Nehemiah 2:1

And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
month	בְּחֹ֣דֶשׁ be.Cho.desh	H2320	the new moon · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
Nisan	נִיסָ֗ן ni.San	H5212	Nisan · proper noun, a title
twentieth	עֶשְׂרִ֛ים 'es.Rim	H6242	twenty · cardinal number, masculine plural absolute
year	שְׁנַ֥ת she.Nat	H8141	a year (as a revolution of time) · noun, common feminine singular construct
Artaxerxes	לְאַרְתַּחְשַׁ֥סְתְּא le.'ar.tach.Shast'	H783	Artachshasta (or Artaxerxes) · preposition + proper noun, a man's name
king	הַמֶּ֖לֶךְ ha.Me.lekh	H4428	a king · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
wine	יַ֣יִן Ya.yin	H3196	wine (as fermented) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
before	לְפָנָ֑יו le.fa.Nav	H6440	the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
up	וָאֶשָּׂ֤א va.'e.Sa'	H5375	to lift · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
wine	הַיַּ֙יִן֙ hai.Ya.yin	H3196	wine (as fermented) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
gave	וָאֶתְּנָ֣ה va.'e.te.Nah	H5414	to give · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular + paragogic he
king	לַמֶּ֔לֶךְ la.Me.lekh	H4428	a king · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
sad	רַ֖ע ra'	H7451	bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · adjective, masculine singular absolute
presence	לְפָנָֽיו le.fa.Nav	H6440	the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Ezra 7:1 Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,
Nehemiah 1:11 O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear t…
Nehemiah 1:1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,
Ezra 7:7 And there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims,…
Esther 3:7 In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day…
Genesis 40:11 And Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand: and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.
Genesis 40:21 And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand:

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Nehemiah 2:1-8

When Nehemiah had prayed for the relief of his countrymen, and perhaps in David's words (Psa 51:18, Build thou the walls of Jerusalem), he did not sit still and say, "Let God now do his own work, for I have no more to do," but set himself to forecast what he could do towards it. our prayers must be seconded with our serious endeavours, else we mock God. Nearly four months passed, from Chisleu to Nisan (from November to March), before Nehemiah made his application to the king for leave to go to Jerusalem, either because the winter was not a proper time for such a journey, and he would not make the motion till he could pursue it, or because it was so long before his month of waiting came, and…

Read the whole note in the console

Adam Clarke on Nehemiah 2:1

Month Nisan - Answering to a part of our March and April. I took up the wine - It is supposed that the kings of Persia had a different cup-bearer for each quarter of the year, and that it had just now come to Nehemiah's turn.

John Gill on Nehemiah 2:1

And it came to pass in the month Nisan; in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes,.... It was still but in the twentieth year of his reign; for though Nisan or March was the first month of the year with the Jews, and from whence the reigns of their kings were dated (l); yet, with other nations, Tisri or September was the beginning of the reigns of their kings (m); so that Chisleu or November being since, see Nehemiah 1:1, it was no more in Nisan or March than the twentieth of the said king's reign, and was three or four months after Nehemiah had first heard of the distress of his people; which time he either purposely spent in fasting and prayer on that account, or until now his turn did not come…

Read the whole note in the console

Keil & Delitzsch on Nehemiah 2:1-3

Neh 2:1-2 In the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, Nehemiah as cupbearer took the wine and handed it to the king. Nisan is, according to the Hebrew calendar, the first month of the year; yet here, as in Neh 1:1-11, the twentieth year of Artaxerxes is named, and the month Chisleu there mentioned (Neh 1:1), which, after the Hebrew method of computing the year, was the ninth month and preceded Nisan by three months, is placed in the same year. This can only be explained on the grounds that either the twentieth year of Artaxerxes did not coincide with the year of the calendar, but began later, or that Nehemiah here uses the computation of time current in…

The Church Fathers

Now it happened in the month of Nisan, etc. Nisan is the first month of the year according to the Hebrews, in which they always used to celebrate Passover, which we call April. Therefore, what was said above, that he mourned, fasted, and prayed for many days, it is evident indeed that for four continuous months, namely the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth, he devoted himself to this most sacred dedication, awaiting the opportune time in which he could express his desire to the king. And indeed, he was the chief cupbearer, he used to hand the cup to the king, performing the duty of joy outwardly, but inwardly he was weighed down with severe sadness, because he remembered the holy city as destroyed and the people of God given over to reproach and contempt by the enemies of God. Hence, with those like him, he declares speaking in the Psalm: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion" (Psalm 136).
— Bede, Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Abib — An ear of corn, the month of newly-ripened grain (Ex. 13:4; 23:15); the first of the Jewish ecclesiastical year, and the seventh of the civil year. It began about the time of the vernal equinox, on…
Artaxerxes — The Greek form of the name of several Persian kings. (1.) The king who obstructed the rebuilding of the temple (Ezra 4:7). He was probably the Smerdis of profane history. (2.) The king mentioned in…
Month — Among the Egyptians the month of thirty days each was in use long before the time of the Exodus, and formed the basis of their calculations. From the time of the institution of the Mosaic law the…
Nisan — Month of flowers, (Neh. 2:1) the first month of the Jewish sacred year. (See ABIB.) Assyrian nisannu, “beginning.”
Persia — An ancient empire, extending from the Indus to Thrace, and from the Caspian Sea to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. The Persians were originally a Medic tribe which settled in Persia, on the eastern…
Prayer — Is converse with God; the intercourse of the soul with God, not in contemplation or meditation, but in direct address to him. Prayer may be oral or mental, occasional or constant, ejaculatory or…
Butler · Pharaoh’s, impri — Pharaoh’s, impri
Country · LOVE OF — LOVE OF
Month · .After the — .After the
Months · Names of the twelve: First, Nisan or Abib — Names of the twelve: First, Nisan or Abib
Nehemiah · .The cupbearer of Artaxerxes, a very trusted position — .The cupbearer of Artaxerxes, a very trusted position

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Nehemiah 2:1

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Nehemiah 2:1-8

Adam Clarke on Nehemiah 2:1

John Gill on Nehemiah 2:1

Keil & Delitzsch on Nehemiah 2:1-3

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Nehemiah 2:1

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Nehemiah 2:1-8

Adam Clarke on Nehemiah 2:1

John Gill on Nehemiah 2:1

Keil & Delitzsch on Nehemiah 2:1-3

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Nehemiah 2:1

Rashi on Nehemiah 2:1