ESV Global Study Bible :: Footnotes for Nehemiah 2

2:1–16 Nehemiah Gains Permission to Return and Inspects Jerusalem’s Walls. Nehemiah is allowed to go to Jerusalem (vv. 1–8). He surveys the walls, finding them in very poor condition (vv. 9–16).

Neh. 2:2 Nehemiah did not show his grief during the four months since 1:1, perhaps because it was part of his duty to be positive and encouraging. Nehemiah was very much afraid because he was about to say something that the king might take as disloyalty.

Neh. 2:3 Let the king live forever! Nehemiah first shows his loyalty and explains the reason for his grief, without yet making his request. my fathers’ graves. He may think that this way of speaking about Jerusalem will make the king sympathetic.

Neh. 2:4–6 The king then invites a request. So I prayed. Nehemiah had already prayed a great deal, of course (see 1:4), but here he prays again before answering the king. When Nehemiah makes his request, the king agrees readily. He demands only that Nehemiah commit to a date when he will return to Susa.

Neh. 2:7–8 Nehemiah is encouraged by the king’s positive response. He now asks for specific authority to show letters to the governors of the province Beyond the River. This included the very people who had previously persuaded Artaxerxes to stop the rebuilding of the city (Ezra 4:7–9). Nehemiah goes further, requesting timber from the king’s forest (location unknown). The name Asaph suggests that he was a Jewish royal official. The fortress of the temple was a special defense of the temple, probably on the northern, most vulnerable side. The temple fortress may have included the towers mentioned in Neh. 3:1. The wood for the wall of the city would have been mainly for the gates.

Neh. 2:9 Nehemiah’s imperial authority is shown by the officers and horsemen sent with him.

Neh. 2:10 Sanballat the Horonite was later the governor of Samaria, and he may have been so at this time. Tobiah is a Jewish name, yet as an Ammonite his people are one of Israel’s historic enemies (2 Sam. 10:1–14). Servant here may mean government official.

Neh. 2:11–12 three days. Compare Ezra 8:32. in the night. Nehemiah aims to keep his mission secret from potential enemies and his own people till his plans are fully formed (see also Neh. 2:16).

Neh. 2:13–15 Nehemiah surveys the walls mainly on the southern and eastern sides—the city of David and the Kidron Valley. The Valley Gate was probably on the southwestern side of the city of David, and the Dung Gate, leading to the city dump, at its southern tip. The Dragon Spring, Fountain Gate, and King’s Pool are unidentified, but were no doubt on the east where the Kidron Valley’s water sources were. The valley is the Kidron Valley.

2:17–20 First Signs of Opposition. Nehemiah now exhorts his countrymen. They are willing to work, but opposition quickly emerges, as vv. 9–10 have already hinted.

Neh. 2:18 the hand of my God. Compare 1:10; 2:8; Ezra 7:6; 28; 8:18. God was working to bless his people.

Neh. 2:19 Opponents claim that the people are rebelling against the king. Artaxerxes had previously believed this extremely serious charge (Ezra 4:12–13, 19–22).

Neh. 2:20 Nehemiah knows the king is on his side, but recognizes the God of heaven as his true authority. but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem. He is convinced that they are opposing God’s work.