← Nehemiah
Chiasm 1 — Prayer Sandwich (1:1–2:4)
- A. 1:1-4
- a. The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah
- b. In the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, in Shushan the palace; inquiry about the Jews and Jerusalem
- c. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire
- d. Prayed before the God of heaven
- B. 1:5-6 I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy; Let thine ear now be attentive, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant; thy servants, and confess the sins
- C. 1:7 We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses
- D. 1:8-9 Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there
- C'. 1:10 Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand
- B'. 1:11 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
- A'. 1:11b–2:4
- a'. For I was the king's cupbearer
- b'. In the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king; wine was before him
- c'. The city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire
- d'. So I prayed to the God of heaven
Chiasm 2 — The King's Permission (2:5–10)
- A. 2:5 I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it
- B. 2:6a The king said unto me (the queen also sitting by him), For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return?
- C. 2:6b So it pleased the king to send me
- B'. 2:6c And I set him a time
- A'. 2:7-8a Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river; and a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's forest
- B'. 2:8b And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me
- A. 2:9a Then I came to the governors beyond the river
- B. 2:9b And gave them the king's letters
- B'. 2:9c Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me
- A'. 2:10 When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel