Nehemiah
Introduction
The book of Nehemiah, as does Ezra, covers the return of some of the exiles to Jerusalem. Please refer to these resources as well: this commentary, the NETS Bible, and this LXX Interlinear.
Analysis
The first chapters of Nehemiah are his own personal account of events. While Ezra focuses more on the temple and spiritual purification, Nehemiah focuses more on repairing the wall around Jerusalem. At the end of ch. 1 he states that he was the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes when he heard about the condition of the wall.
But in ch. 2 the king notices he appears to be depressed and asks him why, and when he tells him, the king grants him permission to go to Jerusalem and oversee the wall’s repair himself.
Ch. 3 lists the names of the builders, and it serves as a good source of data for anyone interested in the details that identify the area. This is important because of a recent movement to claim parts of southern Africa as the real location of Jerusalem, based only on the most superficial similarities of terrain. It takes more than a few hills and rivers to identify a location.
Then ch. 4 records the continued opposition to the restoration from locals. But this time they’re not content with sending letters of complaint to Babylon, so they assemble an army to move against Jerusalem. Nehemiah’s advice is to have workers take turns standing guard, and to remind everyone that the God they serve will bless them if they’re persistent and faithful.
Ch. 5 reports that the people had become impoverished during this time, having to go deep into debt and even selling their children into slavery just to keep from starving. But Nehemiah discovers that the real cause of the poverty is the greed of the wealthy among them, who were ignoring the laws of Moses concerning not charging interest to the poor and making loans instead of gifts. So he makes them return everything they had taken, and to stop the confiscation of property.
Meanwhile, in ch. 6 the enemies of the Israelites make up false charges of intent to rebel and choose a king, but Nehemiah calls their bluff and just keeps going. The people knew him as a man of integrity and didn’t listen to the gossip, so that attempt to stop the work failed as well. After yet another attempt to lure him into a trap, the wall is finally finished, and the enemies realized that it was only done with the help of Israel’s God. Then after appointing permanent guards and officials, the text lists the results of a genealogical search for the residents.
Finally, when all was done and the people were permanently settled, they gathered to hear the law read, just as had been done before the exile at one point. Notice in verse 8 that many needed the words translated as they were read aloud, since the exile in Babylon resulted in them only knowing Aramaic rather than Hebrew. Words are not an end in themselves; they are the means to an end, which is understanding. This is why even the translators of the King James Bible stated in their preface that the Word of God must not be locked up in letters and syllables, which ironically many today have done by forbidding the use of any translation since then.
Now in 8:9 the people had been eager to hear the words, which is often not the case with Christians today, and they wept at how far they had fallen from God’s ideal. But Nehemiah tells them that this was to be a time of celebration, because “the joy of the Lord is your strength” per verse 10. The feast of tabernacles described in this section serves the purpose of having the people enact what they heard, to make them participate in the law rather than just hear it. For us, the lesson is to live and breathe what we believe, to make it the focus of our lives instead of an afterthought or last resort.
Now notice 9:2: Among the assembly of faithful Israelites were foreigners, and they were separated from Israelites of pure genetic descent for one particular assembly where the people confessed the sins of their ancestors.
Then the people sign a written covenant to keep all these laws, and after the listing of assigned living areas in ch. 11, they march around the city to dedicate the wall. Then on to some final housecleaning, and a final plea from Nehemiah to God to remember all he had done for his honor.