Nehemiah

Nehemiah, the second half of the Hebrew book Ezra–Nehemiah, is largely the first-person memoir of a Judean cupbearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes who became governor of Judah around 445 BC. He hears that Jerusalem's walls lie in ruins, wins the king's permission, inspects the walls by night and has them repaired in 52 days by priests, artisans, district rulers and daughters, against mockery and threats from Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem. He confronts debt slavery among the people, resettles the city, joins Ezra at a great public reading of the law, seals a covenant, and dedicates the wall with two choirs. The book ends with his hard-handed reforms and a prayer: "Remember me, O my God, for good."

Lessons

1. 1News from Jerusalem, Prayer in SusaNehemiah 1 · In the month Chislev of the twentieth year, at Susa the citadel, Nehemiah son of Hachaliah hears from his brother Hanani that the survivors in Judah are in great trouble and Jerusalem's wall is broken and its gates burned. He weeps, mourns, fasts and prays a covenant prayer, asking for mercy "in the sight of this man." Only at the end does he say what he does: "I was the king's cupbearer."
2. 2A Persian Commission and a Midnight SurveyNehemiah 2 · In Nisan the king notices Nehemiah's sad face. Nehemiah, "very sore afraid," asks to be sent to rebuild the city of his fathers' tombs. He receives letters for the governors Beyond-the-River and for Asaph, keeper of the king's park, for timber, and an escort of officers and horsemen. Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant are grieved. Nehemiah inspects the walls by night and calls the leaders to build; Geshem the Arab joins the mockery.
3. 3Builders, Daughters, Artisans and GatesNehemiah 3 · Nehemiah 3 lists who built each section of the wall, gate by gate, around the city: the high priest and priests, men of towns from Jericho to Beth-zur, district rulers, goldsmiths, perfumers, merchants, Levites, temple servants, and Shallum "he and his daughters." The nobles of Tekoa refuse. The list is a precious record of the community, and the hardest text to map.
4. 4Labor, Ridicule and the WatchNehemiah 4 (Hebrew 3:33–4:17) · Sanballat mocks "these feeble Jews" before the army of Samaria; Tobiah jokes that a fox would break their wall. Nehemiah prays for their reproach to return on them. The wall rises to half its height. When Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, Ammonites and Ashdodites plot an attack, Nehemiah posts guards by families, half the men work and half hold spears, and a trumpeter stays by his side.
5. 5Debt, Land and the Governor's ExampleNehemiah 5 · A great cry rises from the people and their wives: they have mortgaged fields, vineyards and houses for grain; they have borrowed to pay the king's tax; their sons and daughters are being taken as debt-slaves. Nehemiah, angry, confronts the nobles and officials, calls an assembly, and makes them swear to restore land and the "hundredth." He refuses the governor's food allowance for twelve years and feeds 150 at his table.
6. 6Intrigue, Prophets and the 52 DaysNehemiah 6 · Sanballat and Geshem invite Nehemiah four times to meet in the plain of Ono; he refuses. A fifth messenger brings an open letter: Gashmu says you plan to rebel and make yourself king, with prophets to proclaim you. Shemaiah urges him to hide in the temple; Nehemiah sees a trap. He names the prophetess Noadiah and other prophets who tried to frighten him. The wall is finished on the 25th of Elul, in 52 days. Tobiah's letters and marriages tie him to Judah's nobles.
7. 7Returning Families and the Disputed ListsNehemiah 7 · With the wall complete, Nehemiah sets gatekeepers, singers and Levites, and puts Hanani and Hananiah over Jerusalem. The city is large but its people few. God moves him to gather the nobles and people to be registered, and he finds the register of the first returnees. Nehemiah 7:6–73 repeats the list of Ezra 2, with many differences in the numbers.
8. 8The Public Reading of the Law and BoothsNehemiah 7:73b–8:18 · On the first day of the seventh month all the people, men, women and all who could understand, gather at the square before the Water Gate. Ezra the scribe reads the book of the law of Moses from a wooden platform from morning until midday; Levites help the people understand. The people weep; Nehemiah, Ezra and the Levites tell them to celebrate instead. The next day the leaders find the command to dwell in booths and the whole community keeps the feast as it had not been kept since Joshua.
9. 9A Nation's Confession across the GenerationsNehemiah 9 · On the 24th day of the month the people fast in sackcloth, separate themselves from foreigners, confess, and listen to the law for a quarter of the day. The Levites call them to bless God, and a long prayer retells Israel's history from creation to the present: Abraham, Egypt, Sinai, the wilderness, the land, the judges, the prophets, the exile, and now servitude to foreign kings. It ends with a written, sealed covenant.
10. 10Covenant Commitments and the Temple EconomyNehemiah 10 (Hebrew 10:1–40) · Nehemiah the governor, priests, Levites and heads of the people set their seals to a written covenant, and the rest of the people join with an oath. They promise to keep the law: no marriages with the peoples of the land; no buying on the Sabbath; the seventh year left fallow and debts released; a third of a shekel yearly for the temple; wood for the altar by lot; firstfruits, firstborn and tithes brought to the storehouses.
11. 11Families Resettling JerusalemNehemiah 11 · The leaders live in Jerusalem; the rest of the people cast lots to bring one in ten to live there, and the people bless those who volunteer. The chapter lists the families of Judah and Benjamin, the priests, Levites, gatekeepers and temple servants in the city, and the villages of Judah from Kiriath-arba to the valley of Hinnom, and of Benjamin from Geba to Ono.
12. 12Priests, Processions and the Wall DedicationNehemiah 12 · Lists of priests and Levites who came with Zerubbabel and Jeshua, the high priests from Jeshua to Jaddua, and the priestly heads under Joiakim. Then the dedication of the wall: Levites and singers are gathered, priests purify themselves, the people, the gates and the wall, and two great thanksgiving choirs walk in opposite directions on the wall, meeting at the temple. Women and children rejoice. Officers are appointed over the storerooms.
13. 13The Reforms and Their Human CostsNehemiah 13 · The law excluding Ammonites and Moabites is read, and the people separate the "mixed multitude." While Nehemiah is away at court, the high priest Eliashib gives Tobiah a temple storeroom. Returning, Nehemiah throws out Tobiah's goods, restores the Levites' portions, shuts the gates against Sabbath trade, and confronts men married to women of Ashdod, Ammon and Moab, whose children cannot speak Judean. He curses them, strikes some, pulls out their hair, and drives off the high priest's grandson, son-in-law to Sanballat. The book ends: "Remember me, O my God, for good."
14. 14Investigation: Did Archaeologists Find Nehemiah's Wall?Nehemiah 2–3; 6:15; 12:27–43 · In 2007 Eilat Mazar announced that a wall section and tower on the City of David's eastern slope belonged to Nehemiah's rebuilding, dated by pottery in the fill beneath. Israel Finkelstein and others argued that the structure is Hellenistic or Hasmonean, and that Persian-period Jerusalem was too small for a wall the length of Nehemiah 3. Recent analyses reopen the question. No structure has been securely identified as Nehemiah's wall.
15. 15Investigation: Sanballat, Bagohi and the Elephantine ArchiveNehemiah 2:10, 19; 4; 6; 12:22; 13:28 · In 407 BC the Jewish garrison at Elephantine wrote to Bagohi, governor of Judah, asking help to rebuild their temple, destroyed in 410. They mention Johanan the high priest in Jerusalem and Delaiah and Shelemiah, sons of Sanballat, governor of Samaria. These are contemporary documents naming people from Nehemiah's world, a generation later. They do not mention Nehemiah, and Bagohi is not Nehemiah.
16. 16Investigation: Ezra, Nehemiah and the Persian CalendarEzra 7:7–8; Nehemiah 1:1; 2:1; 8; 12:26, 36; 13:6 · The Bible places Ezra in the seventh year of Artaxerxes and Nehemiah in the twentieth, which makes Ezra first (458 and 445 BC under Artaxerxes I). But Ezra and Nehemiah rarely appear together, Nehemiah's reforms do not mention Ezra's, and some details fit a later date for Ezra. Scholars propose Ezra under Artaxerxes II (398 BC), or a corrected thirty-seventh year (428 BC). The calendar of Nehemiah 1–2 raises its own puzzle.

How Nehemiah came to us

Who wrote it, how it was copied, and how it reached the Bible you hold. These lessons follow the book through history.

1. ★How Nehemiah Came to UsNehemiah begins with "the words of Nehemiah" and much of it is a first-person memoir, framed by lists, a public reading, a prayer and a covenant. In the Hebrew Bible it is the second half of the single book Ezra–Nehemiah. No verse of Nehemiah has been identified among the Dead Sea Scrolls. In Greek it is the last thirteen chapters of 2 Esdras; 1 Esdras shares only the public reading. Its earliest complete Hebrew copies are medieval.
2. 5The Return and EzraPersia let the exiles go home; Ezra read the law to the whole people, and Scripture became the center of Jewish life.
3. 6The SeptuagintJews in Egypt translated their Scriptures into Greek, creating the Bible of the early church and of the New Testament writers.
4. 7The Dead Sea ScrollsA shepherd's discovery in 1947 gave us Bible manuscripts a thousand years older than any known before, and showed how faithfully the text was kept.
5. 13Scribes, Jerome, and the MasoretesJerome gave the West its Latin Bible; Jewish scholars called the Masoretes guarded the Hebrew text letter by letter.

Journey of a Passage

• ¶Nehemiah 1:1; 2:1: Chislev, then Nisan, in the twentieth yearNehemiah hears the news in Chislev (9th month) "in the twentieth year" and speaks to the king in Nisan (1st month) "in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes." All the library's texts agree. If the year began in Nisan, the order is puzzling.
• ¶Nehemiah 2:8: The keeper of the king's pardesAsaph keeps the king's pardes, a Persian word for a walled park or reserve. The Hebrew uses the loanword; the Greek tradition uses paradeisos (Giguet: "garden"); the Vulgate saltus (forest); the KJV "forest." Paradeisos is the Greek Bible's word for Eden, and later for paradise.
• ¶Nehemiah 2:13–15: The Dragon Well or the Fig FountainOn his night ride Nehemiah passes 'en hattannin, "the spring of the dragon (or jackal)." The Vulgate and KJV say dragon; the library's Greek (Giguet) has "the fountain of the figs," reading a different word. The spring's location is unknown.
• ¶Nehemiah 3:5, 12: Shallum's daughters and the Tekoite noblesShallum, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repairs "he and his daughters"; the nobles of Tekoa refuse to "put their necks" to the work. All the library's texts agree.
• ¶Nehemiah 3:15: The pool of Shelah, or the shearing poolShallun builds "the wall of the pool of Shelah by the king's garden." The Vulgate and KJV make it the pool of Siloah/Siloam; the library's Greek (Giguet) reads it as "the pool where fleeces are washed at the king's shearing."
• ¶Nehemiah 4:1–23 (Hebrew 3:33–4:17): Where chapter 4 beginsEnglish Bibles begin chapter 4 with Sanballat's mockery; the Hebrew Bible keeps it as the end of chapter 3 (3:33–38). The words are the same; only the numbering differs. The library's Hebrew follows the Hebrew numbering.
• ¶Nehemiah 5:11: "The hundredth": interest, tax or debt?Nehemiah tells the creditors to restore lands, vineyards, olive groves and houses "and the hundredth of the money, grain, wine and oil." The Hebrew, Vulgate and KJV have "the hundredth"; the library's Greek (Giguet) does not, reading instead "bring them grain, wine and oil for the price of the silver."
• ¶Nehemiah 6:10–14: Noadiah: prophetess or prophet?Nehemiah asks God to remember "the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets" who tried to frighten him. The Hebrew and KJV make Noadiah a woman; the library's Greek (Giguet) has "Noadias the prophet," masculine; the Vulgate's form does not mark gender.
• ¶Nehemiah 6:15: Fifty-two days"So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days." All the library's texts agree. Josephus says two years and four months.
• ¶Nehemiah 8:8–9 and 1 Esdras 9:48–49: "Distinctly, and gave the sense"; and where is Nehemiah?The Levites read "meforash, and gave the sense." Rabbinic tradition took this as translation into Aramaic; others read "clearly" or "with explanation." The library's Greek (Giguet) paraphrases quite differently. In the next verse, 1 Esdras has "Attharates" where Nehemiah has "Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha."
• ¶Nehemiah 8:14–18: "Not since Joshua": Booths in Jerusalem"For since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so." All the library's texts agree. Booths was kept under Solomon and after the return (Ezra 3:4), so the phrase must mean "not in this way."
• ¶Nehemiah 9:5–6: "And Ezra said"In the Hebrew the Levites call the people to bless God and the prayer follows without a new speaker. The Greek tradition adds "And Ezra said" before 9:6. The library's Greek (Giguet) has it; the Hebrew, Vulgate and KJV do not. Many modern translations (NRSV, NAB) follow the Greek.
• ¶Nehemiah 10:32 (Hebrew 10:33) and Exodus 30:13: A third of a shekel, or a half?The covenant sets "the third part of a shekel" yearly for the temple service; Exodus 30:13 requires "half a shekel" at a census. All the library's texts of Nehemiah read a third (Giguet: "a third of a drachma"). They are different provisions, not a copying error.
• ¶Nehemiah 11:1–24 and 1 Chronicles 9:2–34: Jerusalem's residents in two listsNehemiah 11 and 1 Chronicles 9 list Jerusalem's inhabitants after the exile with many shared names and different numbers: e.g. priests 1,192 (Nehemiah: 822 + 242 + 128) vs 1,760 (Chronicles); Benjaminites 928 vs 956.
• ¶Nehemiah 12:10–11, 22: Jaddua and "Darius the Persian"The high-priest list runs Jeshua, Joiakim, Eliashib, Joiada, Jonathan (Johanan), Jaddua, and 12:22 records priests "to the reign of Darius the Persian." The list reaches decades, possibly a century, after Nehemiah. The library's Greek chapter 12 is shorter and differently numbered.
• ¶Nehemiah 12:31–43 and Nehemiah 3: Two choirs on the wallTwo thanksgiving companies walk the wall in opposite directions, past the gates and towers of Nehemiah 3, and meet at the temple. The texts agree; the route cannot be traced on the ground except schematically.
• ¶Nehemiah 13:1–3, 23–27; Deuteronomy 23:3–6; Ruth 4: "No Ammonite or Moabite" and RuthNehemiah 13:1 cites Deuteronomy 23:3–6: no Ammonite or Moabite in the congregation of God for ever. The people separate the "mixed multitude," and Nehemiah condemns marriages with women of Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. Ruth the Moabite, ancestor of David, stands in tension with this. All the library's texts agree on the wording.
• ¶Nehemiah 13:24–25: Plucked hair or shaved headsNehemiah "contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair." The Hebrew verb marat means to pluck or pull; the library's Greek (Giguet) reads "shaved their heads"; the Vulgate "decalvavi" (made them bald). The children spoke "half in the speech of Ashdod."