Nehemiah 2:3 - Exposition

May the king live for ever . A common form of Oriental compliment ( 1 Kings 1:31 ; Daniel 2:4 ; Daniel 3:9 , etc. ), but said now with special intention to conciliate, and meant to express a deep interest in the royal life and person. The city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres . We see by this that Nehemiah's family must have belonged to the capital. The Persians, like the Jews, had a great respect for the tomb, and regarded its violation with horror. Artaxerxes would naturally sympathise with the wish of his follower to give security to the city where his ancestors were interred. It would seem that the Persians generally at this time (Herod; 1.140), the kings certainly, buried their dead. Lieth waste . Nehemiah's warmth of feeling exaggerates the fact; but he may have been unconscious of the exaggeration. He repeats the phrase to the chief men of Jerusalem after making his survey of the wall (verse 17).