4, 5. This sudden prayer, quite unannounced (in spite of GNB), transports the reader back to the very moment of dismay, as if this were an extract from the day’s record, simply copied as it stood. Even if it is a more distant recollection, Nehemiah is immersed again in the experience as he writes. It is a prayer like many another in the psalms and especially Jeremiah (e.g. Ps. 123 with the chilling experience of contempt; Jer. 18:23 among others with the demand for retribution).23 It is not certain
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