Charles Ellicott Commentary Nehemiah 13:6

"But in all this [time] I was not at Jerusalem; for in the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went unto the king: and after certain days asked I leave of the king," — Nehemiah 13:6 (ASV)

Was not I at Jerusalem. — Parenthetical explanation of this disorderly state of things.

King of Babylon. — Probably it was at Babylon that Nehemiah found the court, and therefore he does not say “King of Persia.”

After certain days. — The time is left indefinite. But the “two and thirtieth year” shows that he had been in Jerusalem twelve years before his return to the king.