Nehemiah

Nehemiah was a devout Jewish layman who was cupbearer to the Persian king. The cupbearers position was one of great honor, since it involved great trust on the part of the king for the person who held the job.

Messengers came from Jerusalem, telling how the walls and gates of the city were in ruins. Either they had never been rebuilt since the Babylonian invasion, or they had been destroyed by the Persians for some unknown reason. When he heard this news, Nehemiah undertook a period of fasting and prayer.

Several months passed. One day the king noticed his haggard looks and questioned him about it. When Nehemiah told him the reason, the king made Nehemiah governor and gave him money and materials to repair the city walls. Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem in 445 BCE.

The Rebuilding of the Walls

Nehemiah was not welcomed by everyone. Sanballat, the governor of Samaria, who had dominated Judah for some time;Tobiah, governor of Ammon in Transjordan; and Geshem, an Arab king, immediately took exception to Nehemiah.

Nehemiah first made a night-time survey of the broken walls. The Jewish leaders gave an enthusiastic response. The response from Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem was the suggestion that he was trying to stir up rebellion against the emperor. Nehemiah proceeded by organizing the people into construction gangs. Sanballat and Tobiah immediately began to make threats about what they would do. Nehemiah responded by dividing the Jews into two groups, one to stand guard against an attack and another to carry on construction.

Nehemiah never took a salary paid by tax money in his first twelve-year term as governor. Instead, he supported himself and 150 other Jews from his own resources. After 52 days, the construction was finished. When the building was completed, dedicatory services were held. There was a march around the walls that ended in the Temple area. Following the march, there was a service of thanksgiving.

Nehemiah then made arrangements for the regular collection of Temple revenues. This money was used to pay priests to attend to the services at the Temple. The priests no longer had to work at other jobs for a living. Nehemiah’s first term as governor lasted for twelve years (445-433 BCE).

In the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes, Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem to find some disturbing developments.

Tobiah had been given a room in the Temple itself. It was a shock that an Ammonite would even be permitted within the Temple precincts. The Deuteronomic code prohibited any Ammonite or Moabite to become a part of Israel because those peoples had opposed Israel’s peaceful passage through their territory in the Exodus. When Nehemiah discovered that the high priest had allowed Tobiah a room in the Temple, he ordered Tobiah thrown out, along with his furniture. A special cleansing of the room took place. It was then restored to its normal use.

He also found that the offerings had fallen off, so much so that they could not afford to pay for the Levites to conduct the services in the Temple. The Levites had to return to farming for a living. Nehemiah immediately began collecting the tithes again for the support of Temple worship.

A third situation that confronted him in his second term was the fact that many people were no longer observing the Sabbath. Instead, they were working o n the Sabbath as though it was just another day. He ordered the city gates closed on the Sabbath so the foreign traders and farmers could not bring their goods to sell on that day. He issued a warning that any who violated the Sabbath would be punished.

Finally, he dealt with the problem of mixed marriage. He physically beat Jews who were married to foreign wives, including the son of the high priest Eliashib. He made a decree that no such marriages would be permitted and he rooted out foreign influences from Jewish life.

*A Final Note on Ezra & Nehemiah’s Zeal

When the Jewish community was about to be swallowed up by its neighbors, Ezra & Nehemiah played a vital role in preserving the religious life and culture of the Jews who had returned from exile. Ezra & Nehemiah were conscientious proponents of Judean exclusivism, tolerating neither Gentile customs nor non-Judean women in the holy city. While their rigid insistence on ceremonial and racial particularism may strike the modern reader as unsympathetic, these requirements were deemed necessary at a time when the Judeans were few in number and surrounded by enemies. Without such separatism, both national and religious identity might have been lost.