Nehemiah 2, A Cupbearer Makes a Request

Nehemiah, cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, has been praying about the city of Jerusalem.

Nehemiah 2: 1-4a, Appearance before the king 

In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before; so the king asked me, "Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart."
 

I was very much afraid, but I said to the king, "May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?"
 

The king said to me, "What is it you want?" 

Nehemiah is apparently one of a number of cupbearers and at a certain time it is his turn to serve the king. Artaxerxes notices Nehemiah's sadness and reacts in sympathy, asking what the problem is.  Nehemiah explains that the city of his fathers (where his ancestors have a sepulchre, suggests Yamauchi) is in ruins. The city is not named here; it is possible that Nehemiah does not name Jerusalem as its reconstruction had been stopped previously (see Ezra 4: 17-24), possibly by this very king.  

Here the king, Artaxerxes, seems to desire to help. Yamauchi puts the date as April, 444 BC.

Nehemiah 2: 4b-8, Request

Then I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king, "If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it."

Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, "How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?" 

It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time. I also said to him, "If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king's forest, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and  for the residence I will occupy?" 

And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests.

 

Nehemiah apparently prays silently, quickly for help, before answering the king.  He then gives the king a precise response, with some definite plans. The queen (or a leading concubine) is sitting next to the king when this conversation occurs.

The "king's forest" is not identified. If it is near Jerusalem, it may be the same as the King's garden through which Zedekiah fled in 2 Kings 25: 4 , Jeremiah 39: 4.

Nehemiah 2: 9-10, Letter carried 

So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king's letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me.

When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites.
 

Nehemiah, supported by Babylonia soldiers, goes to governors of the Trans-Euphrates.  (The Trans-Euphrates is probably the region controlling Jerusalem.)  Ammonite officials do not like this idea of the king sending people to change the status of the region they control. Sanballot and Tobiah will appear at various times in our narrative, as the struggle to rebuild Jerusalem goes forward.

Tobiah is described as an "official" but the Hebrew word there is ebed, translated "slave" or "bond-servant" in other places, including the Mosaic covenant.

There is now considerable historical documentation for this period. Artaxerxes and his role in the region appears in the Elephantine papyri. Flavius Josephus, c. 100 AD, in his Antiquities of the Jews, provides considerable details to this time in Book XI.  (I should do a Sunday essay on each of these sources.)

Nehemiah 2: 11-15, Scouting the wall

I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days I set out during the night with a few men. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on.
 

By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. Then I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and the King's Pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through; so I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the Valley Gate.

Without telling others, Nehemiah goes out at night and checks on the gates. At the Fountain Gate the damage and rubble did not even allow Nehemiah to get through.

According to the NIV footnotes, the "Jackal" Well (verse 13) might be translated "Serpent" or "Fig". As elsewhere, "three days" is often a phrase that means "a small number of days" or "a short time."

Nehemiah 2: 16-18, Ruins 

The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work.

Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace." I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. 

They replied, "Let us start rebuilding." So they began this good work.

 

Nehemiah encourages the city offices to begin working on the wall.

Nehemiah 2: 19-20, Sanballat 

But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. "What is this you are doing?" they asked. "Are you rebelling against the king?"

I answered them by saying, "The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it."

Nehemiah is given grief by the two Ammonite officials and matches their rhetoric. Sanballat will be an ongoing nemesis.