Ver. 1. And it came to pass in the month Nisan] Time and place is to be registered of special mercies received. “This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord,” Psalms 102:18. In the twentieth year of Artaxerxes] Surnamed Longhand, as our Edward I was called Longshanks, and another Longespee, or Longsword. This Longhand is renowned for the fairest among men in that age, Μακροχειρ, Omnium hominum puleherrimus (Aemil. Prob.); of all men most handsome; and no wonder, if he were (as is generally thought) the son of that fairest Esther. That wine was before him] There was a feast, as Nehemiah 2:6. Not by chance, but by God’s providence; who of small occasions worketh greatest matters many times, as he put small thoughts into the heart of Ahasuerus for great purposes, Esther 6:1. And I took up the wine, &c.] As Esther was come to the kingdom, so Nehemiah to this office, for such a time as this, Esther 4:14. Though he were a prisoner, a stranger, one of another religion, yet is he the king’s cupbearer and taster; and once of great trust and credit. This was a strange work of God, to cause heathen princes thus to favour the religion that they knew not, and to defend that people which their subjects hated. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence] Princes are usually set upon the merry pin; and all devices are used, by jesters and otherwise, to make them merry; no mourner might be seen in Ahasuerus’s court, Esther 4:4. But good Nehemiah had been, for certain months’ time, afflicting his soul and macerating his body, as in the former chapter: hence his present sadness, which the king (being a wise man and a loving master) soon observed.
Ver. 2. Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad?] Some would have chided him, and bid him be packing, for they liked not his looks, there might be treason hatching in his heart; he was a man of an ill aspect. But love thinks no evil. Seeing thou art not sick?] Sickness will cause sadness in the best. Those stoics that said a wise man must be merry, though sick, when sickness came, were convinced, se magnificentius locutos esse quam verius, that they spake rather bravely than truly. And therefore Cicero to a merry life requireth three things: 1. To enjoy health. 2. To possess honour. 3. Not to suffer necessity. Faith in Christ is more to the purpose than any or all of these. This is nothing else but sorrow of heart] The heart commonly sitteth in the conntenance, and there showeth how it stands affected. Momus needeth not carp at man’s make, and wish a window in his breast, that his thoughts might be seen; for, “a merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken,” Proverbs 15:13. The Hebrews say that a man’s inside is turned out and discovered, in oculis, in loculis, in poculis, in his eyes, purse, and cup. Then I was very sore afraid] Grieved before, now afraid. Thus, aliud ex alio malum: fluctus fluctum trudit, One sorrow followeth another, and a Christian’s faith and patience is continually exercised. But in the multitude of Nehemiah’s perplexed thoughts within him, God’s comforts refreshed his soul, Psalms 94:19. He casts his suit or his burden upon the Lord, Psalms 55:22, and doubteth not but he will effect his desire.
Ver. 3. And I said unto the king] After he had pulled up his best heart, and recovered his spirits, he declareth unto the king the cause of his sadness. How ready should our tongues be to lay open our cares to the God of all comfort, when we see Nehemiah so quick in the expressions of his sorrow to an uncertain ear. Let the king live for ever] i.e. Very long. Let him not suspect, by my sadness, that I have any evil intent or treasonable design against him; for I heartily wish his welfare. It was not court holy water (as they call it) wherewith he here besprinkles his prince; it was not counterfeit courtesy; such as was that of Squier the traitor, A.D. 1597, sent by Walpole the Jesuit, to poison the pummel of Queen Elizabeth’s saddle, when she was to ride abroad; which also he did (but without effect), saying cheerfully at the same time, God save the Queen. Saluta libenter greet gladly, is by many practised, from the teeth outward; but by Nehemiah, heartily. Why should not my countenance be sad?] In time of common calamities there is just cause of a general sadness, “should we then make mirth?” Ezekiel 21:10. The Romans severely punished one that showed himself out of a window with a garland on his head in the time of the Punic war, when it went ill with the commonwealth. Justinus, the good emperor of Constantinople, took the downfall of the city of Antioch by an earthquake so much to heart, that it caused him a grievous fit of sickness, A.D. 527. When Pope Clement and his cardinals were imprisoned by the duke of Bourbon’s men in St Angelo, Caesar in Spain forbade all interludes to be played, &c. In France, the duke of Bourbon was condemned of treason, his name and memorial were accursed, his arms pulled down, his lands and goods confiscated. In England, King Henry was extremely displeased. Cardinal Wolsey wept tenderly, and emptied the land of 288,000 pounds to relieve and ransom the distressed pope. When the city, the place of my fathers’ sepalchres] A good argument to a heathen, who set great store by (as now the Papists keep great stir about) their burial places; as if one place were holier than another for that purpose: a mere device to pick poor men’s purses. And the gates thereof are consumed with fire] The Jews at this day, when they build a house, they are, say the Rabbis, to leave one part of it unfinished, and lying rude, in remembrance that Jerusalem and the temple are, at present, desolate (Hist. of Rites of Jews, by Leo Moden.). At least, they use to leave about a yard square of the house unplastered, on which they write in great letters that of the Psalmist, If I forget Jerusalem, then let my right hand forget her cunning, Psalms 137:5, or else these words, Zecher Lechorbon, The memory of the desolation.