fitted into the seconds between a question and its reply; urgent case, instant relief.
- Request definite. Four months of burden came out in one clear sentence: send me, to that city, to build it — no vagueness.
- Sender sent. He did not ask God to send someone else; feeling the sorrow himself, he counted himself the man to go.
- Praise last. The king's ready agreement was the good hand of God; enter the difficulty praying, come out of it praising.
And the king said to me -- the queen also sitting by him, -- For how long shall thy journey be, and when wilt thou return? And it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.
The king answers with the queen seated beside him. His reply turns Nehemiah's request into a settled plan with a date attached. Behind this short exchange lie four months of waiting and a prayer offered in the king's own presence. The leave he agreed to here would one day run out.
Nehemiah had prayed in Chislev; the king speaks in Nisan. Writers note that the gap was not wasted time but training.
Four months had passed since he had offered the prayer recorded in Nehemiah 1. He is careful to give us the dates. In the month Chislev, which is our November, he had prayed. In the month Nisan, our March, the answer came. During this period, man of faith as he was, he must have waited in daily expectation upon God. He could not foresee how the answer would come; but he knew that God could intervene when and how He would... It is in this way God both tries and strengthens the faith of His people. He waits while they wait. But if He waits, it is only to shut His people up to fuller dependence on Himself. So He prepares their hearts for the blessing He is about to give. And when He steps in, it is often, as in this case, in such a quiet and unseen way — unseen by all but the eye of faith — that it takes faith to detect His presence.
Asked what he wanted, Nehemiah turned to God before he answered the king. Writers trace the granted request back to that order.
What does he do? Does he make a request to the king? No, he makes request to God. "So I prayed to the God of heaven." He does tell the king. But at that very moment, in the king's own presence, his heart was toward the Lord. No wonder he got his request. No wonder that God listened and heard, and he could take it as from Him. Why? Because he prayed to the Lord first.
Why did the king agree? The record never tells us what was in his mind, and one writer treats that silence as the point.
What moved the king's mind is hidden from us. It is hidden so that we may see more clearly that, whatever it was, the power of God controlled him, in answer to Nehemiah's brief and sudden prayer.
The king's yes opened a door. Nehemiah walked through it with an exact list of what he needed.
The queen was sitting with the king at that moment. The king asked how long Nehemiah planned to be away, and then granted his request at once. Nehemiah saw his opportunity — the opportunity God had given him. Strengthened by his faith, he grew bolder and dared to ask for royal letters... His aims were exact and clear: to restore the fortress that protected the temple, to rebuild the city walls, and to build a house fit for his own office.
The king wanted his servant back, and Nehemiah named a date. What that date was, the book never tells us.
The king made no objection. But he asked how long Nehemiah would need for the work, because he wanted him back. Nehemiah set him a time. We are not told what it was, and Nehemiah records nothing about his later return to Shushan. The wall was rebuilt in the short space of 52 days, however (ch. 6:15).
The agreed limit held. At the end of the book, evil crept into the temple rooms while Nehemiah was away with the king and not there to stop it.
Nehemiah had to return to put an end to this misuse of holy things. While these things were going on, he was with the king at Shushan, because his leave of absence had expired. But when he returned, a situation like this could not escape him. Although everyone else tolerated it, Nehemiah could not.
Nehemiah prayed his way into this meeting. He came out of it with a date and letters, and gave God the credit.
At once Nehemiah recognises that the ready compliance of the king was the result of the good hand of God... We may remember to turn to God in our difficulties and forget to acknowledge the goodness of God when He meets them. It is well to enter a difficulty in a spirit of prayer, and to come out of it in a spirit of praise.
- Waited — Four months lie between the prayer of chapter 1 and this answer. God waits while His people wait, to deepen their dependence before He gives the blessing.
- Prayed — Nehemiah spoke to the God of heaven before he spoke to the king. That order explains the answer he got.
- Granted — The reasons in the king's mind stay hidden on purpose. That silence points us to the power of God behind his decision.
- Timed — Nehemiah took a leave with an end date. When it ran out he went back, and it was his absence that let evil creep into the temple rooms.
- Praised — He went into the difficulty praying and came out of it owning the good hand of God. That second half is the part we forget once the answer comes.
And I said to the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may set me forward till I come into Judah;
The king of Persia has asked Nehemiah what he wants. Nehemiah prays a quick prayer, asks leave to go, and then asks for something practical: written permission to cross the provinces on the way.
Nehemiah asks for letters to the governors "Beyond the River". Which river, and why did those officials matter?
The king invited Nehemiah to make a request, and he asked respectfully to be allowed to go to Jerusalem with the king's authority to rebuild it. That authority would come in letters — one to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, and others to the governors beyond the river. The river here is almost certainly the Euphrates, so these governors ruled the lands toward Palestine. We are not told what moved the king's mind. That silence lets us see more clearly that, whatever the reasons were, it was the power of God that controlled him, in answer to Nehemiah's short and sudden prayer.
Nehemiah asked for one thing, then saw his chance and asked for more.
Nehemiah saw his opportunity — the opportunity God had given him — and his faith made him bolder. He dared to ask for royal letters "to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah"… His aims were exact and clearly defined: to restore the fortress that protected the temple, to rebuild the city walls, and to build a house suitable for himself as he carried out his duties.
Everything Nehemiah asked for was in the king's power to give. But was the asking itself right?
The answer to this question comes at the end of verse eight: "And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me." The request was in line with God's wisdom. The resources were in the king's hand, but God was behind it all.
Commentators differ over this request. Years earlier Ezra made the same journey and refused an armed escort. Some writers read Nehemiah's letters as a step down from that.
When Nehemiah made the same journey some years later, captains of the army and horsemen went with him. His faith was not as active, though his heart was truly set on the Lord's interests. How much better to trust in the Lord than in a strength you can see!
Others weigh the same difference and reach the opposite conclusion.
Notice an important difference between Ezra and Nehemiah, one that still puts no blame on Nehemiah. In Ezra, faith alone is at work. He was "ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way" (Ezra 8:22). Nehemiah, by contrast, puts himself under the protection of the governors on the other side of the river… He leans on the power he serves, not because he lacks faith, but because in such low times faith no longer shows itself with the same simplicity… Nehemiah was alone, and his mission would not begin until he reached Jerusalem. Until then he had to recognise and accept that he depended on the Gentile power.
Later, enemies mocked the work and accused Nehemiah of rebellion. He had the king's letters in hand. Watch what he reaches for instead.
When "Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian" said with scorn, "What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?", the striking thing is that Nehemiah does not fall back on the king's authority. He falls back on God Himself. He could have said, "See these letters I have from the king." Instead he said, "The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we His servants will arise and build."
- Pray, then plan. The quick prayer came first. The detailed request followed, and grew bolder as God opened the door.
- Plan in detail. Nehemiah knew exactly what he needed — safe passage, timber, walls, a house — not just a vague wish for help.
- Permission is God's work. The letters lay in the king's power to give, but God was behind it all, controlling the king's mind.
- Protection divides opinion. Some writers see weaker faith here than in Ezra, who refused an escort. Others see a man accepting the dependence his position forced on him.
- Point to God, not paperwork. Nehemiah held royal letters, but he answered his enemies with God.
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 palace which [appertains] to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
The Persian king has just asked Nehemiah what he wants. Instead of a small favour, he asks for state letters, safe passage, and timber from the royal forest. The verse ends by tracing the whole success of that request to a source outside the palace entirely.
Nehemiah had prayed before he answered the king. When the king agreed to send him, he asked for more. One writer traces his growing courage and the exactness of what he asked for.
Nehemiah saw his opportunity — the opportunity God had given him. Strengthened by his faith, he grew bolder, and dared to ask for royal letters to the governors beyond the river... and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest. His aims were precise and clear: to restore the fortress that protected the temple, to rebuild the walls of the city, and to build a house fit for himself in his office... Before God he had poured out the desires of his heart — desires which God Himself had produced. He had looked to God for guidance and strength while he stood in front of the king. Now God showed that He had taken up His servant's cause.
The building named in the verse is not a royal home. The same writer explains the word and where the structure stood.
It seems that the more exact translation of this word would be "fortress". This may have been the well-known fortress connected with the temple. Under Roman rule it was later called the tower of Antonia.
Commentators differ over the building. These writers use an older translation, which reads "palace" where the ESV has "the fortress of the temple". One writer takes the three things Nehemiah names as public life, worship, and the protection of both.
The palace would perhaps refer to what we would call the Town Hall. The house, of course, was the place of worship. The walls would safeguard both.
The first use he names for the timber is gates. That priority has a precedent.
In verse 8 Nehemiah says, "That he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace". David lived in a very different day from this. When he was collecting material for the house of God, the first thing he had in mind was the doors. "Nails for the doors of the house". It seems to be an important point that the gates, or doors, should be set up in their right position.
The forest and the letters were the king's. Nehemiah's closing words look past all of that.
There is much detail between the two statements "I prayed to the God of heaven" and "The king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me". Nehemiah recognized where his resources were. He also recognized that God, in His sovereignty, used the secular power to give them to him. Nehemiah did not ask for them from the secular power, he asked of God, and he recognized that they came from God.
That acknowledgement after the fact is as telling as the prayer before it.
Before he asked, Nehemiah had turned to God. Now that the king has granted his request, he acknowledges the good hand of God. We may remember to turn to God in our difficulties, and forget to acknowledge the goodness of God once He has met them. It is well to enter a difficulty in a spirit of prayer, and to come out of it in a spirit of praise.
One writer draws a wider principle from the way this door opened.
If He puts within our hearts a desire for any service — a service for His glory — He will surely open the way to it before us. If our minds are really set on His work, He will enable us to do it in His own way and time. The door may seem closed and barred; but if we wait on Him "who opens and no one shuts," we will find that it suddenly opens to us.
Ezra the priest and Nehemiah the court official were not equal in understanding. Yet the phrase at the end of this verse belongs to both men.
Nehemiah was an official in the king's court. He clearly did not have the spiritual education and understanding that Ezra had as a priest, devoted to the law of his God. Yet both could speak in the same way of "the good hand of my God upon me." If the heart is right, God will guide and support His servant, whatever the measure of his intelligence and faith.
- Prayed: Nehemiah asked God before he asked the king; the desires he poured out were desires God had first produced in him.
- Precise: He knew what he wanted — the fortress guarding the temple, the city wall, a house for his office — and asked for the timber to build it.
- Granted: The forest and the letters were the king's. Nehemiah did not ask the secular power for them. He asked God, and traced them back to God.
- Opened: Where God puts a desire for His work in a heart, He opens the barred door in His own way and time.
- Shared: Ezra had greater understanding, Nehemiah less, yet both could say the same thing — the good hand of my God was upon me.
And I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent captains of a force and horsemen with me.
Nehemiah leaves the king's court with his letters and hands them to the governors of the province he must cross on the way to Jerusalem. What stands out is the armed escort, because Ezra had made the same journey earlier and refused one.
The verse sends Nehemiah to the governors "Beyond the River". Which river is that, and why did the king agree at all?
The 'river' here is almost certainly the Euphrates, so the governors were the ones who ruled in the direction of Palestine. What moved the king's mind is hidden from us. That way we see more clearly that, whatever it was, it was the power of God that controlled him, in answer to Nehemiah's brief and sudden prayer.
The verse is careful about who supplied the soldiers.
The text tells us plainly that the king sent the captains and the horsemen. It does not say that Nehemiah asked for them. Nehemiah was travelling as the king's cup-bearer, and the king was probably thinking more of his dignity than of Nehemiah's safety. Even so, God can use the dignity of a king and the demands of royal custom to provide for the welfare of His servants. The situation clearly called for some such protection, because we are told at once about the enemies of God's people, who were deeply upset that a man had come to seek the welfare of God's people.
Commentators differ over what the escort says about Nehemiah. Some see it as a step down from the ground Ezra took on the same road.
Ezra would not ask the king for any military escort. He had already told the king that he trusted God (Ezra 8:22), and God fully proved that trust right by guarding him and his companions "from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes by the way." Nehemiah did not have the same simple faith. He was a godly and devoted man, but he travelled with the show and ceremony of one of the king's governors. That way was more likely to win him the respect of the world and the help of the king's servants.
Others answer that the two men carried very different responsibilities.
He accepts the support of the power that protects him and that he serves. This is not from any lack of faith. In these low times, faith does not show itself with the same simplicity. When the temple was finished, Ezra only had to carry gifts to the house of the Lord. The greater the treasure trusted to him, the more he needed to show the world that faith turned to God to guard what belonged to Him. Nothing like this was true of Nehemiah. He was alone, and his mission would not begin until he reached Jerusalem. Until then he had to acknowledge and accept that he depended on the Gentile power.
Another writer points to what Nehemiah never asked for:
Nehemiah was given this escort without asking for it, so it would have been out of place for him to refuse it. No doubt he saw it as tied to the Lord's promise to protect him.
Whichever view you take, God's hand was on both men. That leaves a lesson for anyone whose faith feels small.
Nehemiah was an official in the king's court. He clearly did not have the spiritual training and understanding that Ezra had as a priest devoted to the law of his God. Yet both alike could speak of 'the good hand of my God upon me.' If the heart is right, God will guide and support His servant, whatever the measure of his understanding and faith. This should encourage us today. Our faith and understanding may be small, but let us make sure our hearts are marked by real devotion to Christ and His present interests. Understanding will grow as the fruit of devotion.
Israel under a foreign ruler was a humbling position. There was a right way to feel it.
It was a humbling state of things when a foreign power ruled over Israel — an extreme punishment for the nation's sin. It was right to feel that, while still looking up to God above, Who heard Nehemiah and turned the king's heart. The other option was the rebellious pride we see later in the Pharisees, the strict religious leaders of Jesus' day.
- Prayer moves kings. The letters and the escort trace back to one brief, sudden prayer. The king's motives stay hidden so that God's hand stands out.
- Given, not grabbed. The captains and horsemen were the king's idea. God can use royal custom to protect His servant. Refusing a gift he never asked for would have been out of place.
- Two roads, one Lord. Ezra crossed the same ground with no soldiers; commentators differ on whether Nehemiah's escort marks weaker faith or simply a different errand.
- Heart over measure. Both men could say the good hand of God was on them. God guides the devoted heart, whatever its measure of understanding. And understanding grows out of devotion.
- Opposition starts at the border. The escort came none too soon. As soon as Nehemiah arrived, enemies were upset that anyone had come to seek the good of God's people.