These notes and comments on Nehemiah were written at a time when the witness

connected with the Berean Expositor was in a state of transition. Like Nehemiah, we,

too, have had "open letters"; we, too, have experienced the wearisome effect of "much

rubbish"; we, too, have received invitations to occupy a "broader" platform, to come

down into the wide open "plain" and not cramp ourselves within the prescribed limits of

a "prison ministry". We were particularly attracted to the thought that the goal of

Nehemiah's efforts namely, "The Pulpit of the Opened Book" (Neh. 8: 4, 5), was

similar to our own. Because of this, we expected to find much in the experiences of

Nehemiah that would prove a word in season to ourselves. On many critical occasions,

when the policy of the work hung in the balance, we have taken heed to the counsel of

Nehemiah and have never yet been disappointed, and we shall have to return to this book

again and again.

The chronology of Ezra-Nehemiah has been discussed in the closing chapters of the

series entitled "Time and Place"* (* - A series which commenced in Volume XXXIII),

and the reader is advised to acquaint himself with the arguments there put forward to

establish the interrelationship of these two books. The books opens with a statement

concerning the writer, "Nehemiah", a date, "the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year", a

reference to the state of the "Jews", the "captivity" and "Jerusalem", which is followed

by a prayer of some length and fullness, and concludes with the information that

Nehemiah was "the King's cup-bearer". The subject of chapter 2: follows a similar

pattern, the prayer this time, however, being the briefest on record. Before considering

these passages in detail let us set out this arrangement.

A | 1: 1. Date. Month Chisleu.

B | 1: 2-11-. Weeping, mourning, fasting, and prayer

because of condition of Jerusalem.

C | 1: -11. The King's cup-bearer. Office stated.

A | 2: 1-. Date. Month Nisan (four months later).

C | 2: -1. I took wine to the King. Office used.

B | 2: 2-4. Sadness, sorrow of heart, and prayer

because of condition of Jerusalem.

We shall find that structurally the remainder of chapter 2: belongs to the next great

division of the subject matter, and it will be considered in its place and relation to the