Nehemiah 1:6

Neh 1:6 Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned.

Ver. 6. Let thine ears now be attentive, and thine eyes open] Should not God see as well as hear (saith a divine), his children should want many things. We apprehend not all our wants; and so cannot pray for relief of all. He of his own accord, without any monitor, is wont to aid us. "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous; and his ears are open to their prayer," Psa 33:15.

That thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant] If not secundum voluntatem, yet ad utilitatem (Aug. Confess. 1. 5, c. 8), but usually God answereth his servants’ prayers, fitting his mercy ad cardinem desiderii, to a longing heart, as here; and letting it be unto them even as they will.

Which I pray before thee now, day and night] Christ requireth his servants and suppliants to pray and not faint, Luk 18:1. Ordinarily, morning and evening without fail; extraordinarily, oftener. The Jews divide their day into prayer, work, and repast; neither will they omit prayer for their meat or labour. The Mahometans, what occasion soever they have, either by profit or pleasure, to divert them, will pray five times every day; and upon the Friday (which is their sabbath) six times. Vae torpori nostro! woe our numbness, how few and feeble are our prayers for ourselves and for brethren in distress; who have for that cause an unanswerable action against us!

And confess the sins of the children of Israel] This he did more fully and at large than is here set down; and he fitly beginnneth with confession; that having gotten off the guilt of sin, he might with more courage and comfort deprecate wrath, and beg mercy.

Which we have sinned against thee] There lay the pinch of his grief, that they sinned against so good a God.

Both I and my father’s house have sinned] Hic igitur Lyra deliravit, Lyra is incorrect when he saith here, that Nehemiah confessed his own sins, but only as a member of the same body, he himself being innocent. Comparatively innocent he was, doubtless; but that he was not without sin, and such sin as he had cause to confess to be God provoking sins, is clear by this very text. He was sensible of his own sins, and of other men’s sins too. The sins of our ancestors not bewailed and disclaimed, are set upon our score, Dan 5:22.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Neh 1:6. Which I pray before thee night and day — He refers to all the prayers which he had for some time been addressing to God, during his sorrow for the desolations of Jerusalem.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:6 I confess that we have sinned: Like Ezra (Ezra 9:5-15) and Daniel (Dan 9:4-19), Nehemiah identified with the sins of his people, made no excuses, and accepted both his individual responsibility and the responsibility of the larger covenant group that had sinned against God.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 6. Let thine ear] Hear what we say and confess. Thine eyes open - see what we suffer.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. The humble access leading to the confession of sin.

let thine ear now be attentive] The word ‘attentive’ is not very common in the original. It occurs again in Neh_1:11, in Psa_130:2. And with the rendering ‘attent’ (A.V. and R.V.) in 2Ch_6:40; 2Ch_7:15. The LXX. renders πρόσεχον.

and thine eyes open] We should expect this clause to come first, as in 2Ch_6:40; 2Ch_7:15. We need not however supply the words ‘to the misery of thy people’ or ‘to him that prayeth.’ A similar passage in 1Ki_8:52, ‘that thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant,’ shows that the metaphor is not to be pressed too literally.

hear] R.V. hearken unto. An alteration due to the wish to give the full force of the Hebrew. ‘Thy servant.’ Compare 1Sa_3:9-10; 1Sa_23:10; 2Sa_7:20.

now, day and night] R.V. at this time, day and night. Literally, ‘this day, day and night,’ cf. Neh_1:11. ‘At this time’ then refers to the ‘certain days’ mentioned in Neh_1:4 : it does not mean that he went into the presence of the king on the day of this prayer.

The Vulgate ‘hodie nocte et die.’ Cf. Act_20:31 ‘night and day with tears.’

for the children of Israel thy servants] i.e. in their behalf. In spite of their sin and disobedience, the children of Israel are still God’s servants, cf. Lev_25:55; Isa_63:17. The exact phrase used here does not occur elsewhere. But the permanent ideal relation, in spite of all failure or rebellion, is frequently expressed in the prophets; cf. ‘Jacob, my servant,’ used in Isaiah (Isa_41:8; Isa_44:2 &c.), Jeremiah (Jer_30:10; Jer_46:27-28), Eze_37:25.

and confess] R.V. while I confess. The A.V. is not grammatical.

‘Confess.’ See on Ezr_10:1.

the sins of the children of Israel, which we &c.] Nehemiah identifies himself with the guilt of the people. Cf. Moses in Exo_34:9 ‘Pardon our iniquity and our sin.’

both I and my father’s house] i.e. Neither the individual nor the family being free from the responsibility of national sin. It has been remarked that, if Nehemiah belonged to the house of David, there would be a special appropriateness in these words. According to one tradition (Euseb.), he was of the tribe of Judah.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Let thine ear be now attentive,.... To his prayer, as in Neh 1:11,

and thine eyes open; to behold with pity and compassion the distressed case of Jerusalem, and the Jews in it:

I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants; this he had continued to do ever since he heard of their trouble and calamity:

and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned; he considered sin as the cause of all this evil that had befallen his people, and confesses it with sorrow and humiliation, and not their sins only, but his own personal and family sins.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

They. Hebrew and Septuagint, "we have sinned." (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

6. Thine ear… thine eyes — He that formed the ear, shall he not hear his children’s cry? He that made the eye, shall he not see the sufferings of his people?

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Both I and my father"s house have sinned. Ewald well observes, "In the prayer of Nehemiah the keynote is struck in the words, "I and my father"s house have sinned ("History of Israel," vol. 5. p. 149, note 1). The desolation which he mourns is the result of the people"s sins, and in those sins are included his own, and those of his ancestors. His own may not have been very grievous, but those of his fathers weigh upon him as if his own, and oppress his spirit.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Which I pray, &c. - He refers to all the prayers, which he had for some time been putting up.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

open your eyes

"look at me." Here "open your eyes" is a metaphor that represents paying attention to someone. AT: "pay attention to me" (See: Metaphor)

so you may hear the prayer of your servant

"so that you may hear the prayer that I, your servant, am praying." The word "servant" refers to Nehemiah. This is how a person would address his superior in order to show humility and respect.

day and night

By saying that he prays both during the day and during the night, Nehemiah emphasizes the frequency of his prayers. AT: "all the time" (See: Merism)

Both I and my father's house

Here the word "house" represents family. AT: "Both I and my family" (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

pray

servant

people group

Israel

confess

sin

house

ancestor

evil

command

law, laws

decree

Moses

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

attentive Heb. קַשֶּׁבֶת, like קוֹשֶּׁבֶת, listening, for just as one says from אוֹהֵב, אָהַב, so does one say from קָשַּׁב, קוֹשֵּׁב and קוֹשֶּׁבֶת.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.