Nehemiah 1:4
New International Version
When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

New Living Translation
When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven.

English Standard Version
As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Berean Standard Bible
When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

King James Bible
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,

New King James Version
So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

New American Standard Bible
Now when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

NASB 1995
When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

NASB 1977
Now it came about when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Legacy Standard Bible
Now it happened that when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Amplified Bible
Now it came about when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying [constantly] before the God of heaven.

Christian Standard Bible
When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of the heavens.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

American Standard Version
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Then when I heard these words, I was sitting and weeping and mourning for many days, and was fasting and praying before the God of Heaven.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for several days, and continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Contemporary English Version
When I heard this, I sat down on the ground and cried. Then for several days, I mourned; I went without eating to show my sorrow, and I prayed:

Douay-Rheims Bible
And when I had heard these words, I sat down, and wept, and mourned for many days: and I fasted, and prayed before the face of the God of heaven.

English Revised Version
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,

GOD'S WORD® Translation
When I heard this, I sat down and cried. I mourned for days. I continued to fast and pray to the God of heaven.

Good News Translation
When I heard all this, I sat down and wept. For several days I mourned and did not eat. I prayed to God,

International Standard Version
When I heard this, I sat down and cried, mourning for a number of days while I fasted and prayed in the presence of the God of Heaven.

JPS Tanakh 1917
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,

Literal Standard Version
And it comes to pass, at my hearing these words, I have sat down, and I weep and mourn [for] days, and I am fasting and praying before the God of the heavens.

Majority Standard Bible
When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

New American Bible
When I heard this report, I began to weep and continued mourning for several days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

NET Bible
When I heard these things I sat down abruptly, crying and mourning for several days. I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

New Revised Standard Version
When I heard these words I sat down and wept, and mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

New Heart English Bible
It happened, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,

Webster's Bible Translation
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,

World English Bible
When I heard these words, I sat down and wept, and mourned several days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,

Young's Literal Translation
And it cometh to pass, at my hearing these words, I have sat down, and I weep and mourn for days, and I am fasting and praying before the God of the heavens.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Nehemiah's Prayer
3And they told me, “The remnant who survived the exile are there in the province, in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.” 4 When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5Then I said: “O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion with those who love Him and keep His commandments,…

Cross References
2 Samuel 12:16
David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted and went into his house and spent the night lying in sackcloth on the ground.

Ezra 9:3
When I heard this report, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled out some hair from my head and beard, and sat down in horror.

Ezra 10:1
While Ezra prayed and made this confession, weeping and falling facedown before the house of God, a very large assembly of Israelites--men, women, and children--gathered around him, and the people wept bitterly as well.

Nehemiah 2:4
"What is your request?" replied the king. So I prayed to the God of heaven

Psalm 136:26
Give thanks to the God of heaven! His loving devotion endures forever.

Psalm 137:1
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.

Daniel 10:2
In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three full weeks.


Treasury of Scripture

And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,

I sat down

1 Samuel 4:17-22
And the messenger answered and said, Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there hath been also a great slaughter among the people, and thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God is taken…

Ezra 10:1
Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept very sore.

Psalm 69:9,10
For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me…

the God

Nehemiah 2:4
Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.

Ezra 5:11,12
And thus they returned us answer, saying, We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and build the house that was builded these many years ago, which a great king of Israel builded and set up…

Daniel 2:18
That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

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Nehemiah 1
1. Nehemiah, understanding by Hanani the misery of Jerusalem, mourns, fasts, and prays
5. His prayer














(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. . . .

Verse 4. - When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. The revelation of the actual condition of Jerusalem came upon Nehemiah with a shock. He had perhaps not thought much upon the subject before; he had had no means of exact information; he had supposed the city flourishing under the superintendence of Ezra, whose piety and patriotism were no doubt known to him. It was a bitter grief to him to find that his people were still "a reproach to their neighbours," laughed to scorn by those whose walls had never been destroyed, or who had been allowed to rebuild them. And he may have felt that his city, under the circumstances of the time, was in real danger. As Dean Stanley observes - "In those days rather one may say m those countries of disorder, a city without locked gates and lofty walls was no city at all" ('Lectures on the Jewish Church,' Third Series, p. 124). A few years previously Egypt had been in revolt; she might revolt again, and carry her arms into Syria. Arab tribes from the desert might extend their raids into Judaea, and be tempted by the known value of the temple treasures to swoop upon the unwalled town. Such thoughts occurring to an excitable Oriental, produced not grief and anxiety merely, but a flood of tears (comp. Ezra 10:1). And fasted. Fasting had become a frequent practice among the Jews during the captivity. Solemn fasts had been introduced on the anniversaries of the taking of Jerusalem, the burning of the temple, and the murder of Gedaliah (Zechariah 8:19). Fasting had also taken a prominent place in the devotions of individuals. Daniel fasted (Daniel 9:3; Daniel 10:3); Esther fasted (Esther 4:16); Ezra fasted (Ezra 10:6); and now Nehemiah fasted. On the grounds of natural piety out of which the practice arises, see the comment on Ezra 10:6. The God of heaven. See the comment on Ezra 1:2.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
When I heard
כְּשָׁמְעִ֣י ׀ (kə·šā·mə·‘î)
Preposition-k | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct | first person common singular
Strong's 8085: To hear intelligently

these
הָאֵ֗לֶּה (hā·’êl·leh)
Article | Pronoun - common plural
Strong's 428: These, those

words,
הַדְּבָרִ֣ים (had·də·ḇā·rîm)
Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 1697: A word, a matter, thing, a cause

I sat down
יָשַׁ֙בְתִּי֙ (yā·šaḇ·tî)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - first person common singular
Strong's 3427: To sit down, to dwell, to remain, to settle, to marry

and wept.
וָֽאֶבְכֶּ֔ה (wā·’eḇ·keh)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - first person common singular
Strong's 1058: To weep, to bemoan

I mourned
וָאֶתְאַבְּלָ֖ה (wā·’eṯ·’ab·bə·lāh)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hitpael - Consecutive imperfect - first person common singular | third person feminine singular
Strong's 56: To bewail

for days,
יָמִ֑ים (yā·mîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 3117: A day

fasting
צָם֙ (ṣām)
Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's 6684: To abstain from food, fast

and praying
וּמִתְפַּלֵּ֔ל (ū·miṯ·pal·lêl)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hitpael - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's 6419: To judge, to intercede, pray

before
לִפְנֵ֖י (lip̄·nê)
Preposition-l | Noun - common plural construct
Strong's 6440: The face

the God
אֱלֹהֵ֥י (’ĕ·lō·hê)
Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

of heaven.
הַשָּׁמָֽיִם׃ (haš·šā·mā·yim)
Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 8064: Heaven, sky


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OT History: Nehemiah 1:4 It happened when I heard these words (Neh Ne)
Nehemiah 1:3
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