Nehemiah 1:5

NEHEMIAH'S PRAYER

"I beseech thee, O Jehovah, the God of heaven, the great and terrible God that keepeth covenant and lovingkindness with them that love him and keep his commandments: let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel, thy servants, while I confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee. Yea, I and my father's house have sinned: we have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the ordinances, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses. Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye trespass, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples: but if ye return unto me, and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts were in the uttermost part of the heavens, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them to the place that I have chosen, to cause my name to dwell there. Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand. O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who delight to fear thy name; and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man."

"If ye trespass, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples" (Nehemiah 1:8). Here Nehemiah was remembering the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 30:1-8.

This is a fervent beautiful prayer, and there's not a word in it that suggests any other person than Nehemiah as the author of it. Yet the critics who profess to know everything, and who are unable to find any dependable record whatever in the Holy Bible, declare this prayer to be fraudulently ascribed to Nehemiah. Hamrick stated that, "This prayer is probably not a verbatim quotation from Nehemiah."[18] And Oesterley even professed to know who wrote it! "The Chronicler took this prayer from the Temple liturgy and put it into the mouth of Nehemiah"![19] It is difficult to imagine a more arrogant conceit than that which produces such comments. Where is there any prayer in the Temple liturgy that duplicates this? It simply does not exist.

"There was a grave personal risk to Nehemiah in his decision to champion the cause of the distressed citizens in Jerusalem, because his master Artaxerxes I had already accepted the charge of the Samaritans that Jerusalem was a bad and rebellious city (See Ezra 4:17-22); and any request of Nehemiah of Artaxerxes would involve asking him to rescind a decree that he himself had made only a few years previously."[20]

"And grant him mercy in the sight of this man" (Nehemiah 1:11). Speaking of himself in the third person here, Nehemiah prays that God will grant him mercy before the king. "What man he means is explained by the following supplementary remark, `And I was cupbearer to the king,' without whose favor and permission Nehemiah could not have carried out his intention."[21]

"Mercy is what Nehemiah prays for, especially mercy from God, as he makes his petition before Artaxerxes."[22] It is significant that Nehemiah in this prayer did not speak of Artaxerxes as `the king,' but as 'this man.' "Such expressions as `a man,' or `this man,'" according to Oesterley, "Come from a Hebrew word that carries `a note of contempt."'[23] Perhaps Nehemiah was thinking that, "After all the great king is only a man, subject in every way to the will of God."