Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Nehemiah 13:31 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 31. 31And for the wood offering, at times appointed, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse schedules wood and firstfruit offerings and ends with Nehemiah's prayer to be remembered for good.
Read It With
- Nehemiah 13:30–13:31
Read Nehemiah 13:30–13:31 together. This verse schedules wood and firstfruit offerings and ends with Nehemiah's prayer to be remembered for good. Read Nehemiah 13:30–13:31 as one complete scene: Nehemiah claims to have cleansed the community of people he calls foreigners, appoints service watches, schedules offerings, and asks God to remember him for good.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Nehemiah's claim to cleanse, assignment of priestly and Levitical duties, wood and firstfruit schedules, and final remember-me prayer form the book's compact conclusion. Its placement advances the book. The book ends in Nehemiah's self-presentation and prayer rather than an external verdict, inviting evaluation of both institutional repairs and coercive methods. Within that movement, this verse schedules wood and firstfruit offerings and ends with Nehemiah's prayer to be remembered for good.
Read Nehemiah 13:30–31 together
Why these verses belong together: Nehemiah's claim to cleanse, assignment of priestly and Levitical duties, wood and firstfruit schedules, and final remember-me prayer form the book's compact conclusion.
Verse 30. 30 Thus cleansed I them from all strangers, and appointed the wards of the priests and the Levites, every one in his business;
Verse 31. 31 And for the wood offering, at times appointed, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.
Follow the Context
- Nehemiah claims to have cleansed the community of people he calls foreigners, appoints service watches, schedules offerings, and asks God to remember him for good.
- The book ends in Nehemiah's self-presentation and prayer rather than an external verdict, inviting evaluation of both institutional repairs and coercive methods.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“remember me ... for good”
In plain language: Nehemiah ends by asking God to evaluate him favorably.
No subsequent divine verdict is narrated.
Why it matters: His self-assessment remains open to ethical review.
How certain? very strongWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
Nehemiah 13:31 does not reduce its distinct role—schedules wood and firstfruit offerings and ends with Nehemiah's prayer to be remembered for good—to a standalone claim or rule; read it within Nehemiah 13:30–13:31. The KJV's cleansing language does not authorize ethnic cleansing or removal by ancestry, and the final prayer does not place Nehemiah beyond review or guarantee success.
What Remains True
Within Nehemiah 13:30–13:31, Nehemiah 13:31 schedules wood and firstfruit offerings and ends with Nehemiah's prayer to be remembered for good. A leader's sincere appeal to God can coexist with the need for ethical, communal, and canonical evaluation.
How It Can Shape Life
- At Nehemiah 13:31, attend to how the verse schedules wood and firstfruit offerings and ends with Nehemiah's prayer to be remembered for good. Close a reform cycle with exact controls and an independent review of who benefited, who was harmed, and what remains contested.
Teach It Back
Explain Nehemiah 13:31's precise role in Nehemiah 13:30–13:31. Include the first historical horizon, the surrounding verses, one person or cost that could be obscured, material uncertainty, and one conclusion this verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Nehemiah 13:30–13:31 — Appointments and a remember-me prayer leave the ending openSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The book provides no subsequent divine speech evaluating Nehemiah's final actions, and the original extent of the memoir conclusion is disputed.
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 13:30–13:31, 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 13:30–13:31
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 pp. 779–781, translation text and any translator notes printed for 13:30–13:31
Open source ↗