Bible Verses About Love of Country: General references

The words of Nehemiah the sonne of Hachaliah. In ye moneth Chisleu, in the twentieth yeere, as I was in the palace of Shushan,

Came Hanam, one of my brethren, he and the men of Iudah, and I asked them concerning the Iewes that were deliuered, which were of the residue of the captiuitie, and concerning Ierusalem.

And they sayde vnto me, The residue that are left of the captiuitie there in the prouince, are in great affliction and in reproche, and the wall of Ierusalem is broken downe, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire.

And when I heard these wordes, I sate downe and wept, and mourned certeine dayes, and I fasted and prayed before the God of heauen,

And sayde, O Lord God of heauen, the great and terrible God, that keepeth couenant and mercy for them that loue him, and obserue his commandements,

I pray thee, let thine eares be attet, and thine eies open, to heare the praier of thy seruat, which I pray before thee dayly, day and night for ye childre of Israel thy seruats, and confesse the sinnes of the children of Israel, which we haue sinned against thee, both I and my fathers house haue sinned:

We haue grieuously sinned against thee, and haue not kept the commandements, nor the statutes, nor the iudgements, which thou commandedst thy seruant Moses.

I beseeche thee, remember the worde that thou commandedst thy seruant Moses, saying, Ye wil transgresse, and I will scatter you abroade among the people.

But if ye turne vnto me, and keepe my commandements, and doe them, though your scattering were to the vttermost part of the heauen, yet will I gather you from thence, and will bring you vnto the place that I haue chosen to place my Name there.

Now these are thy seruants and thy people, whome thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy mightie hand.

O Lord, I beseech thee, let thine eare now hearken to the prayer of thy seruant, and to the prayer of thy seruants, who desire to feare thy Name, and I pray thee, cause thy seruant to prosper this day, and giue him fauour in the presence of this man: for I was the Kings butler.

Nowe in the moneth Nisan in the twentieth yere of king Artahshashte, the wine stoode before him, and I tooke vp the wine, and gaue it vnto the King. nowe I was not before time sad in his presence.

And the king said vnto me, Why is thy coutenance sad, seeing thou art not sicke? this is nothing, but sorow of heart. Then was I sore afrayd,

And I said to the King, God saue the King for euer: why should not my countenance be sad, when the citie and house of the sepulchres of my fathers lieth waste, and the gates thereof are deuoured with fire?

And the King said vnto me, For what thing doest thou require? Then I prayed to the God of heauen,

And sayde vnto the King, If it please the King, and if thy seruant haue found fauour in thy sight, I desire that thou wouldest send me to Iudah vnto the city of the sepulchres of my fathers, that I may buyld it.

And the King sayd vnto me, (the Queene also sitting by him) How long shall thy iourney be? and when wilt thou come againe? So it pleased the King, and he sent me, and I set him a time.

After I saide vnto the King, If it please the King, let them giue mee letters to the captaines beyond the Riuer, that they may conuay me ouer, till I come into Iudah,

And letters vnto Asaph the keeper of the Kings parke, that hee may giue me timber to buylde the gates of the palace (which apperteined to the house) and for the walles of the citie, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the King gaue me according to the good hand of my God vpon me.

Then came I to the captaines beyonde the Riuer, and gaue them the Kings letters. And the King had sent captaines of the armie and horsemen with me.

But Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah a seruant an Ammonite heard it, and it grieued them sore, that there was come a man which sought the wealth of the children of Israel.

So I came to Ierusalem, and was there three dayes.

And I rose in the night, I, and a fewe men with me: for I told no man, what God had put in mine heart to do at Ierusalem, and there was not a beast with me, saue the beast whereon I rode.

And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, and came before the dragon well, and to the dung porte, and vewed the walles of Ierusalem, howe they were broken downe, and the portes thereof deuoured with the fire.

Then I went foorth vnto the gate of the fountaine, and to the Kings fishpoole, and there was no rowme for the beast that was vnder me to passe.