The pronoun your
recalls the terms Nehemiah had used in Nehemiah 1:5 in his confession of God’s identity. It is because he is speaking to the Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God
that Nehemiah doesn’t place himself beside God as an equal conversation partner (as could be assumed in a covenant relationship) but beneath God as a servant.
The word translated here as servant
is the common Hebrew word for slave. A slave has no rights or freedoms but belongs with his entire being to his master. Despite his high position in relation to the Persian emperor, Nehemiah acknowledges that he has no right within himself to engage God’s ear.
6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned.