Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Nehemiah 1:3 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 3. 3And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse reports the survivors' distress and reproach together with Jerusalem's broken wall and burned gates.
Read It With
- Nehemiah 1:1–1:3
Read Nehemiah 1:1–1:3 together. This verse reports the survivors' distress and reproach together with Jerusalem's broken wall and burned gates. Read Nehemiah 1:1–1:3 as one complete scene: Nehemiah asks about the returned Jewish community and Jerusalem; Hanani reports great affliction, reproach, a breached wall, and burned gates.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The date, Hanani's arrival, Nehemiah's question, and the report of reproach, broken walls, and burned gates form the opening report before Nehemiah responds. Its placement advances the book. The book begins with received news rather than a heroic plan, centering a vulnerable community's condition as reported to a diaspora court official. Within that movement, this verse reports the survivors' distress and reproach together with Jerusalem's broken wall and burned gates.
Read Nehemiah 1:1–3 together
Why these verses belong together: The date, Hanani's arrival, Nehemiah's question, and the report of reproach, broken walls, and burned gates form the opening report before Nehemiah responds.
Verse 1. 1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,
Verse 2. 2 That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.
Verse 3. 3 And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
What Remains True
Within Nehemiah 1:1–1:3, Nehemiah 1:3 reports the survivors' distress and reproach together with Jerusalem's broken wall and burned gates. Responsible repair begins by hearing concrete distress without reducing affected people to a project.
How It Can Shape Life
- At Nehemiah 1:3, attend to how the verse reports the survivors' distress and reproach together with Jerusalem's broken wall and burned gates. Listen to local testimony, verify conditions, and let residents' needs shape any proposed repair.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Nehemiah 1:1–1:3 — Jerusalem's survivors are reported in distressSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Nehemiah 1:1–1:3, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Nehemiah
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, clause relationships, repeated roots, Persian titles, names, and translation controls.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Neh.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 1:1–1:3
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Nehemiah with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: A unit-bounded KJV comparison plus only the lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, literary, or older-English notes actually printed for these verses; silence in the notes is not treated as positive evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible Nehemiah PDF, printed p. 763, translation text and any translator notes printed for 1:1–1:3
Open source ↗