Of what significance are the additional words, “the city…lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire”?
With these words Nehemiah simply repeats what his brother Hanani had reported (Nehemiah 1:3). Those words are a concession that the place of my fathers’ graves
has been defeated by a superior army. It is the ongoing humiliation attached to his ancestors’ defeat that spawns Nehemiah’s downcast spirits. What is not said explicitly (but the reader understands Nehemiah’s thinking) is the material contained in his prayer, namely, that the people of Israel have sinned and so brought this humiliating defeat upon themselves (Nehemiah 1:6–7). The courage to share this with the king comes from the promise of God that he would somehow restore the repentant (Nehemiah 1:9).
3 I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”