Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Nehemiah 1:5-11
We have here Nehemiah's prayer, a prayer that has reference to all the prayers which he had for some time before been putting up to God day and night, while he continued his sorrows for the desolations of Jerusalem, and withal to the petition he was now intending to present to the king his master for his favour to Jerusalem. We may observe in this prayer, I. His humble and reverent address to God, in which he prostrates himself before him, and gives unto him the glory due unto his name, Neh.... read more
Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Nehemiah 1:1-4
What a tribe Nehemiah was of does nowhere appear; but, if it be true (which we are told by the author of the Maccabees, 2 Macc. 1:18) that he offered sacrifice, we must conclude him to have been a priest. Observe, I. Nehemiah's station at the court of Persia. We are here told that he was in Shushan the palace, or royal city, of the king of Persia, where the court was ordinarily kept (Neh. 1:1), and (Neh. 1:11) that he was the king's cup-bearer. Kings and great men probably looked upon it as a... read more