What Does Nehemiah 1:6 Mean?
Let your ear now be attentive, and your eyes open, that you may hear and respond to the prayer of your servant, which I pray before your face now, day and night, for the children of Israel, your servants, while I speak the falling short of the children of Israel into the open, which we have missed the mark against you. Both I and my father's house have missed.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned.THE KEY
The prayer confesses Israel’s missing as “we,” then includes the speaker and his father’s house in that same admission.
THE MEANING
The prayer asks to be heard with attentive ears and open eyes, then names the people’s missing without sheltering the speaker. The confession says “we,” and explicitly includes “I and my father’s house.” The verse speaks now of confession that leaves no safe distance between the one praying and the failure being named.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that someone can confess a community’s failure while remaining untouched by it: the speaker says “we,” then names himself and his father’s house.
THE ROOT
חָטָאנוּ
ḥāṭāʾnû
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
To miss, miss the mark; by extension, to commit an offense.
“have missed” in this verse is ḥāṭāʾnû. The passage repeats this root in “sins,” “we have sinned,” and “have sinned.” The same seed runs through all three: the missing is named in a shared first-person voice, and the speaker does not stand outside that “we.”
ALSO GROWS
ḥēṭʾ: A missing, offense, or sin.
חֵטְא
It makes the noun “sins” part of the same word family as the acts the speaker admits.
ḥōṭēʾ: One who misses or sins.
חוֹטֵא
It names the person through the same root, underscoring that the passage speaks of actions the people have done rather than assigning the speaker an outside position.
וּמִתְוַדֶּה
ûmitvaddêh
GROWS FROM
ידה
yādâ
To acknowledge, confess, or give thanks.
“speak the falling short of the children of Israel into the open” in this verse is ûmitvaddêh. The verb for confession belongs to the same root as תּוֹדָה (tōdâ, thanksgiving). Both words carry acknowledgment into expression; here, what is spoken openly is the missing the prayer has just named.
ALSO GROWS
tōdâ: Thanksgiving or acknowledgment expressed in praise.
תּוֹדָה
It shows that this root can voice what is recognized, whether the speaker is naming failure or giving thanks.
mōdeh: One who acknowledges, confesses, or gives thanks.
מוֹדֶה
This related form keeps the focus on the act of acknowledging rather than on a label for the person.
לִשְׁמֹעַ
lishmōaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear or listen, with the sense of attending and responding.
“hear and respond” in this verse is lishmōaʿ. The prayer asks God to hear, while the root can carry hearing into response. Paired with open eyes and attentive ears, hearing here reaches beyond sound registering to the request being received.
ALSO GROWS
shemāʿ: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
It shows the fuller sense carried by the root: hearing can include response.
shemūʿāh: A report, message, or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
It shows the root’s range from the act of hearing to what reaches the hearer.
THE PATTERN
Confession brings what is hidden into open speech, joining acknowledgment with prayer and shared responsibility.
I make my falling short known to you, and my crookedness I do not cover. I say, I will speak my rebellion into the open before the LORD, and you release the crookedness of my falling short. Selah.If we speak our shortcomings into the open, he is steady and aligned, to release our shortcomings, and to cleanse us from all crookedness.Speak your stumbles into the open to one another, and pray over one another, that you may be made whole. The asking of an aligned one, working within, is very strong.THE THREAD
And when he is guilty in one of these things, he speaks his falling short into the open, in that thing in which he has missed the mark.Leviticus binds “confess” to “sinned,” from the root חטא (ḥāṭāʾ, miss) that Nehemiah repeats. Leviticus names an individual’s confession; Nehemiah gives the same missing a collective voice, “we”, and includes the one praying.
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