let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your slave which I am praying before You today, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your slaves, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned.
Nehemiah 1:4 Now it happened that when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
Nehemiah 1:5 I said, “I beseech You, O Yahweh, the God of heaven, the great and fearsome God, who keeps the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments,
Nehemiah 1:6 let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your slave which I am praying before You today, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your slaves, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned.
Nehemiah 1:7 We have worked in utter destruction against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments which You commanded Your servant Moses.
Nehemiah 1:8 Remember the word which You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples;
The verse centers on "attentive", "eyes", "open", "hear", "prayer", "slave", "praying", and "before". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "attentive" and "eyes", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 5's "I said I beseech You O Yahweh..." into verse 7's "We have worked in utter destruction against...", so "attentive" and "eyes" belong inside that flow. In Nehemiah context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "attentive" and "eyes" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.