Nehemiah 1:5

And said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven,.... He prayed not to the host of heaven, the sun in it, as the Persians, but to the God of it, in an humble supplicant manner: the great and terrible

And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: No JFB commentary on these verses.

Nehemiah 1:5 And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:Ver. 5. I beseech thee, O Lord] Annah Jehovah; an insinuating preface; whereby he seeketh first to get in with God speaking him fair; as doth likewise David, in a real and heavenly compliment, Psalms 116:16. Obsecro Iehovah, I beseech, O Lord (I am thy servant, I am thy servant, the son of thine handmaid), break thou my bands. So the Church, Isaiah 64:9, "Behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people." The great and terrible God] A great King above all gods, Exodus 15:11. Aξιωματικωτατςεστινοβασιλευςημων, saith a Greek father: "glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders," saith Moses in one place; as in another, "The Lord our God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible," Deuteronomy 10:17. Vere verendus et venerandus. Truly reverence and will worship. Thus Nehemiah begins his prayer, and counts it a great mercy that he may creep in at a corner, and present himself before this most majestic Monarch of the world with greatest self-abasement. That keepeth covenant and mercy] That he may at once both tremble before him and trust upon him; he describeth God by his goodness as well as by greatness, and so helpeth his own faith by contemplating God’ s faithfulness and lovingkindness. God hath hitherto kept covenant with heaven and earth, with nights and days, Jeremiah 33:20; Jeremiah 33:25, that one shall succeed the other; and shall he break with his people? no, verily. Be sure to keep faith in heart, or you will pray but poorly. And for this, learn in the preface to your prayers to propound God to yourselves in such notions, and under such terms and titles, as may most conduce thereunto, pleading the covenant. That love him and observe his commandments] That love to be his servants, Isaiah 56:6, that wait for his law, Isaiah 42:4, that think upon his commandments to do them, Psalms 103:18.

(4-11) Nehemiah’s appeal to God. The prayer is a perfect example of the private and individual devotion with which the later Hebrew Scriptures abound. It begins with formal and appropriate invocation (Nehemiah 1:5-8), flows into earnest confession (Nehemiah 1:6-7), pleads the covenant promises (Nehemiah 1:8-10), and supplicates a present answer (Nehemiah 1:11). The extant Scriptures, freely used, are the foundation of all. (4) Fasted.—Like Daniel, Esther, and Ezra, Nehemiah fasted: fasting appears in later Judaism a prominent part of individual devotion, as it is in the New Testament. (6) Both I and my father’s house have sinned.—The supplication was for the nation; and in such cases of personal intercession the individual assumes the sin of all the past. (8) The spirit of many threatenings and promises is summed up, as in the prayer of Nehemiah 9. (11) This day . . . this man.—During his “certain days” of mourning Nehemiah had fixed upon his plan, suggested by his God. “This day” is “this occasion”: the appeal itself was deferred for some months. The king becomes “this man” in the presence of the “God of heaven.” For I was the king’s cupbearer.—One of his cupbearers, therefore in high authority, having confidential access to him.

Verse 5. Lord God of heaven] What was, before the captivity, Jehovah, God of hosts or armies. Great] Able to do mighty things. Terrible - able to inflict the heaviest judgments.

5–11. Nehemiah’s PrayerThis prayer falls into five portions: (1) the opening address, Nehemiah 1:5; (2) the humble approach, Nehemiah 1:6 a; (3) the confession of sins, Nehemiah 1:6 b, 7; (4) the appeal to the Divine Promise, Nehemiah 1:8-10; (5) the closing supplication for (a) the people, and (b) Nehemiah as their representative at the royal court, Nehemiah 1:11. Points of resemblance may be noted with the prayer of Ezra (Ezra 9:5-15), and, in particular, with that of Daniel (Daniel 9:4-19). The opening words (Nehemiah 1:5), which are almost word for word the same as we find in Daniel 9:4 (the only variations being ‘Adonai’ for ‘Jehovah’ and the additional title ‘God of heaven’), were very probably a recognised formula of prayer based on the language of Deuteronomy.

5. The great and terrible God — As his fearful judgments on his own people showed. Mercy for them that love him — As the law and his word by the prophets, and the whole history of Israel, abundantly testified.