Nehemiah 2:1-11. Nehemiah receives His Commission

1. Nisan] See note on Nehemiah 1:1. This name only occurs elsewhere in the O.T. in Esther 3:7, ‘in the first month, which is the month Nisan,’ cf. Josephus, Ant. xi. 4, 8, ‘The first month, which according to the Macedonians is called Xanthicus, but according to us Nisan.’ Its meaning is uncertain; according to some its root-idea is ‘fruitfulness,’ according to others ‘beginning’ or ‘origin.’ It corresponds to the month of which the older Israelite name was ‘Abib’ (Exodus 13:4; Exodus 23:15; Exodus 34:18; Deuteronomy 16:1), ‘the harvest month,’ equivalent to our latter part of March and beginning of April.

The same month appears in the Assyrian dialect as Nisannu, and it is quite possible that the Jews may have adopted the name from Babylonian usage.

the twentieth year of Artaxerxes] 445 b.c.: Artaxerxes reigned 41 years (465–424 b.c.). In the year 445 Pericles had obtained control of Athenian affairs; and a thirty years’ truce was concluded between Athens and Sparta. At Rome the conflict between patricians and plebeians was being waged; the deposition of the Decemvirs had occurred only four years before.

that wine] R.V. when wine. The R.V. shows the connexion of the sentences. The present clause states the occasion, when Nehemiah preferred his request. ‘When wine was before him;’ i.e. when the king was at a repast, and the cupbearers were (or a cupbearer was) in attendance. At such a time the king would naturally remark upon any alteration of demeanour in a favourite ‘cupbearer.’

According to Rawlinson (Ancient Monarchies, vol. iii. p. 214) the Persian king himself rarely dined with his guests. For the most part he dined alone. Sometimes he admitted to his table the queen and two or three of his children. Sometimes at a ‘banquet of wine’ (Esther 7:2) a certain number of privileged boon companions were received.

before him] Another reading is found in the LXX. ‘before me,’ (καὶ ἦν ὁ οἶνος ἐνώπιον ἐμοῦ), which is followed in the Arabic version and was known to the translators of the Syriac. The change needed in the Hebrew to give this rendering is very slight, being only the omission of a single letter (vaw), which is read once instead of being repeated (l’phânâ(y) vaessa instead of l’phânâv vaessa). It has been very ingeniously maintained that this is the right reading, and that the words ‘when wine was before me’ denote ‘when my turn came round to attend as cupbearer at the royal table.’ According to this explanation, the clause accounts for the delay of three or four months, before Nehemiah made his appeal to the king; it also accounts for the king not having before recognised the sadness of his cupbearer, this being the first occasion on which he had appeared in the royal presence since the sad news arrived in the month Chislev.

But it does not seem likely that a cupbearer, who enjoyed the favour of the king, should have appeared so rarely in his presence as this view supposes. The LXX. reading makes practically no distinction in meaning between the clauses ‘wine was before me’ and ‘I took up the wine,’ and it is a pure assumption, that the former was a phrase for the rotation of the cupbearer’s office.

On the other hand, the Hebrew text gives with great minuteness full circumstances of the event: (1) the month and year; (2) the time of day, at the dinner; (3) the stage at the dinner, when the cupbearer offered the king wine. It distinguishes between ‘wine … before him,’ the occasion of the repast, and ‘I took up … the wine,’ the act of presenting the royal cup.

and I took up] R.V. that I took up. The cupbearer’s duties were to pour out the wine, to taste it so as to prevent any scheme of poisoning, and to present it to the king. Perhaps the words ‘took up’ relate to the reverential gesture with which the goblet was offered.

the wine] ‘The vines of Helbon were cultivated for the special purpose of supplying the Persian king with wine’ (Rawlinson, Anc. Mon., 3. p. 226). Helbon, a village near Damascus (see Ezekiel 27:18), seems to be the place intended by Strabo and Athenaeus, who call it ‘Chalybon.’

Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence] These words have given rise to considerable difficulty. There is nothing to show that this was the first occasion on which Nehemiah had stood before the king since the month Chislev. To suppose that the king had been absent for several months from Shushan would of course get over the difficulty. But we have no evidence upon which to base such an assertion. The passage, as it stands, suggests that Nehemiah was performing his usual duties as on former days. If so, how are we to explain Nehemiah’s words? For surely we may suppose his sadness to have dated from the arrival of the distressing news (ch. Nehemiah 1:2). Various explanations of the words have been attempted; e.g.,

(1) ‘Now I was not evil in his sight,’ i.e. he was well disposed to me. The rendering ‘evil’ instead of ‘sad’ is equally in accordance with the Hebrew, but the use of the same adjective in the sense of ‘sad’ in Nehemiah 2:2 (see note) is fatal to this interpretation.

(2) ‘To suppose that I should not have been sad in his presence!’ Grammatically possible, an exclamation is not a probable turn of the sentence.

(3) ‘And I was not sad in his presence.’ The preterite tense is understood to refer to this particular occasion, and not generally to past time. This interpretation supposes that Nehemiah did not wear a sad countenance, but that the quick eye of his royal master perceived that something was wrong with his favourite. This, it is claimed, would account for the perturbation of Nehemiah described in Nehemiah 2:2. But it is sufficient to object that (a) Nehemiah 2:2, leaves us to suppose that Nehemiah’s sadness was clearly visible; (b) the 1st pers. sing. of the preterite of the auxiliary is used in three other passages in this book and refers to past time indefinitely (Nehemiah 1:1; Nehemiah 1:11, Nehemiah 13:6). Had, Nehemiah wished to say that he was not sad on this occasion he would not have employed the auxiliary at all.

(4) Accepting the English rendering, ‘Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence,’ it seems necessary to assume that Nehemiah chose his opportunity and deliberately gave occasion for the king’s enquiry. It was forbidden for royal servants to appear before the king gloomy and unhappy. It was ill-omened, and suggested discontent and plotting at the court, cf. Esther 4:2. Nehemiah had not therefore beforetime been sad in the king’s presence. He had not made up his mind up to this time what steps to take or what petition to present. Now, however, after his prayer to God (ch. Nehemiah 1:5-11), he had been able to resolve upon his course of action. He appeared before the king at the banquet table in a state of sadness and dejection, which could not possibly escape the king’s notice when he stood before him as cupbearer and presented him the cup.Verse 1. - In the month Nisan. The fourth month after Chisleu, corresponding nearly to our April. How it came about that Nehemiah did not put the king's favour to the proof until more than three months had gone by we can only conjecture. Perhaps the court had been absent from Susa, passing the winter at Babylon, as it sometimes did, and he had not accompanied it. Perhaps, though present at the court, he had not been called on to discharge his office, his turn not having arrived. Possibly, though performing his duties from time to time, he had found no opportunity of unbosoming himself, the king not having noticed his grief. He. may even have done his best to conceal it, for Persian subjects were expected to be perfectly happy in the presence of their king. He had probably formed no plan, but waited in the confident hope that God's providence would so order events, that some occasion would arise whereof he might take advantage. In the twentieth year of Artaxerxes. Like Daniel, Zechariah, Haggai, and Ezra, Nehemiah dates events by the regnal year of the existing Persian king. His Artaxerxes is, by common consent, the same as Ezra's, and can scarcely be supposed to be any monarch but Longimanus, who reigned from B.C. 465 to B.C. 425. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. Other renderings have been proposed, but this is probably the true meaning. Hitherto I had always worn a cheerful countenance before him - now it was otherwise - my sorrow showed itself in spite of me. "Let Thine ear be attentive, and Thine eyes open," like 2 Chronicles 6:40; 2 Chronicles 7:15 - לשׁמע, that Thou mayest hearken to the prayer of Thy servant, which I pray, and how I confess concerning ... מתדּה still depends upon אשׁר in the sense of: and what I confess concerning the sins. היּום does not here mean to-day, but now, at this time, as the addition "day and night" compared with ימים in Nehemiah 1:4 shows. To strengthen the communicative form לך חטאנוּ, and to acknowledge before God how deeply penetrated he was by the feeling of his own sin and guilt, he adds: and I and my father's house have sinned.Nehemiah 2:1 Interlinear
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