Chapter 1

1 These are the words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: It so happened that in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year, I was in Susa the citadel. 2 Hanani, who was one of my relatives, along with some of the men from Judah, came to me, and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped and had survived the exile, and about Jerusalem. 3 They said to me, “The remnant that remains from the exile there in the province are experiencing considerable adversity and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem lies breached, and its gates have been burned down!” 4 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.⁠ 5 Then I said, “Please, O Lord God of heaven, great and awesome God, who keeps his loving covenant with those who love him and obey his commandments,⁠ 6 may your ear be attentive and your eyes be open to hear the prayer of your servant that I am praying to you today throughout both day and night on behalf of your servants the Israelites. I am confessing the sins of the Israelites that we have committed against you—both I myself and my family have sinned.⁠ 7 We have behaved corruptly against you, not obeying the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments that you commanded your servant Moses. 8 Please recall the word you commanded your servant Moses: ‘If you act unfaithfully, I will scatter you among the nations. 9 But if you repent and obey my commandments and do them, then even if your dispersed people are in the most remote location, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen for my name to reside.’ 10 They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your mighty strength and by your powerful hand. 11 Please, Lord, listen attentively to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who take pleasure in showing respect to your name. Grant your servant success today and show compassion to me in the presence of this man.” Now I was cupbearer for the king.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Nehemiah 1:4 and Baruch 1:5

Hebrew Bible · Deuterocanon

Summary

Nehemiah describes fasting and mourning in response to news of Jerusalem’s devastation, presenting these acts as a natural reaction to disaster. Baruch similarly depicts fasting and prayer as expressions of grief in the aftermath of exile.

Passages

Nehemiah 1:4

Hebrew Bible

2 Hanani, who was one of my relatives, along with some of the men from Judah, came to me, and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped and had survived the exile, and about Jerusalem. 3 They said to me, “The remnant that remains from the exile there in the province are experiencing considerable adversity and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem lies breached, and its gates have been burned down!” 4 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. 5 Then I said, “Please, O Lord God of heaven, great and awesome God, who keeps his loving covenant with those who love him and obey his commandments, 6 may your ear be attentive and your eyes be open to hear the prayer of your servant that I am praying to you today throughout both day and night on behalf of your servants the Israelites. I am confessing the sins of the Israelites that we have committed against you—both I myself and my family have sinned.

400–301 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Nehemiah

Baruch 1:5

Deuterocanon

3 Baruch read the words of this book in the hearing of Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and in the hearing of all the people who came to hear the book, 4 and in the hearing of the mighty men, and of the kings’ sons, and in the hearing of the elders, and in the hearing of all the people, from the least to the greatest, even of all those who lived at Babylon by the river Sud. 5 Then they wept, fasted, and prayed before the Lord. 6 They also made a collection of money according to every man’s ability; 7 and they sent it to Jerusalem to Joakim the high priest, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Shallum, and to the priests and to all the people who were found with him at Jerusalem,

200–50 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Baruch

References

"... The original Greek [of Esther] maintains the ambiguity of the Masoretic text in most of its text. For instance, the nouns in Esther 4:3 may point to a religious act, but they do not need to. After the posting of the decree in every province, there is crying (κραυγή) and lamentation (κοπετός) and great mourning (καὶ πένθος μέγα). Κραυγή is used both in a religious and a non-religious way in the Septuagint. The element of mourning, κοπετός, bespeaks an expression of grief; in rare occurrences it an action that God calls for (Isaiah 22:12; Jeremiah 6:26). Finally, in the Septuagint, the noun πένθος occurs in contexts of mourning; among these are religious contexts in which God actively creates situations that lead to mourning (e.g., Amos 5:16; 8:10; Baruch 4:9; Lamentations 5:15) or where God ends the days of mourning (Isaiah 60:20; Jeremiah 38:13). In Add C:13, Esther puts on her clothes of mourning, whereas in 9:22 the days of mourning have been turned into a holiday. Similarly, in the case of fasting, the Greek employs the verb νηστεύω to render צום in the Masoretic (4:16). In the Greek, νηστεύω often - but not always - indicates religious fasting (Judges 20:26; 1 Samuel 7:6; 2 Samuel 12:16, 22; Nehemiah 1:4; Judith 4:13; 8:6; Zechariah 7:5; Isaiah 58:3; Jeremiah 14:12 and Baruch 1:5) ..."

Kristin De Troyer, “'When She Ended Her Prayer': A Study of the Relationship between the Hebrew and the Greek Texts of the Book of Esther,” in On Wings of Prayer: Sources of Jewish Worship: Essays in Honor of Professor Stefan C. Reif on the Occasion of His Seventy-Fifth Birthday, ed. Stefan C. Reif et al. (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2019), 71–81.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Nehemiah13 chapters

Compare Nehemiah 1:4 and Baruch 1:5

Summary

Passages

Nehemiah 1:4

Baruch 1:5

References

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