O Lord, may Your ear be attentive to my prayer and to the prayers of Your servants who delight to revere Your name. Give Your servant success this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” (At that time I was the cupbearer to the king.)
Parallel translations
- WEB Lord, I beg you, let your ear be attentive now to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants, who delight to fear your name; and please prosper your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” Now I was cup bearer to the king.
- KJV 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 thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king’s cupbearer.
- NKJV O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” For I was the king’s cupbearer.
- NASB Please, Lord, may Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and the prayer of Your servants who delight to revere Your name, and please make Your servant successful today and grant him mercy before this man.” Now I was the cupbearer to the king.
- NLT O Lord, please hear my prayer! Listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you. Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me. Put it into his heart to be kind to me.” In those days I was the king’s cup-bearer.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Nehemiah asks God to hear all who delight to fear His name and to grant him success and mercy before "this man"—the king. The closing note that he was the king's cupbearer reveals how God positioned him to act.
Overview
Nehemiah prays not for himself alone but for the wider company who fear God, then asks for favor as he prepares to approach Artaxerxes. The disclosure that he served as royal cupbearer—a trusted, influential post—shows God's providence in placing him where he could intervene for Jerusalem. His prayer for the king's heart to be moved reminds us that God rules the hearts of rulers, working through ordinary means to accomplish His redemptive purposes.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Neh 1:6let Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to hear the prayer that I, Your servant, now pray before You day and night for Your servants, the Israelites. I confess the sins that we Israelites have committed against You. Both I and my father’s house have sinned.
- Neh 2:8And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so that he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel to the temple, for the city wall, and for the house I will occupy.” And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests.
- Prov 21:1The king’s heart is a waterway in the hand of the LORD; He directs it where He pleases.
- Neh 2:1Now in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was set before him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had never been sad in his presence,
- Heb 13:18Pray for us; we are convinced that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way.
- Ezra 7:6this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted Ezra all his requests, for the hand of the LORD his God was upon him.
- Ps 130:2O Lord, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to my plea for mercy.
- Ps 86:6Hear my prayer, O LORD, and attend to my plea for mercy.
- Gen 40:21Pharaoh restored the chief cupbearer to his position, so that he once again placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.
- Ezra 1:1In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:
- Ezra 7:27–28Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who has put into the heart of the king to so honor the house of the LORD in Jerusalem,
- Isa 26:8–9Yes, we wait for You, O LORD; we walk in the path of Your judgments. Your name and renown are the desire of our souls.
- Gen 40:23The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot all about him.
- Gen 32:11Please deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid that he may come and attack me and the mothers and children with me.
- Gen 40:9–13So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream: “In my dream there was a vine before me,
- Gen 41:9Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I recall my failures.
- Gen 43:14May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, that he may release your other brother along with Benjamin. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”
- Prov 1:29For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD.
- Gen 32:28Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.”
- Gen 40:2Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker,
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Christ at the center
The rebuilt walls and renewed covenant community foreshadow the greater builder who gathers and secures a people for God, the one who declares 'I will build my church.'
How Nehemiah 1:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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