Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageWhen I heard this, I sat down and wept. For days I mourned and fasted, pouring out my heart in prayer before the God of heaven.
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GWhen I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before Elohim of the skies.
KJV
King James VersionAnd it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,
BSB
Berean Standard BibleWhen I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
Footnotes
The phrase *Elohim ha-shamayim* (אֱלֹהֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם) is a characteristic formulation of the Persian-era Jewish writings — appearing in Ezra, Daniel, and Jonah — that simultaneously asserts YHWH's cosmic sovereignty and functions as a diplomatically legible title in a Persian context (echoing Persian sky-deity theology). FOG renders *shamayim* as 'skies' to honour the concrete cosmological referent of the Hebrew; FOG Message uses 'heaven' to draw out the theological register of divine transcendence and unreachable majesty. Nehemiah's weeping and sitting are themselves postures of lament — he does not immediately strategise; he grieves.
