"Wherefore the king said unto me, Why {is} thy countenance sad, seeing thou {art} not sick? this {is} nothing {else} but …" — Nehemiah 2:2

Nehemiah 2:2 · KJV

“Wherefore the king said unto me, Why {is} thy countenance sad, seeing thou {art} not sick? this {is} nothing {else} but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid,”

— Nehemiah 2:2

Verse 1

And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, {that} wine {was} before him: and I took up the wine, and gave {it} unto the king. Now I had not been {beforetime} sad in his presence.

Verse 3

And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, {lieth} waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?

Nehemiah 2 — Context

Wherefore the king said unto me, Why {is} thy countenance sad, seeing thou {art} not sick? this {is} nothing {else} but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid,

Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.

Cross References

Proverbs 15:13

A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

Genesis 40:7

And he asked Pharaoh's officers that {were} with him in the ward of his lord's house, saying, Wherefore look ye {so} sadly to day? {look...: Heb. are your faces evil?}