Nehemiah 2:3
And I said to the king, Let the king live forever. Why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchers, lays waste, and the gates of it are consumed with fire?
A Conservative Version
In The King James Version
In Context
4Then the king said to me, For what do thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.
Cross References
1 Kings 1:31Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the earth, and did obeisance to the king, and said, Let my lord king David live forever.
2 Chronicles 28:27And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem. For they did not bring him into the sepulchers of the kings of Israel. And Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.
Nehemiah 1:3And they said to me, The remnant who are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. Also the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and the gates of it are burned with fire.
Psalms 38:7For my loins are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh.
Psalms 102:15So the nations shall fear the name of LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.
Lamentations 2:9Her gates are sunk into the ground. He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her rulers are among the nations where the law is not. Yea, her prophets find no vision from LORD.
Matthew Henry on Nehemiah 2:2-9
Nehemiah's Request to the King. ( b. c. 445.) 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… Read the whole commentary →