Let your ear now be attentive, and your eyes open, that you may listen to the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel your servants, while I confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Yes, I and my father’s house have sinned.
Parallel Translations
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Let your ear now be attentive, and your eyes open, that you may listen to the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel your servants, while I confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Yes, I and my father’s house have sinned.
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Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned.
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let Thine ear now be attentive, and Thine eyes open, that Thou mayest hearken unto the prayer of Thy servant, which I pray before Thee at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel Thy servants, while I confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against Thee; yea, I and my father's house have sinned.
Cross-references (27)
Passages linked to Nehemiah 1:6 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Daniel 9:20 While I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before Yahweh my God for the holy mountain of my God;
- Daniel 9:4 I prayed to Yahweh my God, and made confession, and said, “Oh, Lord, the great and dreadful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments,
- Psalms 34:15 Yahweh’s eyes are toward the righteous. His ears listen to their cry.
- Psalms 106:6 We have sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly.
- Daniel 9:17-18 “Now therefore, our God, listen to the prayer of your servant, and to his petitions, and cause your face to shine on your sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake. My God, turn your ear, and hear. Open your eyes, and see our desolations, and the city which is called by your name; for we do not present our petitions before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies’ sake.
- 2 Chronicles 6:40 “Now, my God, let, I beg you, your eyes be open, and let your ears be attentive, to the prayer that is made in this place.
- 2 Chronicles 29:6 For our fathers were unfaithful, and have done that which was evil in Yahweh our God’s sight, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of Yahweh, and turned their backs.
- Isaiah 6:5 Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Armies!”
- 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
- Luke 18:7 Won’t God avenge his chosen ones who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them?
- Lamentations 3:39-42 Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh. Let’s lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens. “We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned.
- Lamentations 5:7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more. We have borne their iniquities.
- 2 Timothy 1:3 I thank God, whom I serve as my forefathers did, with a pure conscience. How unceasing is my memory of you in my petitions, night and day
- 1 Kings 8:28-29 Yet have respect for the prayer of your servant, and for his supplication, Yahweh my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you today; that your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which you have said, ‘My name shall be there;’ to listen to the prayer which your servant prays toward this place.
- Ezra 9:6-7 and I said, “My God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God; for our iniquities have increased over our head, and our guiltiness has grown up to the heavens. Since the days of our fathers we have been exceedingly guilty to this day; and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests, have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.
- Ezra 10:1 Now while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before God’s house, there was gathered together to him out of Israel a very great assembly of men and women and children; for the people wept very bitterly.
- Psalms 32:5 I acknowledged my sin to you. I didn’t hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
- Psalms 55:17 Evening, morning, and at noon, I will cry out in distress. He will hear my voice.
- Psalms 130:2 Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my petitions.
- Isaiah 64:6-7 For we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have consumed us by means of our iniquities.
- 1 Timothy 5:5 Now she who is a widow indeed and desolate, has her hope set on God, and continues in petitions and prayers night and day.
- 1 Samuel 15:11 “It grieves me that I have set up Saul to be king; for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments.” Samuel was angry; and he cried to Yahweh all night.
- 2 Chronicles 28:10 Now you intend to degrade the children of Judah and Jerusalem as male and female slaves for yourselves. Aren’t there even with you trespasses of your own against Yahweh your God?
- Ezra 10:11 Now therefore make confession to Yahweh, the God of your fathers, and do his pleasure; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land, and from the foreign women.”
- Psalms 88:1 Yahweh, the God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you.
- Luke 2:37 and she had been a widow for about eighty-four years), who didn’t depart from the temple, worshiping with fastings and petitions night and day.
- Ephesians 2:3 We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Neh 1:6 Let thine ear now be attentive, and…
Neh 1:6 Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned.
Ver. 6. Let thine ears now be attentive, and thine eyes open] Should not God see as well as hear (saith a divine), his children should want many things. We apprehend not all our wants; and so cannot pray for relief of all. He of his own accord, without any monitor, is wont to aid us. "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous; and his ears are open to their prayer," Psa 33:15.
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That thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant] If not secundum voluntatem, yet ad utilitatem (Aug. Confess. 1. 5, c. 8), but usually God answereth his servants’ prayers, fitting his mercy ad cardinem desiderii, to a longing heart, as here; and letting it be unto them even as they will.
Which I pray before thee now, day and night] Christ requireth his servants and suppliants to pray and not faint, Luk 18:1. Ordinarily, morning and evening without fail; extraordinarily, oftener. The Jews divide their day into prayer, work, and repast; neither will they omit prayer for their meat or labour. The Mahometans, what occasion soever they have, either by profit or pleasure, to divert them, will pray five times every day; and upon the Friday (which is their sabbath) six times. Vae torpori nostro! woe our numbness, how few and feeble are our prayers for ourselves and for brethren in distress; who have for that cause an unanswerable action against us!
And confess the sins of the children of Israel] This he did more fully and at large than is here set down; and he fitly beginnneth with confession; that having gotten off the guilt of sin, he might with more courage and comfort deprecate wrath, and beg mercy.
Which we have sinned against thee] There lay the pinch of his grief, that they sinned against so good a God.
Both I and my father’s house have sinned] Hic igitur Lyra deliravit, Lyra is incorrect when he saith here, that Nehemiah confessed his own sins, but only as a member of the same body, he himself being innocent. Comparatively innocent he was, doubtless; but that he was not without sin, and such sin as he had cause to confess to be God provoking sins, is clear by this very text. He was sensible of his own sins, and of other men’s sins too. The sins of our ancestors not bewailed and disclaimed, are set upon our score, Dan 5:22.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Let thine ear be now attentive,.... To his prayer,…
Let thine ear be now attentive,.... To his prayer, as in Neh 1:11,
and thine eyes open; to behold with pity and compassion the distressed case of Jerusalem, and the Jews in it:
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I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants; this he had continued to do ever since he heard of their trouble and calamity:
and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned; he considered sin as the cause of all this evil that had befallen his people, and confesses it with sorrow and humiliation, and not their sins only, but his own personal and family sins.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Which I pray, &c. - He refers to all…
Which I pray, &c. - He refers to all the prayers, which he had for some time been putting up.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 6. Let thine ear] Hear what we say…
Verse 6. Let thine ear] Hear what we say and confess. Thine eyes open - see what we suffer.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Neh 1:6. Which I pray before thee night and…
Neh 1:6. Which I pray before thee night and day — He refers to all the prayers which he had for some time been addressing to God, during his sorrow for the desolations of Jerusalem.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain They. Hebrew and Septuagint, "we have sinned." (Menochius)
They. Hebrew and Septuagint, "we have sinned." (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 6. Thine ear… thine eyes — He that formed…
6. Thine ear… thine eyes — He that formed the ear, shall he not hear his children’s cry? He that made the eye, shall he not see the sufferings of his people?
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 6. The humble access leading to the confession of…
6. The humble access leading to the confession of sin.
let thine ear now be attentive] The word ‘attentive’ is not very common in the original. It occurs again in Neh_1:11, in Psa_130:2. And with the rendering ‘attent’ (A.V. and R.V.) in 2Ch_6:40; 2Ch_7:15. The LXX. renders πρόσεχον.
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and thine eyes open] We should expect this clause to come first, as in 2Ch_6:40; 2Ch_7:15. We need not however supply the words ‘to the misery of thy people’ or ‘to him that prayeth.’ A similar passage in 1Ki_8:52, ‘that thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant,’ shows that the metaphor is not to be pressed too literally.
hear] R.V. hearken unto. An alteration due to the wish to give the full force of the Hebrew. ‘Thy servant.’ Compare 1Sa_3:9-10; 1Sa_23:10; 2Sa_7:20.
now, day and night] R.V. at this time, day and night. Literally, ‘this day, day and night,’ cf. Neh_1:11. ‘At this time’ then refers to the ‘certain days’ mentioned in Neh_1:4 : it does not mean that he went into the presence of the king on the day of this prayer.
The Vulgate ‘hodie nocte et die.’ Cf. Act_20:31 ‘night and day with tears.’
for the children of Israel thy servants] i.e. in their behalf. In spite of their sin and disobedience, the children of Israel are still God’s servants, cf. Lev_25:55; Isa_63:17. The exact phrase used here does not occur elsewhere. But the permanent ideal relation, in spite of all failure or rebellion, is frequently expressed in the prophets; cf. ‘Jacob, my servant,’ used in Isaiah (Isa_41:8; Isa_44:2 &c.), Jeremiah (Jer_30:10; Jer_46:27-28), Eze_37:25.
and confess] R.V. while I confess. The A.V. is not grammatical.
‘Confess.’ See on Ezr_10:1.
the sins of the children of Israel, which we &c.] Nehemiah identifies himself with the guilt of the people. Cf. Moses in Exo_34:9 ‘Pardon our iniquity and our sin.’
both I and my father’s house] i.e. Neither the individual nor the family being free from the responsibility of national sin. It has been remarked that, if Nehemiah belonged to the house of David, there would be a special appropriateness in these words. According to one tradition (Euseb.), he was of the tribe of Judah.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Both I and my father"s house have sinned. Ewald…
Both I and my father"s house have sinned. Ewald well observes, "In the prayer of Nehemiah the keynote is struck in the words, "I and my father"s house have sinned ("History of Israel," vol. 5. p. 149, note 1). The desolation which he mourns is the result of the people"s sins, and in those sins are included his own, and those of his ancestors. His own may not have been very grievous, but those of his fathers weigh upon him as if his own, and oppress his spirit.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 open your eyes
open your eyes
"look at me." Here "open your eyes" is a metaphor that represents paying attention to someone. AT: "pay attention to me" (See: Metaphor)
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so you may hear the prayer of your servant
"so that you may hear the prayer that I, your servant, am praying." The word "servant" refers to Nehemiah. This is how a person would address his superior in order to show humility and respect.
day and night
By saying that he prays both during the day and during the night, Nehemiah emphasizes the frequency of his prayers. AT: "all the time" (See: Merism)
Both I and my father's house
Here the word "house" represents family. AT: "Both I and my family" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
pray
servant
people group
Israel
confess
sin
house
ancestor
evil
command
law, laws
decree
Moses
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 1:6 I confess that we have sinned: Like Ezra…
1:6 I confess that we have sinned: Like Ezra (Ezra 9:5-15) and Daniel (Dan 9:4-19), Nehemiah identified with the sins of his people, made no excuses, and accepted both his individual responsibility and the responsibility of the larger covenant group that had sinned against God.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.