Charles Spurgeon Commentary Nehemiah 2:1

"And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, when wine was before him, that I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been [beforetime] sad in his presence." — Nehemiah 2:1 (ASV)

And it came to pass in the month Nisan,

Three or four months after he began to pray.

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.

We have in some of the old slabs and carvings some remarkable pictures of the elaborate way in which the kings of Persia and Media were served by their cupbearers. They always spilled a little wine upon their left hand and drank first, for fear the king might be poisoned. So the greatest men of the different provinces of the empire took turns to perform this role before the king. It was a state ceremony.

Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.

And there was a law–one of those stupid Median laws–that no one was to come before the king with a sad countenance. It was supposed that the king must be so serenely happy himself that no one could come there unless they were happy, too. Nehemiah had been able to observe this rule, but on this occasion he did not, because he could not.