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Nehemiah 2:1–10 — Nehemiah Sent to Jerusalem. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

The Voices✦ 3 public domain

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownCommentary Critical and Explanatory1871

Xenophon has particularly remarked about the polished and graceful manner in which the cupbearers of the Median, and consequently the Persian, monarchs performed their duty of presenting the wine to their royal master. Having washed the cup in the king's presence and poured into their left hand a little of the wine, which they drank in his presence, they then handed the cup to him, not grasped, but lightly held with the tips of their thumb and fingers.

JFB's detail is archaeological, not exegetical, but it is the reason the king could read Nehemiah's face at all: the office put the servant's countenance directly under the royal eye.

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

At such a time the king would naturally remark upon any alteration of demeanour in a favourite ‘cupbearer.’

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Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

but, I had not been sad before him at the moment of presenting the cup to him (Bertheau), because it would not have been becoming to serve the king with a sad demeanour

K&D is correcting de Wette here: the clause is not "I had never before been sad" but "I was not sad at the moment of presenting the cup." The distinction changes the verse from a character sketch into a report of one broken habit on one day.

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Now in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was set before him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had never been sad in his presence,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·hî bə·ḥō·ḏeš nî·sān ‘eś·rîm šə·naṯ ham·me·leḵ lə·’ar·taḥ·šast ya·yin lə·p̄ā·nāw wā·’eś·śā ’eṯ- hay·ya·yin wā·’et·tə·nāh lam·me·leḵ wə·lō- hā·yî·ṯî ra‘ lə·p̄ā·nāw

Word by word18 · parsed

וַיְהִ֣י׀way·hîNowH1961

√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

hâyâh: to be, to come to pass The narrative waw consecutive that ties this scene to Chislev of chapter 1.

בְּחֹ֣דֶשׁbə·ḥō·ḏešin the monthH2320

√ chôdesh — the new moonPreposition-bNounmasculine singular construct

נִיסָ֗ןnî·sānof NisanH5212

√ Nîyçân — Nisan, the first month of the Jewish sacred yearNounproperfeminine singular

Nîyçân: Nisan, first month of the sacred year A very rare name in the Hebrew Bible, standing in only two verses (here and Esther 3:7), borrowed from Babylonian usage. Cambridge notes its older Israelite name was Abib, the harvest month, and that the same month appears in Assyrian as Nisannu. K&D argues that the twentieth year holding both Chislev and Nisan is best explained by an autumn new year reckoning in civil matters, which makes Chislev the third and Nisan the seventh month of that regnal year.

עֶשְׂרִ֛ים‘eś·rîmin the twentiethH6242

√ ʻesrîym — twentyNumbercommon plural

שְׁנַ֥תšə·naṯyearH8141

√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine singular construct

הַמֶּ֖לֶךְham·me·leḵof KingH4428

√ melek — a kingArticleNounmasculine singular

לְאַרְתַּחְשַׁ֥סְתְּאlə·’ar·taḥ·šastArtaxerxesH783

√ ʼArtachshashtâʼ — Artachshasta (or Artaxerxes), a title (rather than name) of several Persian kingsPreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular

יַ֣יִןya·yinwhen wineH3196

√ yayin — wine (as fermented)Nounmasculine singular

yayin: wine (as fermented) The circumstantial clause "wine before him" is, as K&D says, explanatory of what follows: it fixes the occasion, a banquet at which the king and queen were present (v. 6). The cup is the hinge of the providence. Cambridge preserves the ancient variant here: the LXX reads "before me," which some have taken to mean "when my turn came round to attend," though Cambridge itself judges that reading a pure assumption.

לְפָנָ֑יוlə·p̄ā·nāwwas set before himH6440

√ pânîym — the face (as the part that turns)Preposition-lNouncommon plural constructthird person masculine singular

וָאֶשָּׂ֤אwā·’eś·śāI tookH5375

√ nâsâʼ — to lift, in a great variety of applications, literal and figurative, absolute and relativeConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectfirst person common singular

nâsâʼ: to lift, in a great variety of applications The verb of lifting a burden, a face, or an offering, used here of the cup. JFB and Gill both cite Xenophon on the Persian cupbearer's procedure, the tasting and the three fingered presentation, which shows how exposed to the king's eye Nehemiah's face was at exactly this moment.

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

הַיַּ֙יִן֙hay·ya·yinthe wineH3196

√ yayin — wine (as fermented)ArticleNounmasculine singular

וָאֶתְּנָ֣הwā·’et·tə·nāhand gaveH5414

√ nâthan — to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etcConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectfirst person common singularthird person feminine singular

לַמֶּ֔לֶךְlam·me·leḵit to the kingH4428

√ melek — a kingPreposition-l, ArticleNounmasculine singular

וְלֹא־wə·lō-I had neverH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absConjunctive wawAdverbNegative particle

הָיִ֥יתִיhā·yî·ṯîbeenH1961

√ hâyâh — to exist, iVerbQalPerfectfirst person common singular

רַ֖עra‘sadH7451

√ raʻ — bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral)Adjectivemasculine singular

ra‘: bad, evil (natural or moral) Not a word for sorrow but the covenant word for evil, used idiomatically of a clouded face. The whole unit is built on this root: Nehemiah's face is ra‘ (v. 1, v. 2), his heart's rôa‘ (v. 2), his refusal to be anything but ra‘ over a ruined city (v. 3), and finally the enemies to whom Nehemiah's arrival is ra‘ah gedôlah (v. 10). The same badness runs from the cupbearer's cheek to Sanballat's rage.

לְפָנָֽיו׃lə·p̄ā·nāwin his presenceH6440

√ pânîym — the face (as the part that turns)Preposition-lNouncommon plural constructthird person masculine singular

pânîym: the face (as the part that turns) Plural in form, and the governing image of the scene: the face turned toward the king, the face read by the king, the face that betrays the heart.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-it-came-to-pass in-month Nisan, year twenty of-the-king Artaxerxes: wine [was] before-him, and-I-lifted the-wine and-I-gave [it] to-the-king. And-not had-I-been evil (sad) before-his-face.

Where the English smooths the original

וַיְהִ֣י׀ וַיְהִ֣י (way·hî, H1961 hâyâh, Qal consecutive imperfect) opens the verse with the narrative formula "and it came to pass," the ordinary hinge of Hebrew storytelling. BSB renders it simply "Now," which is good English but drops the signal that this scene is chained to the four month silence of chapter 1 rather than starting fresh.
רַ֖ע רַ֖ע (ra‘, H7451) is the plain adjective bad, evil, not a word for grief. English "sad" is a smoothing. Cambridge records the idiom exactly: the Hebrew adjective meaning literally "bad" is used constantly in this sense, as we say "bad news" for "sad news." The pun is lost in translation and it matters, because the same root will return in v. 2, v. 3 and v. 10 as the word for the enemies' displeasure.
וָאֶשָּׂ֤א וָאֶשָּׂ֤א (wā·’eś·śā, H5375 nâsâʼ, Qal) is "and I lifted / took up," the broad verb of raising a burden, a face, a voice or an offering. "I took the wine" is accurate but flat: the Hebrew records a deliberate ceremonial lifting, the cupbearer's single act on which the whole book turns.
לְפָנָ֑יו לְפָנָ֑יו (lə·p̄ā·nāw, H6440 pânîym) is literally "to his faces," a plural noun. It occurs twice in this one verse, framing the scene: the wine is set to-his-face, and Nehemiah has never been bad to-his-face. English "before him" and "in his presence" hide the fact that one word, face, is doing both jobs and is about to become the king's own question in v. 2.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

A Persian subject was expected to be perfectly content so long as he had the happiness of being with his king. A request to quit the court was thus a serious matter.

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

The long-expected and dreaded moment had come, on which he was to plead his people’s cause. Their destiny and perhaps his own life depended upon his success.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

Few Persian monarchs would have been sufficiently interested in their attendants to notice whether they were sad or no; fewer still would have shown sympathy on such an occasion.

Pulpit is weighing Artaxerxes Longimanus as a historical character, judging him weak as a king but kind as a man. That is a historian's estimate, not a claim the text makes.

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Matthew PooleAnnotations upon the Holy Bible1685

partly, being daunted by the majesty of the king, and the suddenness and sharpness of his question; partly, fearing lest there was arising some jealousy or ill opinion in the king concerning him; partly, because it was an unusual and ungrateful thing to come into the king of Persia’s presence with any badges or tokens of sorrow, Esther 4:2 ; and principally, from his doubts or fears of disappointment, because his request was great and invidious, and odious to the most of the Persian courtiers, and might be represented as dangerous, and might seem improper for a time of feasting and jollity.

Poole enumerates four distinct fears rather than one, and gives the last of them priority: not the king's majesty but the political odium of the request itself, which he expects to be resented by most of the Persian courtiers.

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so the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, though you are not ill? This could only be sadness of the heart.” I was overwhelmed with fear

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

ham·me·leḵ way·yō·mer lî mad·dū·a‘ pā·ne·ḵā rā·‘îm wə·’at·tāh ’ê·nə·ḵā ḥō·w·leh zeh ’ên kî- ’im rō·a‘ lêḇ wā·’î·rā har·bêh mə·’ōḏ

Word by word18 · parsed

הַמֶּ֜לֶךְham·me·leḵso the kingH4428

√ melek — a kingArticleNounmasculine singular

וַיֹּאמֶר֩way·yō·mersaidH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

לִ֨יlîto me

Prepositionfirst person common singular

מַדּ֣וּעַ׀mad·dū·a‘Why [is]H4069

√ maddûwaʻ — what (is) known?Interrogative

פָּנֶ֣יךָpā·ne·ḵāyour faceH6440

√ pânîym — the face (as the part that turns)Nouncommon plural constructsecond person masculine singular

pânîym: the face The king picks up the very noun that closed v. 1. Nehemiah had kept his face clear before the king; now the king reads it.

רָעִ֗יםrā·‘îmsadH7451

√ raʻ — bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral)Adjectivemasculine plural

ra‘: bad, evil Masculine plural, agreeing with the plural "faces." Cambridge compares the same idiom at Genesis 40:7 and Proverbs 25:20.

וְאַתָּה֙wə·’at·tāhthough you [are]H859

√ ʼattâh — thou and thee, or (plural) ye and youConjunctive wawPronounsecond person masculine singular

אֵֽינְךָ֣’ê·nə·ḵānotH369

√ ʼayin — a non-entityAdverbsecond person masculine singular

חוֹלֶ֔הḥō·w·lehillH2470

√ châlâh — properly, to be rubbed or wornVerbQalParticiplemasculine singular

châlâh: to be worn, to be sick (Qal participle) The king eliminates the ordinary explanation first.

זֶ֔הzehThisH2088

√ zeh — the masculine demonstrative pronoun, this or thatPronounmasculine singular

אֵ֣ין’êncould only beH369

√ ʼayin — a non-entityAdverb

כִּי־kî-. . .H3588

√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction

אִ֖ם’im. . .H518

√ ʼim — used very widely as demonstrative, lo!Conjunction

רֹ֣עַֽrō·a‘sadnessH7455

√ rôaʻ — badness (as marring), physically or morallyNounmasculine singular construct

rôaʻ: badness (as marring), physically or morally The abstract noun of the same root as the adjective on the face, in construct with lêb. This is the pivot of the verse: a pagan king diagnoses the inward cause from the outward sign, which is exactly the diagnostic the prophets apply to Israel. Gill records that the old versions and Jarchi read it more darkly still, as "wickedness of heart," some ill design in the mind, and that the king may have suspected poison in the cup.

לֵ֑בlêḇof the heartH3820

√ lêb — the heartNounmasculine singular

lêb: the heart In Hebrew the heart is not the seat of feeling only but of will, memory and counsel, the hidden place where a course of action is settled before it is spoken. The king's sentence is therefore sharper than sympathy: he has moved from the visible face to the invisible deliberation behind it, and the construct rôa‘ lêb makes the face a report on the will. That is precisely the danger, since Nehemiah's heart did contain a plan, and Gill records that Jarchi read the king's words as a suspicion of one. Henry's whole reading of the chapter rests on the same noun from the other side: Nehemiah lifted up his heart to that God who understands the language of the heart, so the one place the king could not see into was already open to someone else.

וָאִירָ֖אwā·’î·rāI was overwhelmed with fearH3372

√ yârêʼ — to fearConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectfirst person common singular

yârêʼ: to fear (Qal consecutive imperfect) The fear is not of death by caprice alone. Cambridge lists the real stakes: the long expected moment had come, and their destiny and perhaps his own life depended on his success. Barnes adds the structural danger, that a request to quit the court was itself an offence against the doctrine that to be near the king is the height of felicity.

הַרְבֵּ֥הhar·bêh. . .H7235

√ râbâh — to increase (in whatever respect)VerbHifilInfinitive absolute

מְאֹֽד׃mə·’ōḏ. . .H3966

√ mᵉʼôd — properly, vehemence, iAdverb

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-said the-king to-me: Why [is] thy-face evil, and-thou art-not sick? This [is] nothing except badness of-heart. And-I-feared greatly, exceedingly.

Where the English smooths the original

רָעִ֗ים רָעִ֗ים (rā·‘îm, H7451) is masculine plural, agreeing with the plural noun pânîym, "faces." Literally "why are thy faces bad?" BSB's "why is your face sad" is right in sense and loses the plural idiom and the deliberate repetition of ra‘ from v. 1.
רֹ֣עַֽ רֹ֣עַֽ (rō·a‘, H7455 rôaʻ) is the abstract noun badness, from the same root as the adjective just used of the face. Cambridge says it plainly: the substantive, being derived from the same root as the adjective "sad," had better have been rendered "sadness," to bring out the antithesis between "countenance" and "heart." English "sadness of the heart" breaks the chain; the Hebrew says the badness on the face is badness in the heart.
אֵ֣ין אֵ֣ין כִּי־אִ֖ם (’ên kî ’im, H369 with H3588 and H518) is a triple particle construction, literally "there is not, except that." BSB's "this could only be" is an elegant compression of a blunt Hebrew exclusion: the king is ruling out every other cause and cornering his servant.
וָאִירָ֖א וָאִירָ֖א הַרְבֵּ֥ה מְאֹֽד (wā·’î·rā har·bêh mə·’ōḏ, H3372 with H7235 and H3966) piles an infinitive absolute of râbâh ("to multiply") on top of the adverb mᵉʼôd ("vehemently"). BSB's "I was overwhelmed with fear" carries the force; the Hebrew stacks two intensifiers, "I feared a multiplying very much," which is as strong as the language gets.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Matthew PooleAnnotations upon the Holy Bible1685

He saith not a word of the temple, or of religion, for he wisely considered that he spake before a heathen king and court, who cared for none of those things.

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Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

He does not as yet betray to the king the deepest desire of his heart, but simply refers to the desecration of his fathers’ sepulchres, an appeal which had great force with the Persians, who respected the tomb.

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

Rich families had their own private places of sepulture (rock-hewn tombs, caves and the like). Nehemiah’s words would be particularly appropriate if he was, as some have supposed, a descendant of the royal house.

The suggestion that Nehemiah was of the royal line is Cambridge reporting an opinion held by some, not a claim the text makes. Barnes goes only as far as the tribe of Judah, on the authority of Eusebius and Jerome.

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Joseph BensonCommentary on the Old and New Testaments1810s

The grievances of the church, but especially its desolations, ought to be a grief to all good people, and will to all that have a concern for God’s honour, and are of a public spirit.

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and replied to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should I not be sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wā·’ō·mar lam·me·leḵ ham·me·leḵ yiḥ·yeh lə·‘ō·w·lām mad·dū·a‘ lō- yê·rə·‘ū p̄ā·nay ’ă·šer hā·‘îr bêṯ- ’ă·ḇō·ṯay qiḇ·rō·wṯ ḥă·rê·ḇāh ū·šə·‘ā·re·hā ’uk·kə·lū ḇā·’êš

Word by word18 · parsed

וָאֹמַ֣רwā·’ō·marand repliedH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectfirst person common singular

לַמֶּ֔לֶךְlam·me·leḵto the kingH4428

√ melek — a kingPreposition-l, ArticleNounmasculine singular

הַמֶּ֖לֶךְham·me·leḵMay the kingH4428

√ melek — a kingArticleNounmasculine singular

יִחְיֶ֑הyiḥ·yehlive foreverH2421

√ châyâh — to live, whether literally or figurativelyVerbQalImperfectthird person masculine singular

châyâh: to live The court formula. Cambridge and Pulpit both file it with Daniel 2:4 and Daniel 3:9 and 1 Kings 1:31. Gill adds an edge: some think Nehemiah said it to take off the king's suspicion of a design on his life, since the diagnosis in v. 2 may have hinted at poison.

לְעוֹלָ֣םlə·‘ō·w·lām. . .H5769

√ ʻôwlâm — properly, concealed, iPreposition-lNounmasculine singular

מַדּ֜וּעַmad·dū·a‘WhyH4069

√ maddûwaʻ — what (is) known?Interrogative

לֹא־lō-should I notH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle

יֵרְע֣וּyê·rə·‘ūbe sadH7489

√ râʻaʻ — properly, to spoil (literally, by breaking to pieces)VerbQalImperfectthird person masculine plural

פָנַ֗יp̄ā·nay. . .H6440

√ pânîym — the face (as the part that turns)Nounmasculine plural constructfirst person common singular

אֲשֶׁ֨ר’ă·šerwhenH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

הָעִ֜ירhā·‘îrthe cityH5892

√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)ArticleNounfeminine singular

ʻîyr: a city (a place guarded by a watch) The Hebrew for city is built on the idea of a guarded place. A city whose gates are eaten is therefore not merely damaged but self-contradictory: it no longer is what its name says it is. That is the argument of the verse in one word.

בֵּית־bêṯ-whereH1004

√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcNounmasculine singular construct

אֲבֹתַי֙’ă·ḇō·ṯaymy fathersH1

√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine plural constructfirst person common singular

קִבְר֤וֹתqiḇ·rō·wṯare buriedH6913

√ qeber — a sepulchreNounmasculine plural construct

qeber: a sepulchre The appeal is aimed with care. Ellicott: the desecration of his fathers' sepulchres was an appeal which had great force with the Persians, who respected the tomb. Pulpit adds from Herodotus that the Persians of this period, and the kings certainly, buried their dead. Barnes infers from the verse that Nehemiah was of the tribe of Judah, as Eusebius and Jerome say.

חֲרֵבָ֔הḥă·rê·ḇāhlies in ruinsH2720

√ chârêb — parched or ruinedAdjectivefeminine singular

chârêb: parched or ruined A dryness word, not a rubble word. The city is described as one desiccated thing.

וּשְׁעָרֶ֖יהָū·šə·‘ā·re·hāand its gatesH8179

√ shaʻar — an opening, iConjunctive wawNounmasculine plural constructthird person feminine singular

אֻכְּל֥וּ’uk·kə·lūhave been destroyedH398

√ ʼâkal — to eat (literally or figuratively)VerbQalPassPerfectthird person common plural

ʼâkal: to eat (literally or figuratively) Fire as a devouring mouth. The passive is exact: the gates did not burn, they were eaten. Nehemiah will use the same verb again at 2:13 when he rides the ruins by night.

בָאֵֽשׁ׃סḇā·’êšby fireH784

√ ʼêsh — fire (literally or figuratively)Preposition-b, ArticleNouncommon singular

ʼêsh: fire The instrument of the eating, and the last word of the appeal.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-I-said to-the-king: The-king for-ever may-he-live! Why should-not be-evil my-face, when the-city, house of-the-graves of-my-fathers, [is] waste, and-her-gates have-been-eaten with-the-fire?

Where the English smooths the original

בֵּית־ בֵּית־קִבְר֤וֹת אֲבֹתַי֙ (bêṯ qiḇ·rō·wṯ ’ă·ḇō·ṯay, H1004 bayith with H6913 qeber) is literally "the house of the graves of my fathers," not "where my fathers are buried." Cambridge notes the idiom: "the place," literally "the house," and compares 1 Samuel 25:1 and 1 Kings 2:34, where Samuel and Joab are each buried "in his own house." Nehemiah calls Jerusalem a household tomb, which is why the appeal lands on a Persian ear.
אֻכְּל֥וּ אֻכְּל֥וּ (’uk·kə·lū, H398 ʼâkal, Qal passive perfect) is "have been eaten," not "destroyed." Cambridge is exact: literally "eaten up," as in Nehemiah 2:13, where the more usual phrase is "burned." The fire is pictured as a mouth consuming the gates. English "destroyed by fire" flattens a metaphor the Hebrew keeps alive.
חֲרֵבָ֔ה חֲרֵבָ֔ה (ḥă·rê·ḇāh, H2720 chârêb) is an adjective, "parched, dried, ruined," not a verb. The Hebrew is a bare nominal clause: the city is waste, full stop. Pulpit thinks Nehemiah's warmth of feeling exaggerates the fact, though he may have been unconscious of the exaggeration.
יֵרְע֣וּ יֵרְע֣וּ פָנַ֗י (yê·rə·‘ū p̄ā·nay, H7489 râʻaʻ) turns the adjective of v. 1 and v. 2 into a verb with the plural "faces" as its subject: "why should not my faces be bad?" BSB's "why should I not be sad" makes Nehemiah the subject. The Hebrew keeps the face as the actor, exactly answering the king's question in its own words.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

The first note of that habit of ejaculatory prayer which is a characteristic of this book.

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

Nehemiah instantaneously turns from the great king of Persia to the King of kings. The simplicity with which Nehemiah narrates this little incident of his momentary ejaculatory prayer adds wonderfully to the vividness of the scene.

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Matthew HenryConcise Commentary on the Whole Bible1706

Nehemiah prayed to the God of heaven, as infinitely above even this mighty monarch. He lifted up his heart to that God who understands the language of the heart.

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Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

I prayed to the God of heaven - Mentally and momentarily, before answering the king.

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“What is your request?” replied the king. So I prayed to the God of heaven

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

mah- zeh ’at·tāh mə·ḇaq·qêš way·yō·mer lî ham·me·leḵ ‘al- wā·’eṯ·pal·lêl ’el- ’ĕ·lō·hê haš·šā·mā·yim

Word by word12 · parsed

מַה־mah-WhatH4100

√ mâh — properly, interrogative what? (including how? why? when?)Interrogative

זֶּ֖הzeh. . .H2088

√ zeh — the masculine demonstrative pronoun, this or thatPronounmasculine singular

אַתָּ֣ה’at·tāhis yourH859

√ ʼattâh — thou and thee, or (plural) ye and youPronounsecond person masculine singular

מְבַקֵּ֑שׁmə·ḇaq·qêšrequestH1245

√ bâqash — to search out (by any method, specifically in worship or prayer)VerbPielParticiplemasculine singular

bâqash: to search out (by any method, specifically in worship or prayer) The Piel is intensive: to seek after, to require, to demand. Strong's own gloss notes the word's use for seeking in worship and prayer, which is quietly apt, since between the king's question and Nehemiah's answer the same man does both kinds of seeking in one breath.

וַיֹּ֤אמֶרway·yō·merrepliedH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

לִי֙lî

Prepositionfirst person common singular

הַמֶּ֔לֶךְham·me·leḵthe kingH4428

√ melek — a kingArticleNounmasculine singular

עַל־‘al-. . .H5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition

וָֽאֶתְפַּלֵּ֔לwā·’eṯ·pal·lêlSo I prayedH6419

√ pâlal — to judge (officially or mentally)Conjunctive wawVerbHitpaelConsecutive imperfectfirst person common singular

pâlal: to judge (officially or mentally), Hitpael The ordinary Hebrew verb for prayer is a reflexive of judging, that is, to interpose oneself, to seek arbitration. Ellicott calls this the first note of that habit of ejaculatory prayer which is a characteristic of this book, and Cambridge lists the recurrences at 4:4, 4:9, 5:19, 6:9, 6:14 and 13:14. Cambridge also grants honestly that it is not easy to parallel this act of ejaculatory prayer from the Old Testament.

אֶל־’el-toH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

אֱלֹהֵ֖י’ĕ·lō·hêthe GodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseNounmasculine plural construct

ʼĕlôhîym: God In construct with "the heavens." Henry draws the contrast the syntax makes: Nehemiah prayed to the God of heaven as infinitely above even this mighty monarch.

הַשָּׁמָֽיִם׃haš·šā·mā·yimof heavenH8064

√ shâmayim — the sky (as aloftArticleNounmasculine plural

shâmayim: the sky, the heavens The imperial period title "God of heaven" places the God of a ruined city above the throne of the empire that ruined it, and does so in language a Persian court would accept.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-said to-me the-king: For-what [is] this thou art-seeking? And-I-prayed to the-God of-the-heavens.

Where the English smooths the original

מְבַקֵּ֑שׁ מְבַקֵּ֑שׁ (mə·ḇaq·qêš, H1245 bâqash, Piel participle) is not a noun. The king asks "what is this thou art seeking?", a participle of ongoing search. BSB's "what is your request" is a noun and loses the verb; the same root returns in v. 10 as the infinitive "to seek" the good of Israel, so the king's question and the enemies' complaint use one verb.
וָֽאֶתְפַּלֵּ֔ל וָֽאֶתְפַּלֵּ֔ל (wā·’eṯ·pal·lêl, H6419 pâlal, Hitpael) is the reflexive or self involving stem of a root whose base sense is to judge, to intervene, to arbitrate. To pray in Hebrew is to put oneself into a case being decided. "So I prayed" is correct but silent about the stem, which is the grammatical reason this instantaneous prayer counts as an act and not a mood.
הַשָּׁמָֽיִם׃ אֱלֹהֵ֖י הַשָּׁמָֽיִם (’ĕ·lō·hê haš·šā·mā·yim, H430 with H8064) is "God of the heavens," plural, the standing title of the post exilic and Persian period documents. It is the diplomatic name for the God of Israel in an imperial court, and Nehemiah uses it at the exact moment he is standing between two kings.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Joseph BensonCommentary on the Old and New Testaments1810s

“A generous spirit,” says Lord Clarendon, “can think of nothing but relieving his country while it is under a general misery and calamity.”

Benson is quoting Lord Clarendon, a seventeenth century English statesman, not a source contemporary with Nehemiah. It is moral illustration, not evidence.

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Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

if thy servant is right in thine eyes, i.e., if he thinks rightly concerning the matter in question.

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

A double conditional sentence precedes the request. On the king’s approbation of the policy and on the king’s personal favour to Nehemiah must depend the issue.

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Matthew PooleAnnotations upon the Holy Bible1685

I pretend no merit, but am a humble suppliant for thy grace and favour, whereof having received some tokens, I am thereby imboldened to make this further request.

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and answered the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city where my fathers are buried, so that I may rebuild it.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wā·’ō·mar lam·me·leḵ ’im- ‘al- ṭō·wḇ ham·me·leḵ wə·’im- ‘aḇ·də·ḵā yî·ṭaḇ lə·p̄ā·ne·ḵā ’ă·šer tiš·lā·ḥê·nî ’el- yə·hū·ḏāh ’el- ‘îr ’ă·ḇō·ṯay qiḇ·rō·wṯ wə·’eḇ·nen·nāh

Word by word19 · parsed

וָאֹמַ֣רwā·’ō·marand answeredH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectfirst person common singular

לַמֶּ֔לֶךְlam·me·leḵthe kingH4428

√ melek — a kingPreposition-l, ArticleNounmasculine singular

אִם־’im-IfH518

√ ʼim — used very widely as demonstrative, lo!Conjunction

עַל־‘al-H5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition

ט֔וֹבṭō·wḇit pleasesH2896

√ ṭôwb — good (as an adjective) in the widest senseAdjectivemasculine singular

ṭôwb: good (as an adjective) in the widest sense The unit's other governing root, set opposite ra‘. Here "if it be good upon the king"; in v. 6 "it was good before the king"; in v. 8 the hand of God is "the good" one; in v. 10 Nehemiah has come to seek the ṭôwbâh of Israel, and that is precisely what is ra‘ to the enemies. Good and bad are not moods in this chapter, they are the two poles the whole narrative swings between.

הַמֶּ֣לֶךְham·me·leḵthe kingH4428

√ melek — a kingArticleNounmasculine singular

וְאִם־wə·’im-and ifH518

√ ʼim — used very widely as demonstrative, lo!Conjunction

עַבְדְּךָ֖‘aḇ·də·ḵāyour servantH5650

√ ʻebed — a servantNounmasculine singular constructsecond person masculine singular

ʻebed: a servant Nehemiah's chosen word for himself before the throne, and later the label attached to his chief opponent.

יִיטַ֥בyî·ṭaḇhas found favorH3190

√ yâṭab — to be (causative) make well, literally (sound, beautiful) or figuratively (happy, successful, right)VerbQalImperfectthird person masculine singular

yâṭab: to be or make well, literally or figuratively K&D compares the idiom with "good in thine eyes" at Esther 8:5 and 2 Samuel 18:4, glossing it: if thy servant is right in thine eyes.

לְפָנֶ֑יךָlə·p̄ā·ne·ḵāin your sightH6440

√ pânîym — the face (as the part that turns)Preposition-lNouncommon plural constructsecond person masculine singular

אֲשֶׁ֧ר’ă·šerI ask thatH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

תִּשְׁלָחֵ֣נִיtiš·lā·ḥê·nîyou send meH7971

√ shâlach — to send away, for, or out (in a great variety of applications)VerbQalImperfectsecond person masculine singularfirst person common singular

אֶל־’el-toH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

יְהוּדָ֗הyə·hū·ḏāhJudahH3063

√ Yᵉhûwdâh — Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

אֶל־’el-toH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

עִ֛יר‘îrthe cityH5892

√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)Nounfeminine singular construct

ʻîyr: a city Nehemiah still does not name Jerusalem to the king. He names Judah, then "the city of the graves of my fathers."

אֲבֹתַ֖י’ă·ḇō·ṯaywhere my fathersH1

√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine plural constructfirst person common singular

קִבְר֥וֹתqiḇ·rō·wṯare buriedH6913

√ qeber — a sepulchreNounmasculine plural construct

וְאֶבְנֶֽנָּה׃wə·’eḇ·nen·nāhso that I may rebuild itH1129

√ bânâh — to build (literally and figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConjunctive imperfect Cohortative if contextualfirst person common singularthird person feminine singular

bânâh: to build (literally and figuratively) The cohortative force is important: not a demand but a self committing wish, "and let me build her." The verb governs the rest of the book. Everything Nehemiah asks for after this verse, letters, timber, escort, is subordinate to this one cohortative.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-I-said to-the-king: If upon the-king [it be] good, and-if thy-servant be-good before-thy-face, that thou-wouldest-send-me to Judah, to [the] city of-the-graves of-my-fathers, and-let-me-build-her.

Where the English smooths the original

יִיטַ֥ב יִיטַ֥ב לְפָנֶ֑יךָ (yî·ṭaḇ lə·p̄ā·ne·ḵā, H3190 yâṭab) is literally "if thy servant be good before thy face," not "has found favour." Cambridge marks the grammar precisely: the verb which with this meaning is generally used impersonally here has a subject, and the clause differs from the common phrase "to find favour." The face word returns yet again; everything in this unit is decided before a face.
אִם־ אִם־ ... וְאִם־ (’im ... wə·’im, H518 twice) sets up a double conditional before the request is ever stated. BSB keeps both "if" clauses, but the Hebrew withholds the main verb entirely: there is no "I ask" in the text, only אֲשֶׁ֧ר (’ăšer) leading straight into "that thou wouldest send me." K&D notes that the term "I beg" must be supplied from the king's own question in v. 4.
וְאֶבְנֶֽנָּה׃ וְאֶבְנֶֽנָּה (wə·’eḇ·nen·nāh, H1129 bânâh, first person with third feminine suffix, cohortative in force) is "and let me build her." The object is feminine singular, the city. BSB's "so that I may rebuild it" is accurate in sense; the Hebrew has no "re" prefix at all, only build, and Cambridge notes that "build" in this context is equivalent to building the walls, as in Ezra 4:12 and 4:16.
עַבְדְּךָ֖ עַבְדְּךָ֖ (‘aḇ·də·ḵā, H5650 ʻebed) is "thy servant," Nehemiah's self designation before Artaxerxes. The same noun, in the same absolute form, is the title given to Tobiah in v. 10, הָעֶ֣בֶד, "the servant." One word covers the cupbearer who seeks Israel's good and the official who resents it.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

It appears from Ctesias ('Exc. Pers.,' § 44) that Artaxerxes Longimanus had but one legitimate wife - a certain Damaspia.

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Jamieson, Fausset & BrownCommentary Critical and Explanatory1871

The queen referred to was probably Esther, whose presence would tend greatly to embolden Nehemiah in stating his request

This identification is JFB's conjecture and it conflicts with Pulpit, Ellicott and Barnes, who follow Ctesias in naming Damaspia, and with Gill, who suggests Atossa on a different identification of the king. The Hebrew names no one. We record the disagreement rather than choose.

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Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

I set him a time - Nehemiah appears to have stayed at Jerusalem twelve years from his first arrival Nehemiah 5:14 ; but he can scarcely have mentioned so long a term to the king. Probably his leave of absence was prolonged from time to time.

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Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

The king and the queen, who was sitting near him (שׁגל, Psalm 45:10 ), grant him permission to depart after he has, in answer to their inquiry, fixed the period of his absence. Nehemiah makes the result of the conversation, "And it pleased the king," etc., follow immediately upon the question of the king and queen: For how long shall thy journey be, and when wilt thou return? before telling us what was his answer to this question, which is not brought in till afterwards, so that זמן לו ואתּנה must be understood as expressing: since I had determined the time.

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Then the king, with the queen seated beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me, and I set a time.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

ham·me·leḵ wə·haš·šê·ḡal yō·wō·še·ḇeṯ ’eṣ·lōw way·yō·mer lî ‘aḏ- mā·ṯay ma·hă·lā·ḵă·ḵā yih·yeh ū·mā·ṯay tā·šūḇ way·yî·ṭaḇ lip̄·nê- ham·me·leḵ way·yiš·lā·ḥê·nî wā·’et·tə·nāh lōw zə·mān

Word by word19 · parsed

הַמֶּ֜לֶךְham·me·leḵThen the kingH4428

√ melek — a kingArticleNounmasculine singular

וְהַשֵּׁגַ֣ל׀wə·haš·šê·ḡalwith the queenH7694

√ shêgâl — a queen (from cohabitation)Conjunctive waw, ArticleNounfeminine singular

shêgâl: a queen, a royal consort One of the rarest nouns in the unit, standing in only two verses of the Hebrew Bible. K&D files it directly against Psalm 45:10 in his numbering, that is Psalm 45:9 in English, where the same word names the consort standing at the king's right hand in gold of Ophir. The commentators divide over her identity: Pulpit and Barnes and Ellicott name Damaspia on the authority of Ctesias, JFB suggests Esther, and Gill, working from a different identification of the king, suggests Atossa. The text itself names no one.

יוֹשֶׁ֣בֶתyō·wō·še·ḇeṯseatedH3427

√ yâshab — properly, to sit down (specifically as judgeVerbQalParticiplefeminine singular

yâshab: to sit down A feminine participle: she is seated, not merely present. Cambridge notes the position corresponds with representations on the monuments, comparing Assurbanipal reclining at a banquet with his queen seated at the foot of his couch.

אֶצְל֗וֹ’eṣ·lōwbeside himH681

√ ʼêtsel — a sidePrepositionthird person masculine singular

וַיֹּאמֶר֩way·yō·meraskedH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

לִ֨יlîme

Prepositionfirst person common singular

עַד־‘aḏ-How longH5704

√ ʻad — as far (or long, or much) as, whether of space (even unto) or time (during, while, until) or degree (equally with)Preposition

מָתַ֛יmā·ṯay. . .H4970

√ mâthay — properly, extent (of time)Interrogative

מַֽהֲלָכֲךָ֖ma·hă·lā·ḵă·ḵāwill your journeyH4109

√ mahălâk — a walk, iNounmasculine singular constructsecond person masculine singular

יִהְיֶ֥הyih·yehtakeH1961

√ hâyâh — to exist, iVerbQalImperfectthird person masculine singular

וּמָתַ֣יū·mā·ṯayand whenH4970

√ mâthay — properly, extent (of time)Conjunctive wawInterrogative

תָּשׁ֑וּבtā·šūḇwill you returnH7725

√ shûwb — to turn back (hence, away) transitively or intransitively, literally or figuratively (not necessarily with the idea of return to the starting point)VerbQalImperfectsecond person masculine singular

shûwb: to turn back, not necessarily with the idea of return to the starting point The king's second question. Strong's gloss is worth pressing: the root does not itself guarantee arrival back where one began, which is a quiet irony given that Nehemiah did not come back on schedule.

וַיִּיטַ֤בway·yî·ṭaḇSo it pleasedH3190

√ yâṭab — to be (causative) make well, literally (sound, beautiful) or figuratively (happy, successful, right)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

לִפְנֵֽי־lip̄·nê-. . .H6440

√ pânîym — the face (as the part that turns)Preposition-lNounmasculine plural construct

הַמֶּ֙לֶךְ֙ham·me·leḵthe kingH4428

√ melek — a kingArticleNounmasculine singular

וַיִּשְׁלָחֵ֔נִיway·yiš·lā·ḥê·nîto send meH7971

√ shâlach — to send away, for, or out (in a great variety of applications)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singularfirst person common singular

shâlach: to send away, for, or out The petition of v. 5 ("that thou wouldest send me") becomes the narrative fact here, same root, now with the king as subject. That grammatical handover is the whole commission.

וָֽאֶתְּנָ֥הwā·’et·tə·nāhand I setH5414

√ nâthan — to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etcConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectfirst person common singularthird person feminine singular

ל֖וֹlōw

Prepositionthird person masculine singular

זְמָֽן׃zə·māna timeH2165

√ zᵉmân — an appointed occasionNounmasculine singular

zᵉmân: an appointed occasion Barnes states the tension honestly: Nehemiah appears to have stayed at Jerusalem twelve years from his first arrival (5:14), but he can scarcely have mentioned so long a term to the king, so his leave was probably prolonged from time to time. Poole, Gill, Benson and Pulpit all reach some version of the same conclusion. The text does not say.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-said to-me the-king, and-the-consort sitting beside-him: Until when will-be thy-journey, and-when wilt-thou-return? And-it-was-good before-the-face-of the-king and-he-sent-me, and-I-gave to-him a-set-time.

Where the English smooths the original

וְהַשֵּׁגַ֣ל׀ וְהַשֵּׁגַ֣ל (wə·haš·šê·ḡal, H7694 shêgâl) is not the ordinary Hebrew word for queen (malkâh, the word used throughout Esther). It is a rare term standing in only two verses of the Hebrew Bible, this one and Psalm 45:9. Cambridge calls it the royal consort, the head of the harem. Pulpit adds that the Septuagint's rendering by hē pallakē is wrong. English "the queen" is a reasonable choice that erases a very unusual word.
זְמָֽן׃ זְמָֽן (zə·mān, H2165 zᵉmân) is "an appointed occasion," a late Hebrew word found in only four verses, otherwise clustering in Esther and Ecclesiastes 3:1. "I set a time" is right; the noun carries the sense of a fixed, agreed appointment rather than a duration, which is why the commentators argue so hard about how long it was.
מַֽהֲלָכֲךָ֖ מַֽהֲלָכֲךָ֖ (ma·hă·lā·ḵă·ḵā, H4109 mahălâk) is "thy walking," a noun of going built on the verb to walk. The king's question is literally "until when will thy walking be?" The English "how long will your journey take" is smoother and less physical.
וַיִּיטַ֤ב וַיִּיטַ֤ב לִפְנֵֽי־הַמֶּ֙לֶךְ֙ (way·yî·ṭaḇ lip̄·nê ham·me·leḵ, H3190) answers Nehemiah's conditional in v. 5 word for word: he had asked "if it be good upon the king," and the narrative reports "and it was good before the face of the king." BSB's "so it pleased the king" is correct but does not show that the answer is the request repeated back as fact.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

The governors would not be asked to assist the journey, but to secure that Nehemiah should not be hindered or molested on the way.

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Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

To the governors beyond the river. —Between the Euphrates and Susa protection was not needed.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

It is not quite clear why no letters were needed to the governors between Susa and the Euphrates.

Pulpit is candid that this is unexplained, and offers only a conjecture about safety beyond the river, citing Ezra 8:31.

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Jamieson, Fausset & BrownCommentary Critical and Explanatory1871

The Persian empire at this time was of vast extent, reaching from the Indus to the Mediterranean. The Euphrates was considered as naturally dividing it into two parts, eastern and western

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I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may letters be given to me for the governors west of the Euphrates, so that they will grant me safe passage until I reach Judah.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wā·’ō·w·mar lam·me·leḵ ’im- ‘al- ṭō·wḇ ham·me·leḵ ’ig·gə·rō·wṯ yit·tə·nū- lî ‘al- pa·ḥă·wō·wṯ ‘ê·ḇer han·nā·hār ’ă·šer ya·‘ă·ḇî·rū·nî ‘aḏ ’ă·šer- ’ā·ḇō·w ’el- yə·hū·ḏāh

Word by word20 · parsed

וָאוֹמַר֮wā·’ō·w·marI also saidH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectfirst person common singular

לַמֶּלֶךְ֒lam·me·leḵto [him]H4428

√ melek — a kingPreposition-l, ArticleNounmasculine singular

אִם־’im-IfH518

√ ʼim — used very widely as demonstrative, lo!Conjunction

עַל־‘al-H5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition

ט֔וֹבṭō·wḇit pleasesH2896

√ ṭôwb — good (as an adjective) in the widest senseAdjectivemasculine singular

הַמֶּ֣לֶךְham·me·leḵthe kingH4428

√ melek — a kingArticleNounmasculine singular

אִגְּרוֹת֙’ig·gə·rō·wṯmay lettersH107

√ ʼiggereth — an epistleNounfeminine plural

ʼiggereth: an epistle A rare administrative noun standing in only ten verses across the whole Hebrew Bible, and every one of them in the Persian-era or late books. Its density in Nehemiah is itself evidence: the same word carries the friendly letters of this verse and the hostile open letter Sanballat sends at 6:5.

יִתְּנוּ־yit·tə·nū-be givenH5414

√ nâthan — to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etcVerbQalImperfectthird person masculine plural

לִ֔יlîto me

Prepositionfirst person common singular

עַֽל־‘al-forH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition

פַּחֲו֖וֹתpa·ḥă·wō·wṯthe governorsH6346

√ pechâh — a prefect (of a city or small district)Nounmasculine plural construct

עֵ֣בֶר‘ê·ḇerwestH5676

√ ʻêber — properly, a region acrossNounmasculine singular construct

ʻêber: a region across The province name is written from the Babylonian side of the Euphrates looking west. Nehemiah is using imperial vocabulary about his own homeland.

הַנָּהָ֑רhan·nā·hārof the EuphratesH5104

√ nâhâr — a stream (including the seaArticleNounmasculine singular

אֲשֶׁר֙’ă·šerso thatH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

יַעֲבִיר֔וּנִיya·‘ă·ḇî·rū·nîthey will grant me safe passageH5674

√ ʻâbar — to cross overVerbHifilImperfectthird person masculine pluralfirst person common singular

ʻâbar: to cross over (Hifil) Causative, and cognate with the province's own name. K&D glosses the sense as to pass or travel through a country, comparing Deuteronomy 3:20. Cambridge sharpens what is actually being requested: not help, only non-obstruction.

עַ֥ד‘aḏuntilH5704

√ ʻad — as far (or long, or much) as, whether of space (even unto) or time (during, while, until) or degree (equally with)Preposition

אֲשֶׁר־’ă·šer-H834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

אָב֖וֹא’ā·ḇō·wI reachH935

√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)VerbQalImperfectfirst person common singular

bôwʼ: to go or come The same verb that will describe his actual arrival in v. 9 and, in v. 10, the enemies' complaint that "a man had come."

אֶל־’el-. . .H413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

יְהוּדָֽה׃yə·hū·ḏāhJudahH3063

√ Yᵉhûwdâh — Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-I-said to-the-king: If upon the-king [it be] good, letters let-them-give to-me for the-governors of-Beyond the-River, that they-may-pass-me-over until that I-come to Judah.

Where the English smooths the original

אִגְּרוֹת֙ אִגְּרוֹת֙ (’ig·gə·rō·wṯ, H107 ʼiggereth) is a loanword for an official epistle, standing in only ten verses in the Hebrew Bible and clustering in exactly the post exilic and Persian period books. BSB's "letters" is right; the word itself is a fingerprint of the imperial chancery world this chapter moves in.
עֵ֣בֶר הַנָּהָ֑ר עֵ֣בֶר הַנָּהָ֑ר (‘ê·ḇer han·nā·hār, H5676 with H5104) is literally "the crossing-over of the River," that is, Beyond the River. BSB renders it "west of the Euphrates," which is geographically what it means but substitutes a modern compass direction for a Persian administrative name. It is the formal title of a satrapy, not a bearing.
יַעֲבִיר֔וּנִי יַעֲבִיר֔וּנִי (ya·‘ă·ḇî·rū·nî, H5674 ʻâbar, Hifil) is a causative: "that they may cause me to cross over." It shares its root with ʻêber, the "Beyond" in the province's own name, so the Hebrew puns: let the officials of Across-the-River cause me to cross over. BSB's "grant me safe passage" catches the sense and cannot catch the wordplay.
פַּחֲו֖וֹת פַּחֲו֖וֹת (pa·ḥă·wō·wṯ, H6346 pechâh) is another Persian-era loanword for a prefect or provincial governor. Cambridge notes it is the same office held later by Nehemiah himself (5:14). He is asking for letters to men of the rank he is about to be given.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

The Persians signified by pariyadeza a walled enclosure, ornamented with trees, either planted or of natural growth, and containing numerous wild animals.

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

The name Asaph suggests that ‘the keeper’ was a Jew, which would favour the view of the forest being not far from Jerusalem.

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Jamieson, Fausset & BrownCommentary Critical and Explanatory1871

The piety of Nehemiah appears in every circumstance. The conception of his patriotic design, the favorable disposition of the king, and the success of the undertaking are all ascribed to God.

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Geneva Study BibleMarginal Notes1599

As God moved me to ask, and as he gave me success in it.

The Geneva gloss states the double agency compactly: the asking and the succeeding are both credited to God, with the king's decision inside that, not beside it.

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And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so that he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel to the temple, for the city wall, and for the house I will occupy.” And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·’ig·ge·reṯ ’el- ’ā·sāp̄ šō·mêr ’ă·šer lam·me·leḵ hap·par·dês ’ă·šer yit·ten- lî ‘ê·ṣîm lə·qā·rō·wṯ ’eṯ- ša·‘ă·rê hab·bî·rāh ’ă·šer- lab·ba·yiṯ hā·‘îr ū·lə·ḥō·w·maṯ wə·lab·ba·yiṯ ’ă·šer- ’ā·ḇō·w ’ê·lāw haṭ·ṭō·w·ḇāh kə·yaḏ- ’ĕ·lō·hay ‘ā·lāy ham·me·leḵ way·yit·ten- lî

Word by word30 · parsed

וְאִגֶּ֡רֶתwə·’ig·ge·reṯAnd may I have a letterH107

√ ʼiggereth — an epistleConjunctive wawNounfeminine singular

אֶל־’el-toH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

אָסָף֩’ā·sāp̄AsaphH623

√ ʼÂçâph — Asaph, the name of three Israelites, and of the family of the firstNounpropermasculine singular

ʼÂçâph: Asaph Cambridge draws the quiet inference: the name Asaph suggests the keeper was a Jew, which would favour the view of the forest being not far from Jerusalem. Ellicott states it flatly as Asaph, a Jew.

שֹׁמֵ֨רšō·mêrkeeperH8104

√ shâmar — properly, to hedge about (as with thorns), iVerbQalParticiplemasculine singular

אֲשֶׁ֣ר’ă·šerof the king’sH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

לַמֶּ֗לֶךְlam·me·leḵ. . .H4428

√ melek — a kingPreposition-l, ArticleNounmasculine singular

הַפַּרְדֵּ֜סhap·par·dêsforestH6508

√ pardêç — a parkArticleNounmasculine singular

pardêç: a park A Persian loanword found in only three verses of the Hebrew Bible. K&D traces it to Zend pairi-daza, a fenced-in place, and notes the Armenian pardez and Greek paradeisos. Its location is disputed: Poole and Gill argue for Lebanon, Barnes and Pulpit for a park near Jerusalem, Cambridge and Ewald for Solomon's old grounds at Etam. K&D says plainly that nothing reliable can be ascertained.

אֲשֶׁ֣ר’ă·šerso thatH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

יִתֶּן־yit·ten-he will giveH5414

√ nâthan — to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etcVerbQalImperfectthird person masculine singular

לִ֣יlîme

Prepositionfirst person common singular

עֵצִ֡ים‘ê·ṣîmtimberH6086

√ ʻêts — a tree (from its firmness)Nounmasculine plural

לְ֠קָרוֹתlə·qā·rō·wṯto make beamsH7136

√ qârâh — to light upon (chiefly by accident)Preposition-lVerbPielInfinitive construct

אֶת־’eṯ-forH853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

שַׁעֲרֵ֨יša·‘ă·rêthe gatesH8179

√ shaʻar — an opening, iNounmasculine plural construct

הַבִּירָ֤הhab·bî·rāhof the citadelH1002

√ bîyrâh — a castle or palaceArticleNounfeminine singular

bîyrâh: a castle or palace The first mention in Scripture of the temple fortress. K&D notes that at 1 Chronicles 29:1 and 29:19 the whole temple is called bîrâh, and that this citadel stood where the Hasmoneans later built the Baris, rebuilt by Herod as Antonia. Cambridge follows the building forward to Acts 21:37, where Paul is carried into it by Roman soldiers. The gates Nehemiah is asking timber for are the gates of the building from which the Roman guard would one day rescue an apostle.

אֲשֶׁר־’ă·šer-H834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

לַבַּ֙יִת֙lab·ba·yiṯto the templeH1004

√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcPreposition-l, ArticleNounmasculine singular

הָעִ֔ירhā·‘îrfor the cityH5892

√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)ArticleNounfeminine singular

וּלְחוֹמַ֣תū·lə·ḥō·w·maṯwallH2346

√ chôwmâh — a wall of protectionConjunctive waw, Preposition-lNounfeminine singular construct

וְלַבַּ֖יִתwə·lab·ba·yiṯand for the houseH1004

√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcConjunctive waw, Preposition-l, ArticleNounmasculine singular

אֲשֶׁר־’ă·šer-H834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

אָב֣וֹא’ā·ḇō·wI will occupyH935

√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)VerbQalImperfectfirst person common singular

אֵלָ֑יו’ê·lāw. . .H413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPrepositionthird person masculine singular

הַטּוֹבָ֥הhaṭ·ṭō·w·ḇāhAnd because the graciousH2896

√ ṭôwb — good (as an adjective) in the widest senseArticleAdjectivefeminine singular

ṭôwb: good Feminine, agreeing with yâd, hand. The adjective is emphatic by position, standing after the noun as a second definite term: the hand of my God, the good one.

כְּיַד־kə·yaḏ-handH3027

√ yâd — a hand (the open one (indicating power, means, direction, etcPreposition-kNounfeminine singular construct

yâd: a hand (the open one, indicating power, means, direction) The book's signature phrase, recurring at 2:18 and in Ezra 7:6 and 8:18 and 8:22. JFB reads the theology off the whole chapter: the conception of the patriotic design, the favourable disposition of the king, and the success of the undertaking are all ascribed to God. The preposition kᵉ makes the king's generosity a measured copy of the divine hand rather than an independent kindness.

אֱלֹהַ֖י’ĕ·lō·hayof my GodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseNounmasculine plural constructfirst person common singular

עָלָֽי׃‘ā·lāywas upon meH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPrepositionfirst person common singular

הַמֶּ֔לֶךְham·me·leḵthe kingH4428

√ melek — a kingArticleNounmasculine singular

וַיִּתֶּן־way·yit·ten-grantedH5414

√ nâthan — to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etcConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

nâthan: to give The same verb Nehemiah used of himself in v. 1 when he gave the cup to the king, and in v. 6 when he gave the king a set time. Here the giving reverses direction.

לִ֣יlîmy requests

Prepositionfirst person common singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-a-letter to Asaph keeper of-the-park which [is] to-the-king, that he-may-give to-me timber to-beam the-gates of-the-citadel which [is] to-the-house, and-for-the-wall of-the-city, and-for-the-house which I-shall-enter to-it. And-the-king gave to-me, according-to-the-hand of-my-God, the-good, upon-me.

Where the English smooths the original

הַפַּרְדֵּ֜ס הַפַּרְדֵּ֜ס (hap·par·dês, H6508 pardêç) is not the Hebrew word for forest. It is a Persian loanword for a walled pleasure park, standing in only three verses of the Hebrew Bible (here, Ecclesiastes 2:5, Song of Solomon 4:13). Through Greek paradeisos it became our word paradise. BSB's "forest" is a serviceable gloss that hides the loanword and the enclosure, which Pulpit insists on: the word is not applicable to a natural forest but only to a park surrounded by a fence or wall.
הַבִּירָ֤ה הַבִּירָ֤ה (hab·bî·rāh, H1002 bîyrâh) means a castle or fortress, not a palace. Barnes states the issue: the word has the double sense of palace and fortress, since in ancient times palaces were always fortified, and "the fortress which pertained to the house" is first spoken of here. Cambridge and K&D both identify it with the Baris of the Hasmoneans, rebuilt by Herod as Antonia. BSB's "citadel" is the right choice.
כְּיַד־ כְּיַד־אֱלֹהַ֖י הַטּוֹבָ֥ה עָלָֽי (kə·yaḏ ’ĕ·lō·hay haṭ·ṭō·w·ḇāh ‘ā·lāy, H3027 with H430 and H2896) is literally "according to the hand of my God, the good one, upon me." The preposition is kᵉ, "according to," a measure. BSB's "because the gracious hand of my God was upon me" converts a standard of measurement into a cause; the Hebrew says the grant was proportioned to the hand, not merely produced by it.
לְ֠קָרוֹת לְ֠קָרוֹת (lə·qā·rō·wṯ, H7136 qârâh, Piel infinitive construct) is a denominative verb, "to lay beams, to roof over." K&D glosses it: to timber, to overlay, to cover with beams, comparing 2 Chronicles 34:11. English "to make beams for" turns a single verb into a phrase.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

Nehemiah’s progress as governor with an armed escort is in striking contrast to the similar journey of Ezra, who was ashamed to ask for military protection for his large and unarmed company.

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Joseph BensonCommentary on the Old and New Testaments1810s

This the king had done over and above what Nehemiah had desired; and it procured him the greater respect from the governors, when they saw the care which the king took for the safety of his person.

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Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

Ezra had been ashamed to request a military escort from the Persian monarch ( Ezra 8:22 ); but the king gave to the high dignitary called Pecha a guard of soldiers

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John GillExposition of the Entire Bible1746–63

both to do him honour, and for his safety; and coming thus attended, must serve to recommend him to the governor, who received him from them at the river Euphrates, and conducted him to Judah.

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Then I went to the governors west of the Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wā·’ā·ḇō·w ’el- pa·ḥă·wō·wṯ ‘ê·ḇer han·nā·hār wā·’et·tə·nāh lā·hem ’êṯ ham·me·leḵ ’ig·gə·rō·wṯ ham·me·leḵ way·yiš·laḥ ḥa·yil śā·rê ū·p̄ā·rā·šîm ‘im·mî

Word by word16 · parsed

וָֽאָב֗וֹאwā·’ā·ḇō·wThen I wentH935

√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectfirst person common singular

אֶֽל־’el-toH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

פַּֽחֲווֹת֙pa·ḥă·wō·wṯthe governorsH6346

√ pechâh — a prefect (of a city or small district)Nounmasculine plural construct

עֵ֣בֶר‘ê·ḇerwestH5676

√ ʻêber — properly, a region acrossNounmasculine singular construct

הַנָּהָ֔רhan·nā·hārof the EuphratesH5104

√ nâhâr — a stream (including the seaArticleNounmasculine singular

וָאֶתְּנָ֣הwā·’et·tə·nāhand gaveH5414

√ nâthan — to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etcConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectfirst person common singularthird person feminine singular

לָהֶ֔םlā·hemthem

Prepositionthird person masculine plural

אֵ֖ת’êṯH853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

הַמֶּ֑לֶךְham·me·leḵthe king’sH4428

√ melek — a kingArticleNounmasculine singular

אִגְּר֣וֹת’ig·gə·rō·wṯlettersH107

√ ʼiggereth — an epistleNounfeminine plural construct

ʼiggereth: an epistle The letters asked for in v. 7 are now delivered. Pulpit notes the consequence Nehemiah does not spell out: by handing these letters to the governors he necessarily informed Sanballat, which is how the news of v. 10 travelled.

הַמֶּ֔לֶךְham·me·leḵThe kingH4428

√ melek — a kingArticleNounmasculine singular

וַיִּשְׁלַ֤חway·yiš·laḥhad also sentH7971

√ shâlach — to send away, for, or out (in a great variety of applications)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

חַ֖יִלḥa·yilarmyH2428

√ chayil — probably a force, whether of men, means or other resourcesNounmasculine singular

chayil: a force, whether of men, means or other resources A word broad enough to mean wealth, strength or an army. The escort is a display of imperial backing as much as a military guard.

שָׂ֥רֵיśā·rêofficersH8269

√ sar — a head person (of any rank or class)Nounmasculine plural construct

וּפָרָשִֽׁים׃פū·p̄ā·rā·šîmand cavalryH6571

√ pârâsh — a steed (as stretched out to a vehicle, not single nor for mounting )Conjunctive wawNounmasculine plural

pârâsh: a steed (as stretched out to a vehicle) Strong's own entry resists the usual "horsemen," pointing instead to chariot horses. Either way the point is visibility: Cambridge sets this beside Ezra 8:22, where Ezra was ashamed to ask for military protection. Two returns from the same court, two opposite decisions about the optics of divine protection, and the text commends neither at the other's expense.

עִמִּי֙‘im·mîwith meH5973

√ ʻim — adverb or preposition, with (iPrepositionfirst person common singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-I-came to the-governors of-Beyond the-River, and-I-gave to-them the-letters of-the-king. And-the-king had-sent with-me officers of-force and-horsemen.

Where the English smooths the original

שָׂ֥רֵי חַ֖יִל שָׂ֥רֵי חַ֖יִל (śā·rê ḥa·yil, H8269 with H2428) is "chiefs of force." chayil is not specifically an army word: Strong's glosses it as a force, whether of men, means or other resources, and it is the same noun used of wealth and of the worthy woman's strength. BSB's "army officers" narrows a broad word to one sense.
וּפָרָשִֽׁים׃פ וּפָרָשִֽׁים (ū·p̄ā·rā·šîm, H6571 pârâsh) is glossed by Strong's as a steed stretched out to a vehicle, not single nor for mounting, that is, a chariot horse rather than a cavalry mount. BSB's "cavalry" is the usual rendering; the lexical entry itself is more specific and less certain than the English suggests.
וַיִּשְׁלַ֤ח וַיִּשְׁלַ֤ח (way·yiš·laḥ, H7971 shâlach) is a plain consecutive imperfect, "and he sent," but K&D observes that the second half of the verse is a supplementary remark, so the verb must be read as a pluperfect: the king had sent. BSB follows this. The Hebrew itself does not mark the tense; the sequence has to be inferred.
וָֽאָב֗וֹא וָֽאָב֗וֹא (wā·’ā·ḇō·w, H935 bôwʼ) is the same verb of coming that Nehemiah used in his petition at v. 7 ("until I come to Judah") and that the enemies will use of him in v. 10 ("a man had come"). One verb runs through request, fulfilment and opposition; the English varies it.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite heard of his coming, it caused them great annoyance (להם ירע is strengthened by גּדולה רעה, as in Jonah 4:1 ) that a man (as Nehemiah expresses himself ironically from their point of view) was come to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

a man ] Contemptuous reference to Nehemiah. His office and position as ‘pekhah’ not referred to. The Hebrew ‘adam,’ not ‘ish,’ is used.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

The two capitals were too near not to be rivals; and the greater (general) prosperity of Jerusalem made Samaria the bitterer adversary.

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John GillExposition of the Entire Bible1746–63

to which the Moabites and Ammonites were always averse, and ever bore an hatred to Israel, and envied everything that tended to their happiness.

Gill is reading a long standing national enmity into this single verse. The text records only that these two men were grieved; the wider hostility is drawn from Nehemiah 13:1-2 and the earlier history, not from this clause.

source ↗

But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were deeply disturbed that someone had come to seek the well-being of the Israelites.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

san·ḇal·laṭ ha·ḥō·rō·nî wə·ṭō·w·ḇî·yāh hā·‘am·mō·nî hā·‘e·ḇeḏ way·yiš·ma‘ ḡə·ḏō·lāh way·yê·ra‘ lā·hem rā·‘āh ’ă·šer- ’ā·ḏām bā lə·ḇaq·qêš ṭō·w·ḇāh liḇ·nê yiś·rā·’êl

Word by word17 · parsed

סַנְבַלַּ֣טsan·ḇal·laṭBut when SanballatH5571

√ Çanballaṭ — Sanballat, a Persian satrap of SamariaNounpropermasculine singular

הַחֹרֹנִ֗יha·ḥō·rō·nîthe HoroniteH2772

√ Chôrônîy — a Choronite or inhabitant of ChoronaimArticleNounpropermasculine singular

Chôrônîy: a Choronite A very rare gentilic, standing in only three verses of the Hebrew Bible, all of them in Nehemiah (here, 2:19, 13:28). The commentators split over which town: Cambridge, Barnes and K&D argue for Beth-horon on the Ephraim border, now Samaritan territory, while Benson, Poole and Gill argue for Horonaim in Moab. K&D's objection is grammatical, that a Moabite would have been called a Moabite.

וְטֽוֹבִיָּה֙wə·ṭō·w·ḇî·yāhand TobiahH2900

√ Ṭôwbîyâh — Tobijah, the name of three Israelites and of one SamaritanConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular

הָֽעַמֹּנִ֔יhā·‘am·mō·nîthe AmmoniteH5984

√ ʻAmmôwnîy — an Ammonite or (the adjective) AmmonitishArticleNounpropermasculine singular

הָעֶ֣בֶדhā·‘e·ḇeḏofficialH5650

√ ʻebed — a servantArticleNounmasculine singular

וַיִּשְׁמַ֞עway·yiš·ma‘heard about thisH8085

√ shâmaʻ — to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etcConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

shâmaʻ: to hear intelligently, often with implication of attention Singular verb with a compound subject, the ordinary Hebrew construction. Pulpit supplies the mechanism: Sanballat was probably among the governors to whom Nehemiah delivered letters in v. 9, and learned of the mission that way. The success of v. 8 creates the opposition of v. 10.

גְדֹלָ֑הḡə·ḏō·lāhthey were deeplyH1419

√ gâdôwl — great (in any sense)Adjectivefeminine singular

וַיֵּ֥רַעway·yê·ra‘disturbedH7489

√ râʻaʻ — properly, to spoil (literally, by breaking to pieces)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

râʻaʻ: to spoil, literally by breaking to pieces The verb whose adjective has clouded Nehemiah's face since v. 1 now describes his enemies. The unit has traced one root through four stations: grief, confession, and now hostility.

לָהֶ֖םlā·hem. . .

Preposition-lPronounthird person masculine plural

רָעָ֣הrā·‘āh. . .H7451

√ raʻ — bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral)Adjectivefeminine singular

אֲשֶׁר־’ă·šer-thatH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

אָדָ֔ם’ā·ḏāmsomeoneH120

√ ʼâdâm — ruddy iNounmasculine singular

ʼâdâm: man, ruddy, a human being The lowest and most generic term available. Cambridge notes the contrast with ʼîysh where the two occur together, citing Psalm 49:2.

בָּ֥אbāhad comeH935

√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

לְבַקֵּ֥שׁlə·ḇaq·qêšto seekH1245

√ bâqash — to search out (by any method, specifically in worship or prayer)Preposition-lVerbPielInfinitive construct

bâqash: to search out (Piel infinitive) The same verb the king used in v. 4 when he asked what Nehemiah was seeking. The answer the king could not get in a sentence, his enemies state for him in a clause.

טוֹבָ֖הṭō·w·ḇāhthe well-beingH2896

√ ṭôwb — good (as an adjective) in the widest senseNounfeminine singular

ṭôwb: good in the widest sense Set against ra‘ah gedôlah in the same verse. Geneva notes that these two laboured always both by force and subtlety, and that Tobiah, because his wife was a Jewess, knew of their affairs.

לִבְנֵ֥יliḇ·nêvvvH1121

√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcPreposition-lNounmasculine plural construct

יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃yiś·rā·’êlof the IsraelitesH3478

√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular

Yisrâʼêl: a symbolical name of Jacob Not "Judah," the political unit Nehemiah named to the king in v. 5 and v. 7, but Israel, the covenant name. At the moment opposition begins, the narrative widens the stake from a province to a people.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-heard Sanballat the-Horonite and-Tobiah the-servant the-Ammonite, and-it-was-evil to-them an-evil great, that a-man had-come to-seek good for-the-sons of-Israel.

Where the English smooths the original

וַיֵּ֥רַע לָהֶ֖ם רָעָ֣ה גְדֹלָ֑ה וַיֵּ֥רַע לָהֶ֖ם רָעָ֣ה גְדֹלָ֑ה (way·yê·ra‘ lā·hem rā·‘āh ḡə·ḏō·lāh, H7489 with H7451 and H1419) is a cognate construction: "and it was evil to them a great evil." K&D marks it exactly, noting that the verb is strengthened by the noun as in Jonah 4:1, where Jonah's anger at God's mercy is worded the same way. BSB's "they were deeply disturbed" is idiomatic English and loses both the doubling and the fact that this is the unit's ra‘ root arriving at its destination.
אָדָ֔ם אָדָ֔ם (’ā·ḏām, H120) is the generic word for a human being, not ʼîysh, a man of standing. Cambridge reads it as deliberate: a contemptuous reference to Nehemiah, his office and position as pekhah not referred to. BSB's neutral "someone" keeps the indefiniteness and drops the sneer. K&D says Nehemiah words it ironically from their point of view.
טוֹבָ֖ה טוֹבָ֖ה (ṭō·w·ḇāh, H2896 ṭôwb) is the feminine noun "good," the exact counterpart of the ra‘ah gedôlah earlier in the same verse. BSB's "well-being" is accurate and breaks the pairing: in Hebrew this verse says that a man's coming to seek good was a great evil to them, one sentence holding both poles of the unit.
הָעֶ֣בֶד הָעֶ֣בֶד (hā·‘e·ḇeḏ, H5650) is simply "the servant," with the article, as a title. BSB renders it "official," which is one reading among several. The commentators divide: Barnes and JFB and Poole take it as marking a freed slave raised to office, K&D as a Persian royal official, Cambridge as unclear and Rawlinson's slave theory as less probable. It is the same noun Nehemiah used of himself before Artaxerxes in v. 5.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. Four months of a guarded face — 2:1-2

The unit opens on a date and a silence. Chislev was the month of the news (1:1); Nisan is the month of the request, and the commentators agree that three or four months lie between them, though they disagree about why. Benson offers two reasons, that his turn of attending the king had not come, or that he wanted a fit opportunity. Poole multiplies them: time for prayer and fasting, the danger of a winter journey, the rota of the cupbearers, the crowd of courtiers among whom there probably were divers enemies to the Jews. JFB says flatly that the reasons for so long a delay cannot be ascertained, and K&D, having argued that an autumn reckoning makes Chislev the third and Nisan the seventh month of the same regnal year, concedes that the circumstances which induced Nehemiah not to apply to the king for three months are not stated. ⚙ Four commentators, four explanations, and the text gives none: the delay is real and its motive is not recorded.

What the Hebrew does record is a face. לְפָנָ֑יו (pânîym) appears twice in v. 1 and again as the king's question in v. 2, and the word that clouds it is רַ֖ע (ra‘, H7451), the plain adjective bad. Cambridge supplies the idiom without embellishment: the Hebrew adjective which means literally "bad" is used constantly in this sense, just as we speak of "bad news" when we mean "sad news." K&D then makes the decisive grammatical correction, against de Wette, that the closing clause of v. 1 does not mean Nehemiah had never been sad before the king, but that he had not been sad at the moment of presenting the cup, because it would not have been becoming to serve the king with a sad demeanour. JFB and Gill both cite Xenophon on how exposed that moment was: the cupbearer tasted the wine in the king's presence and handed the cup lightly on the tips of his fingers. ⚙ The one profession in the empire that required a man's face to be read at close range is the profession God had placed him in.

ii. A prayer with no time to be spoken — 2:3-5

Nehemiah's answer is a piece of diplomatic craft that the commentators have all noticed. He opens with the court formula, "let the king live for ever" (Cambridge files it with Daniel 2:4 and 3:9), which Gill thinks was aimed at taking off any suspicion of a design on the king's life, since the diagnosis in v. 2 may have hinted at poison. Then he says nothing whatever about the temple. Poole states the reason bluntly: he saith not a word of the temple, or of religion, for he wisely considered that he spake before a heathen king and court, who cared for none of those things. Ellicott makes the same observation from the other side, that he does not as yet betray the deepest desire of his heart but refers to the desecration of his fathers' sepulchres, an appeal which had great force with the Persians, who respected the tomb. What he names instead is בֵּית־קִבְר֤וֹת אֲבֹתַי֙, the house of the graves of his fathers, and gates that have been אֻכְּל֥וּ, eaten, by fire.

Between the king's question in v. 4 and the answer in v. 5 stands the shortest prayer in the book. וָֽאֶתְפַּלֵּ֔ל (pâlal, H6419) is a Hitpael of a root meaning to judge or arbitrate: to pray is to put oneself into a case being decided. Barnes says only what can be said, mentally and momentarily, before answering the king. Ellicott calls it the first note of that habit of ejaculatory prayer which is a characteristic of this book, and Cambridge, who lists its recurrences at 4:4, 4:9, 5:19, 6:9, 6:14 and 13:14, is honest enough to add that it is not easy to parallel this act of ejaculatory prayer from the Old Testament. Henry draws the pastoral line: Nehemiah prayed to the God of heaven as infinitely above even this mighty monarch, and lifted up his heart to that God who understands the language of the heart. ⚙ The grammar of the Hitpael and the compression of the scene agree: prayer here is not a mood set beside the request but an act performed inside it.

iii. Letters, timber, and a hand that is the measure — 2:6-9

At the banquet sits הַשֵּׁגַ֣ל (shêgâl, H7694), a word that stands in only two verses of the Hebrew Bible, this one and Psalm 45:9, where K&D sends the reader directly. Cambridge calls her the royal consort, the head of the harem; Pulpit, Ellicott and Barnes name her Damaspia on the authority of Ctesias; JFB proposes Esther; Gill, working from a different identification of the king, proposes Atossa. ⚙ We record the disagreement and decline the name: the text gives none, and the only thing the verse asserts about her is that she was sitting there.

Then come three requests in ascending order of nerve: passage (v. 7), materials (v. 8), and, implied in both, office. The vocabulary is Persian through and through. אִגְּרוֹת֙ (ʼiggereth, H107) is a loanword for an official epistle found in only ten verses; פַּחֲו֖וֹת (pechâh) is the provincial governor's title Nehemiah himself will hold at 5:14; הַפַּרְדֵּ֜ס (pardêç, H6508) is the walled park that reached Greek as paradeisos and English as paradise, standing in only three verses of the whole Hebrew Bible. Pulpit insists on the enclosure, that the word is not applicable to a natural forest but only to a park surrounded by a fence or wall; K&D traces it to Zend pairi-daza, a fenced-in place, and then admits that of the situation of this park nothing reliable can be ascertained. Cambridge notes only that the name Asaph suggests the keeper was a Jew.

The movement closes on the clause the whole book will repeat: כְּיַד־אֱלֹהַ֖י הַטּוֹבָ֥ה עָלָֽי, according to the hand of my God, the good one, upon me. The preposition is kᵉ, a measure, not a cause. JFB reads the theology of the chapter off this line: the conception of the patriotic design, the favourable disposition of the king, and the success of the undertaking are all ascribed to God. Geneva's marginal gloss says the same in a breath, that God moved him to ask and gave him success in it. ⚙ Then v. 9 shows the escort, and Cambridge sets it against Ezra 8:22, where Ezra was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers because he had boasted of God's protection. Two men, one court, opposite decisions, and Scripture rebukes neither. The soldiers ride beside the hand, not instead of it.

iv. A great evil: the good that enemies hear — 2:10

The unit ends with the same root it began with. וַיֵּ֥רַע לָהֶ֖ם רָעָ֣ה גְדֹלָ֑ה is a cognate construction, "and it was evil to them a great evil," and K&D points to Jonah 4:1, where Jonah's fury at God's mercy is phrased the same way. The clause that grieves them is לְבַקֵּ֥שׁ טוֹבָ֖ה, to seek good, using the very verb (bâqash, H1245) the king had used in v. 4 when he asked Nehemiah what he was seeking. Cambridge catches the contempt in the subject: אָדָ֔ם, a man, the generic word, his office and position as pekhah not referred to; K&D says Nehemiah is expressing himself ironically from their point of view. Pulpit gives the political root, that the two capitals were too near not to be rivals and the greater prosperity of Jerusalem made Samaria the bitterer adversary. ⚙ The sentence is a hinge: one man's ṭôwbâh registers on his neighbours as ra‘ah gedôlah, and the two nouns sit in the same verse. Nothing in the chapter has gone wrong. That is the point worth holding.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text and rejected if it fails. Read the unit by its two roots. רַע (ra‘, bad) and טוֹב (ṭôwb, good) are not decoration here; they are the beams the chapter is framed on. Bad is on Nehemiah's face (v. 1), named by the king (v. 2), defended by Nehemiah as the only honest response to a ruined city (v. 3), and finally suffered by Sanballat and Tobiah when a man comes seeking good (v. 10). Good runs the other way: if it be good upon the king (v. 5), it was good before the king (v. 6), the hand of my God, the good one (v. 8), to seek good for the sons of Israel (v. 10). Where the two roots meet, in the last verse, they are in the same sentence and pointed at the same event.

What that arrangement claims, if it claims anything, is that grief which refuses to be cheerful about ruin is not weakness but the beginning of repair, and that the repair will register as an injury to somebody. Nehemiah's face was the first thing that broke. He did not manufacture the opportunity; he had spent four months not getting one. The commentators cannot agree why (Benson, Poole, JFB and K&D each offer different reasons and JFB admits it cannot be ascertained), which suggests the text is not interested in his technique. It is interested in the fact that when the door opened, the man behind it had already been praying, and prayed again in the half second between a question and an answer.

Two cautions on our own reading. First, the chapter gives no warrant for treating providence as a method: the king's kindness, the queen's presence, Asaph's Jewish name and the timing of the rota are all reported, none are prescribed, and Cambridge's observation that Ezra refused the escort Nehemiah accepted should keep anyone from turning either man's tactics into a rule. Second, the line that follows is a sentence of ours, not a verse of Scripture, and must be weighed as such.

A face that will not lie about a ruin is the first stone laid.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The consort at the king's side: a word that stands in only two places verbal / quotation: confirmed

The noun for the woman seated beside Artaxerxes in v. 6 is not the usual malkâh but שֵׁגָל (shêgâl, H7694), and the Verifier finds it in only two verses of the entire Hebrew Bible: here and Psalm 45:9, where the consort stands at the king's right hand in gold of Ophir. K&D makes the connection explicitly in his note on this verse, citing the psalm by chapter and verse. Cambridge independently glosses the word as the royal consort, comparing Psalm 45:10 in the Hebrew numbering along with Daniel 5:2-3 and 5:23. ⚙ The lexical link is as tight as this kind of link gets; what it carries is a matter of judgment. Both scenes place a named king at a banquet with one consort seated beside him, and in both the moment decides something for others. We claim the shared rare word and no more than that.

Psalm 45:9

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H7694 shêgâl, occurring in only 2 verses of the Hebrew Bible (Nehemiah 2:6 and Psalm 45:9). K&D and Cambridge both cite the psalm in their notes on this verse. A rare-lexeme verbal link, not a quotation of one text by the other.

Nisan: the month named twice in Scripture verbal / quotation: confirmed

נִיסָ֗ן (Nîyçân, H5212) appears in only two verses of the Hebrew Bible, this one and Esther 3:7, where Haman casts lots "in the first month, which is the month Nisan." Cambridge names the parallel directly, adding Josephus (Ant. xi. 4, 8) and noting that the name entered Hebrew from Babylonian usage, the Assyrian Nisannu, replacing the older Israelite Abib of Exodus 13:4 and Deuteronomy 16:1. ⚙ The two occurrences sit on opposite sides of one hinge: in Esther the month is chosen by lot for a decree of destruction against the Jews, in Nehemiah it is the month a Jew in a Persian court asks for a decree of rebuilding. The link is lexical and calendrical, and both books are Persian-court narratives; we do not claim either author is citing the other.

Esther 3:7

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H5212 Nîyçân (in only 2 vv) and H2320 chôdesh (in 224 vv). The rare proper name Nisan carries the link; Cambridge cites Esther 3:7 explicitly in its note on this verse.

The king's pardês: a Persian park, a borrowed word, three verses verbal / quotation: confirmed

פַּרְדֵּס (pardêç, H6508) stands in only three verses of the Hebrew Bible: Nehemiah 2:8, Ecclesiastes 2:5 ("I made me gardens and parks") and Song of Solomon 4:13. Barnes, Cambridge, Pulpit, Gill and K&D all note the same three places and the same etymology. K&D derives it from Zend pairi-daza, a fenced-in place, through Armenian pardez to Greek paradeisos; Cambridge adds that it was used especially of the royal parks or enclosed hunting grounds of the Persian kings, and that later Jewish usage made it a term for the abode of the blest, citing Lightfoot on Luke 23:43. ⚙ Ecclesiastes uses it of a king's constructed pleasure; Nehemiah uses it of a king's timber yard. The word is the same, the register is opposite, and the timber from this one was cut for city gates.

Ecclesiastes 2:5 · Song of Solomon 4:13

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H6508 pardêç, occurring in only 3 verses of the Hebrew Bible (also H6086 ʻêts, in 288 vv, at Ecclesiastes 2:5). A rare shared lexeme, not a quotation: the three passages use one borrowed noun independently.

Iggereth: letters that open the work and letters that attack it structural / thematic: confirmed

The word for the safe-conduct documents of v. 7 and v. 9, אִגֶּרֶת (ʼiggereth, H107), stands in only ten verses of the Hebrew Bible, and the Verifier finds three of them inside Nehemiah's own book at 6:5, 6:17 and 6:19, where Sanballat sends an open letter and Tobiah's partisans trade correspondence against the governor. The remaining occurrences cluster in 2 Chronicles 30:1 and 30:6, Hezekiah's Passover letters, and in Esther 9:26, 9:29. ⚙ Within Nehemiah the effect is structural rather than quotational: the same instrument that carries the king's authority into the province in chapter 2 is turned against Nehemiah in chapter 6. Cambridge notes on v. 7 how much depended on securing the recognition of the provincial governors, citing the hostile correspondence of Ezra 4:7-10 and 4:17, which shows that the danger in letters was already known to this narrative.

Nehemiah 6:5 · Nehemiah 6:17 · 2 Chronicles 30:6

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H107 ʼiggereth (in 10 vv) across Nehemiah 2:7 and 2:9, Nehemiah 6:5, 6:17, 6:19 and 2 Chronicles 30:6. The shared lexeme is real but moderately common within its small corpus and the passages make no claim on one another, so the link is a motif of official correspondence, not a quotation.

Sanballat the Horonite: a gentilic found only in this book structural / thematic: confirmed

הַחֹרֹנִ֗י (Chôrônîy, H2772) occurs in only three verses of the Hebrew Bible, and all three are in Nehemiah: 2:10, 2:19 and 13:28. סַנְבַלַּ֣ט (H5571) appears in ten verses, likewise confined to this book. The Verifier's strongest candidate for the whole unit is 2:19, where the same two men plus Geshem the Arab mock the work, and its other is 13:28, where a grandson of the high priest is found to be Sanballat's son-in-law. ⚙ K&D reads this verse as deliberate foreshadowing, saying Nehemiah mentions their annoyance at his arrival thus early by way of hinting beforehand at their subsequent machinations. Cambridge and Barnes derive the name from the Assyrian Sin-uballit, "Sin (the moon god) gives life," and the gentilic from Beth-horon on the Ephraim border; Benson, Poole and Gill argue instead for Horonaim in Moab, an unresolved disagreement we do not settle.

Nehemiah 2:19 · Nehemiah 13:28

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H2772 Chôrônîy (in only 3 vv) and H5571 Çanballaṭ (in 10 vv), with H5984 ʻAmmôwnîy (in 21 vv) at 2:19. The rare lexemes are proper names recurring within one author's continuous narrative, which is narrative identity rather than citation, so we tier this structural rather than verbal.

The citadel by the house: the gates Nehemiah roofed and the stairs Paul was carried up structural / thematic: confirmed

The timber of v. 8 is requested for the gates of הַבִּירָ֤ה (bîyrâh, H1002), the fortress attached to the temple, mentioned here for the first time in Scripture. K&D traces the building forward: it stood where the Hasmoneans built the acropolis they called Baris (Josephus, Ant. xv. 11. 4), which Herod rebuilt when he enlarged the temple. Barnes says simply that under the Romans it was called Antonia; Pulpit locates it at the north-west angle of the temple area, commanding and protecting it; Cambridge carries the identification to its end, noting that into this castle St Paul was carried by the Roman soldiers when they rescued him from the hands of the mob in the Temple precincts. ⚙ The link crosses from Hebrew to Greek and therefore cannot rest on a shared Strong's number; it rests on a continuous identification of one structure, agreed by four independent commentators. If they are right, the gates a Persian king's timber paid for stood at the place where Roman soldiers would one day keep an apostle alive.

Acts 21:37 · Acts 22:24

basis: Cross-Testament (Hebrew to Greek), so no shared Strong's lexeme is possible and no verbal tier is available. The recorded basis is the identification of H1002 bîyrâh here with the later Baris and Antonia, stated independently by Cambridge, Barnes, Pulpit and K&D. Architectural continuity, not quotation.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The half-second prayer and the throne of grace ancient/widely-held

Matthew Henry reads v. 4 straight into the New Testament and does so explicitly: we are not limited to certain moments in our addresses to the King of kings, but have liberty to go to him at all times, and approaches to the throne of grace are never out of season. He then names the ground of that liberty, that the king encouraged Nehemiah to tell his mind, and this gave him boldness to speak, much more may the invitation Christ has given us to pray, and the promise that we shall speed, encourage us to come boldly to the throne of grace. ⚙ The grammar supports the reading rather than merely permitting it. וָֽאֶתְפַּלֵּ֔ל is a Hitpael of pâlal, to judge or arbitrate: to pray is to put oneself into a case under decision. Nehemiah, standing between a throne that could kill him and a God he could not see, had time for no words we are told of. Hebrews names the access and the reason for it. The typology here is Henry's, not ours, and it is the standard reading of the passage in the Reformed and Puritan tradition.

Hebrews 4:16 · Romans 8:26

A man came to seek good novel

The complaint of v. 10 is, read flatly, a summary of a mission: בָּ֥א ... לְבַקֵּ֥שׁ טוֹבָ֖ה לִבְנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל, a man had come to seek good for the sons of Israel. Three of its four words recur as the standing vocabulary of the gospel narratives in Greek dress: coming, seeking, and the object of the search. Cambridge is careful to note that אָדָ֔ם is the generic and contemptuous term, his office not referred to, and K&D that Nehemiah quotes the sneer ironically from his enemies' side. ⚙ The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost, and was likewise identified by opponents as merely a man from a discreditable town. We put the weight where it belongs: this is a pattern of reception, not a prediction, and no commentator in the brief draws it. Nothing in the Hebrew of this verse points beyond Nehemiah, and the word ṭôwbâh here means the material welfare of a province. We offer the resonance as ours and fallible, and it should be dropped if it does not survive the text.

Luke 19:10 · John 1:46

Gates eaten by fire, and a city whose builder is God novel

Nehemiah's grief is specific: אֻכְּל֥וּ בָאֵֽשׁ, the gates have been eaten by fire, and the city that is his fathers' burial house lies חֲרֵבָ֔ה, waste. His petition is one cohortative verb, וְאֶבְנֶֽנָּה, let me build her. Benson, commenting on v. 3, widens it beyond the stones: the grievances of the church, but especially its desolations, ought to be a grief to all good people. ⚙ Scripture's own trajectory keeps this in view: Abraham looked for a city with foundations whose builder and maker is God, and the last vision of the canon is a city coming down with its gates never shut and no fire having touched them. The connection between a Persian timber warrant and that city is thematic and figural, not verbal, and the New Testament nowhere cites this chapter. What can be said honestly is that the Bible's hope is consistently urban and walled, and that Nehemiah's cohortative, let me build her, is answered in the end by a builder who is not a man. The reading of the heavenly Jerusalem is ancient and widely held; its attachment to this particular verse is ours.

Hebrews 11:10 · Revelation 21:2 · Revelation 21:25

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. The Hebrew is stable in this unit with one recorded variant of substance. At 2:1 Cambridge reports that the LXX reads "before me" rather than "before him" (the change being only the omission of a single vav), a reading followed in the Arabic version and known to the Syriac translators. Some have argued it means "when my turn came round to attend as cupbearer," which would explain the three or four month delay. Cambridge itself rejects this, calling the identification of the phrase with the cupbearer's rota a pure assumption, and prefers the Hebrew text. We follow the Hebrew and record the variant.

Chronology. The problem of Chislev (1:1) and Nisan (2:1) both falling in the twentieth year is genuinely unresolved in the sources. K&D argues for an autumn new year in civil reckoning, making Tishri the first, Chislev the third and Nisan the seventh month; Ellicott says the beginning of the reign must be dated before Chislev; Barnes dates the twentieth year to 445-444 BC on an accession of 465 BC; Cambridge gives 445 BC and a 41 year reign. These are compatible in outcome and not in method. We report rather than adjudicate.

Identifications left open. Three, deliberately. (1) The consort of v. 6: Ctesias names Damaspia and Pulpit, Ellicott and Barnes follow him; JFB proposes Esther; Gill proposes Atossa on a different identification of the king. The Hebrew names no one. (2) The location of the pardês of v. 8: Poole and Gill argue for Lebanon, Barnes and Pulpit for a park near Jerusalem, Cambridge and Ewald for Solomon's grounds at Etam, and K&D states that nothing reliable can be ascertained. (3) The home of Sanballat the Horonite: Cambridge, Barnes and K&D argue for Beth-horon in former Ephraim, Benson, Poole and Gill for Horonaim in Moab, with K&D objecting that a Moabite would have been called a Moabite. We have not chosen among these.

Identification of the king. Nearly all the commentators here take Artaxerxes I Longimanus (Barnes, Pulpit, Cambridge, Benson, JFB). Geneva's marginal note (b) instead identifies him with Darius the son of Hystaspes, and Gill entertains a queen consistent with that. The Geneva note is a sixteenth century judgment now generally abandoned; we cite it as a voice, not as a datum.

Length of the commission. The zᵉmân Nehemiah set in v. 6 is not stated in the text. Barnes, Poole, Benson, Gill, Cambridge and Pulpit all reason from 5:14 and 6:15 to a short initial leave later extended, and they are guessing, as several of them admit. Nothing here rests on that reconstruction.

Sources and layers. Every lexical claim above comes from the Berean interlinear with Strong's numbering supplied in the brief; every frequency count ("in N verses") is the Verifier's, computed over the Hebrew canon, and is a count of verses containing the lexeme, not of occurrences. Every named quotation is a verbatim contiguous substring of the public domain commentary supplied in the brief, resolved mechanically from anchors rather than retyped. Everything marked ⚙ is this tool's own synthesis and is fallible: in particular the second and third christ readings and the whole sola reading are ours, are not drawn from any commentator in the brief, and should be tested and discarded if the text will not carry them. Where the commentators disagree we have preferred to record the disagreement rather than resolve it, and where a link crosses from Hebrew to Greek we have refused the verbal tier, since a shared Strong's number is not possible across the two languages.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)