TRV
Translation
King James Version
And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?
KJV (with Strong's)
Complete Jewish Bible
as I said to the king, "May the king live forever! Why shouldn't I look sad, when the city, the place where my ancestors' tombs are, lies in ruins; and its gates are completely burned up?"
Berean Standard Bible
and replied to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should I not be sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”
American Standard Version
And I said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?
World English Bible Messianic
I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why shouldn’t my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates have been consumed with fire?”
Geneva Bible (1599)
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?
Young's Literal Translation
and say to the king, `Let the king to the age live! wherefore should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of the graves of my fathers, is a waste, and its gates have been consumed with fire?'
See also
See on the biblical-era map
In the KJVVerse 12,311 of 31,102
Study This Verse
Commentary on Nehemiah 2 verses 1–8
1 ¶ And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.
2 Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid,
3 And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?
4 Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.
5 And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it.
6 And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.
7 Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah;
8 And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained 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.
When Nehemiah had prayed for the relief of his countrymen, and perhaps in David's words (Psa 51:18, Build thou the walls of Jerusalem), he did not sit still and say, "Let God now do his own work, for I have no more to do," but set himself to forecast what he could do towards it. our prayers must be seconded with our serious endeavours, else we mock God. Nearly four months passed, from Chisleu to Nisan (from November to March), before Nehemiah made his application to the king for leave to go to Jerusalem, either because the winter was not a proper time for such a journey, and he would not make the motion till he could pursue it, or because it was so long before his month of waiting came, and there was no coming into the king's presence uncalled, Est 4:11. Now that he attended the king's table he hoped to have his ear. We are not thus limited to certain moments in our addresses to the King of kings, but have liberty of access to him at all times; to the throne of grace we never come unseasonably. Now here is,
I. The occasion which he gave the king to enquire into his cares and griefs, by appearing sad in his presence. Those that speak to such great men must not fall abruptly upon their business, but fetch a compass. Nehemiah would try whether he was in a good humour before he ventured to tell him his errand, and this method he took to try him. He took up the wine and gave it to the king when he called for it, expecting that then he would look him in the face. He had not used to be sad in the king's presence, but conformed to the rules of the court (as courtiers must do), which would admit no sorrows, Est 4:2. Though he was a stranger, a captive, he was easy and pleasant. Good men should do what they can by their cheerfulness to convince the world of the pleasantness of religious ways and to roll away the reproach cast upon them as melancholy; but there is a time for all things, Ecc 3:4. Nehemiah now saw cause both to be sad and to appear so. The miseries of Jerusalem gave him cause to be sad, and his showing his grief would give occasion to the king to enquire into the cause. He did not dissemble sadness, for he was really in grief for the afflictions of Joseph, and was not like the hypocrites who disfigure their faces; yet he could have concealed his grief if it had been necessary (the heart knows its own bitterness, and in the midst of laughter is often sad), but it would now serve his purpose to discover his sadness. Though he had wine before him, and probably, according to the office of the cup-bearer, did himself drink of it before he gave it to the king, yet it would not make his heart glad, while God's Israel was in distress.
II. The kind notice which the king took of his sadness and the enquiry he made into the cause of it (Neh 2:2): Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? Note, 1. We ought, from a principle of Christian sympathy, to concern ourselves in the sorrows and sadnesses of others, even of our inferiors, and not say, What is it to us? Let not masters despise their servants' griefs, but desire to make them easy. The great God is not pleased with the dejections and disquietments of his people, but would have them both serve him with gladness and eat their bread with joy. 2. It is not strange if those that are sick have sad countenances, because of what is felt and what is feared; sickness will make those grave that were most airy and gay: yet a good man, even in sickness, may be of good cheer if he knows that his sins are forgiven. 3. Freedom from sickness is so great a mercy that while we have that we ought not to be inordinately dejected under any outward burden; yet sorrow for our own sins, the sins of others, and the calamities of God's church, may well sadden the countenance, without sickness.
III. The account which Nehemiah gave the king of the cause of his sadness, which he gave with meekness and fear. 1. With fear. He owned that now (though it appears by the following story that he was a man of courage) he was sorely afraid, perhaps of the king's wrath (for those eastern monarchs assumed an absolute power of life and death, Dan 2:12, Dan 2:13; Dan 5:19) or of misplacing a word, and losing his request by the mismanagement of it. Though he was a wise man, he was jealous of himself, lest he should say any thing imprudently; it becomes us to be so. A good assurance is indeed a good accomplishment, yet a humble self-diffidence is not man's dispraise. 2. With meekness. Without reflection upon any man, and with all the respect, deference, and good-will, imaginable to the king his master, he says, "Let the king live for ever; he is wise and good, and the fittest man in the world to rule." He modestly asked, "Why should not my countenance be sad as it is when (though I myself am well and at east) the city" (the king knew what city he meant), "the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste?" Many are melancholy and sad but can give no reason for being so, cannot tell why nor wherefore; such should chide themselves for, and chide themselves out of, their unjust and unreasonable griefs and fears. But Nehemiah could give so good a reason for his sadness as to appeal to the king himself concerning it. Observe, (1.) He calls Jerusalem the place of his fathers' sepulchres, the place where his ancestors were buried. It is good for us to think often of our fathers' sepulchres; we are apt to dwell in our thoughts upon their honours and titles, their houses and estates, but let us think also of their sepulchres, and consider that those who have gone before us in the world have also gone before us out of the world, and their monuments are momentos to us. There is also a great respect owing to the memory of our fathers, which we should not be willing to see injured. All nations, even those that have had no expectation of the resurrection of the dead, have looked upon the sepulchres of their ancestors as in some degree sacred and not to be violated. (2.) He justifies himself in his grief: "I do well to be sad. Why should I not be so?" There is a time even for pious and prosperous men to be sad and to show their grief. The best men must not think to antedate heaven by banishing all sorrowful thoughts; it is a vale of tears we pass through, and we must submit to the temper of the climate. (3.) He assigns the ruins of Jerusalem as the true cause of his grief. Note, All the grievances of the church, but especially its desolations, are, and ought to be, matter of grief and sadness to all good people, to all that have a concern for God's honour and that are living members of Christ's mystical body, and are of a public spirit; they favour even Zion's dust, Psa 102:14.
IV. The encouragement which the king gave him to tell his mind, and the application he thereupon made in his heart to God, Neh 2:4. The king had an affection for him, and was not pleased to see him melancholy. It is also probable that he had a kindness for the Jews' religion; he had discovered it before in the commission he gave to Ezra, who was a churchman, and now again in the power he put Nehemiah into, who was a statesman. Wanting therefore only to know how he might be serviceable to Jerusalem, he asks this its anxious friend, "For what dost thou make request? Something thou wouldst have; what is it?" He was afraid to speak (Neh 2:2), but this gave him boldness; much more may the invitation Christ has given us to pray, and the promise that we shall speed, enable us to come boldly to the throne of grace. Nehemiah immediately prayed to the God of heaven that he would give him wisdom to ask properly and incline the king's heart to grant him his request. Those that would find favour with kings must secure the favour of the King of kings. He prayed to the God of heaven as infinitely above even this mighty monarch. It was not a solemn prayer (he had not opportunity for that), but a secret sudden ejaculation; he lifted up his heart to that God who understands the language of his heart: Lord, give me a mouth and wisdom; Lord, give me favour in the sight of this man. Note, It is good to be much in pious ejaculations, especially upon particular occasions. Wherever we are we have a way open heaven-ward. This will not hinder any business, but further it rather; therefore let no business hinder this, but give rise to it rather. Nehemiah had prayed very solemnly with reference to this very occasion (Neh 1:11), yet, when it comes to the push, he prays again. Ejaculations and solemn prayers must not jostle out one another, but each have its place.
V. His humble petition to the king. When he had this encouragement he presented his petition very modestly and with submission to the king's wisdom (Neh 2:5), but very explicitly. He asked for a commission to go as governor to Judah, to build the wall of Jerusalem, and to stay there for a certain time, so many months, we may suppose; and then either he had his commission renewed or went back and was sent again, so that he presided there twelve years at least, Neh 5:14. He also asked for a convoy (Neh 2:7), and an order upon the governors, not only to permit and suffer him to pass through their respective provinces, but to supply him with what he had occasion for, with another order upon the keeper of the forest of Lebanon to give him timber for the work that he designed.
VI. The king's great favour to him in asking him when he would return, Neh 2:6. He intimated that he was unwilling to lose him, or to be long without him, yet to gratify him, and do a real office of kindness to his people, he would spare him awhile, and let him have what clauses he pleased inserted in his commission, Neh 2:8. Here was an immediate answer to his prayer; for the seed of Jacob never sought the God of Jacob in vain. In the account he gives of the success of his petition he takes notice, 1. Of the presence of the queen; she sat by (Neh 2:6), which (they say) was not usual in the Persian court, Est 1:11. Whether the queen was his back friend, that would have hindered him, and he observes it to the praise of God's powerful providence that though she was by yet he succeeded, or whether she was his true friend, and it is observed to the praise of God's kind providence that she was present to help forward his request, is not certain. 2. Of the power and grace of God. He gained his point, not according to his merit, his interest in the king, or his good management, but according to the good hand of his God upon him. Gracious souls take notice of God's hand, his good hand, in all events which turn in favour of them. This is the Lord's doing, and therefore doubly acceptable.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 1–8. Public domain.
Copy as
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
Copy as
Continue studying Nehemiah 2:3 across the web’s major study libraries — every link below opens this exact verse, chapter, or book on the destination site.
Read & Compare
BibleGatewayThis verse in more than 200 translations and 70 languages.
Bible.comThe YouVersion reader — hundreds of translations, reading plans, and highlights.
ESV.orgCrossway's official English Standard Version reader.
NET BibleThe NET translation with 60,000+ translators' notes on every rendering decision.
STEP BibleTyndale House's free study tool — original text, vocabulary, and scholarly resources.
BibliaLogos Bible Software's free web reader.
USCCBThe New American Bible (Revised Edition) with the U.S. bishops' study notes.
Commentaries
BibleHub CommentariesDozens of classic commentaries on this verse, gathered on one page.
StudyLightMore than 100 commentary sets — the largest collection on the web.
BibleRefPlain-English commentary on what this verse means, verse by verse.
Enduring WordDavid Guzik's free commentary on this chapter, widely used by Bible teachers.
Bible Study ToolsVerse commentary alongside Greek and Hebrew study aids.
Original Language & Research
- BibleHub InterlinearThe verse word by word — original language, transliteration, and English.
- BibleHub LexiconEvery word's original-language definition and Strong's entry.
Blue Letter BibleDeep-study tools — Strong's numbers, concordance, and word studies.
SefariaThe Hebrew text with Rashi and centuries of Jewish commentary.
Sermons, Hymns & Audio
TrulyRandomVerse is not affiliated with these sites and doesn’t control their content. They’re linked because they’re genuinely useful.
SUMMARY
Nehemiah 2:3 captures the pivotal moment when Nehemiah, empowered by prayer and visibly burdened, articulates to King Artaxerxes the profound sorrow that has consumed him. This courageous and diplomatically astute response reveals the desolate state of Jerusalem—its walls broken and gates consumed by fire—setting the stage for his divinely appointed mission to rebuild the sacred city and restore hope to his people.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Nehemiah 2:3 masterfully employs several potent literary devices to convey Nehemiah's profound distress and his remarkable diplomatic skill. The most prominent is the Rhetorical Question, "why should not my countenance be sad?" This question is not posed to elicit an answer but to underscore the obvious and compelling nature of his grief, making his sorrow appear not only justifiable but an inevitable and appropriate response to the circumstances. This rhetorical strategy effectively creates a strong sense of Pathos, appealing directly to the king's emotions and understanding by vividly describing the desolation. The phrase "the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres" utilizes Metonymy or Synecdoche, where "sepulchres" stands for the entire ancestral heritage, the deep-rooted connection to the covenant land, and the collective honor of past generations, thereby evoking a profound sense of loss and dishonor. Furthermore, the detailed description of Jerusalem lying "waste" and its "gates... consumed with fire" employs vivid Imagery, painting a stark and emotionally resonant picture of utter ruin and vulnerability. The "gates consumed with fire" also functions as powerful Symbolism, representing not merely physical destruction but the complete collapse of the city's security, identity, and honor, signifying a deep spiritual and national brokenness.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Nehemiah's profound sorrow articulated in this verse transcends mere personal emotion; it is a divinely inspired burden for God's people and His holy city. It reflects a heart deeply aligned with God's own grief over the brokenness of His creation and the desolation of what He has consecrated. This godly lament is often the essential precursor to divine action, as powerfully evidenced by Nehemiah's subsequent monumental mission. His visible sadness demonstrates that true spiritual leadership frequently stems from a deep empathy for suffering and a passionate, unwavering commitment to seeing God's redemptive purposes fulfilled, even in the face of daunting challenges. Theologically, this passage highlights that God often uses individuals who are profoundly moved by the needs around them to bring about His kingdom purposes, transforming lament into a powerful catalyst for restoration and renewal.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Nehemiah 2:3 offers profound and actionable insights for believers today, challenging us to deeply examine the depth of our own burdens for God's kingdom and the brokenness of the world. Nehemiah's visible sorrow for Jerusalem's desolation serves as a powerful reminder that genuine faith is not passive or detached but often manifests as a deep, empathetic grief over the "waste places" in our contemporary world—whether they be spiritual apathy, pervasive social injustice, moral decay, or physical suffering. This verse calls us to cultivate a heart that is truly moved by the needs around us, transforming lament into a potent catalyst for fervent prayer and strategic, Spirit-led action. Like Nehemiah, we are encouraged to approach those in positions of authority—whether civic, corporate, or familial—with wisdom, profound respect, and a clear, compelling articulation of the needs, trusting that God can supernaturally open doors and soften hearts. Ultimately, Nehemiah's courageous example inspires us not just to identify problems but to actively seek God's will for their comprehensive restoration, recognizing our vital role as His agents in bringing healing, justice, and renewal to a broken world, confident that God's "good hand" will be upon us as it was upon Nehemiah (Nehemiah 2:8).
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why was it risky for Nehemiah to appear sad before the king?
Answer: In the highly structured and often volatile royal courts of the ancient Near East, particularly that of the powerful Persian Empire, strict protocol often dictated that those in the king's presence, especially trusted officials like a cupbearer, should maintain a cheerful and composed demeanor. Sadness could be interpreted in various negative ways: as a sign of disloyalty, discontent with the king's rule, a personal grievance, or even as a bad omen that could reflect poorly on the monarch's reign. Nehemiah's position as cupbearer meant he was in uniquely close and intimate contact with King Artaxerxes, making his visible sorrow even more striking and a direct breach of expected courtly conduct. His appearance of sadness was therefore a significant personal risk, which he undertook after much fervent prayer and careful preparation, trusting profoundly in God's favor to turn the king's heart (Nehemiah 2:4).
What is the significance of "the place of my fathers' sepulchres"?
Answer: This phrase carries immense cultural, historical, and spiritual weight in the ancient world. In ancient cultures, ancestral burial sites were considered deeply sacred ground, representing a profound and unbreakable connection to one's heritage, family lineage, and the very land itself. The desecration of these sites was regarded as a grave insult, not only dishonoring the deceased but also severing ties to the past and undermining the identity of the living. By referring to Jerusalem as "the place of my fathers' sepulchres," Nehemiah powerfully emphasized that the city's ruin was not merely a physical problem but a profound dishonor to his ancestors and a symbolic breaking of the covenantal link to the promised land. It appealed to a universal sense of respect for the dead and one's roots, underscoring the deep shame and utter desolation Jerusalem endured.
How did Nehemiah know the gates were "consumed with fire" if he was in Susa?
Answer: Nehemiah received a direct and distressing report from his brother Hanani and other men who had recently traveled from Judah to Susa. Nehemiah 1:3 explicitly states the content of their report: "The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire." This detailed and profoundly distressing news was the immediate catalyst for Nehemiah's overwhelming grief, his period of fasting and prayer, and his subsequent burden to seek the king's permission for the city's restoration.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Nehemiah's deep burden for the desolate city of Jerusalem and his subsequent monumental mission to rebuild its broken walls powerfully foreshadow the ultimate redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Just as Nehemiah grieved over the physical ruin that profoundly symbolized spiritual brokenness, so too did Jesus lament over Jerusalem's spiritual blindness, its rejection of God's prophets, and its impending judgment (Luke 19:41-44). Nehemiah's mission to restore the physical walls, gates, and honor of God's earthly city points directly to Christ's ultimate and eternal work of rebuilding and restoring humanity from the "waste" of sin, spiritual death, and alienation from God. He is the divine architect and master builder who came to repair the broken relationship between God and humanity, establishing a spiritual kingdom and building His church, against which "the gates of Hades shall not prevail" (Matthew 16:18). Through His sacrificial death on the cross and triumphant resurrection, Jesus consumed the "fire" of God's righteous wrath against sin, opening the way for complete spiritual reconciliation and the establishment of a new, eternal city—the New Jerusalem—where there will be no more sorrow, crying, or desolation, but perfect, unbroken fellowship with God for all eternity (Revelation 21:2-4). Nehemiah's profound grief and decisive action serve as a prophetic echo of the Savior's compassionate heart for a broken world, culminating in His complete and everlasting restoration of all things.