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Nehemiah

Bible Dictionary

Son of Hachaliah, and apparently of the tribe of Judah. Allthat we know certainly concerning him is contained in thebook which bears his name. We first find him at Shushan, thewinter residence of the kings of Persia, in high office asthe cupbearer of King Artaxerxes Longimanus. In the twentiethyear of the king s reign, i.e. B.C. 445, certain Jews arrivedfrom Judea, and gave Nehemiah a deplorable account of thestate of Jerusalem. He immediately conceived the idea ofgoing to Jerusalem to endeavor to better their state, andobtained the king s consent to his mission. Having receivedhis appointment as governor of Judea, he started upon hisjourney, being under promise to return to Persia within agiven time. Nehemiah s great work was rebuilding, for thefirst time since their destruction by Nebuzar-adan, the wallsof Jerusalem, and restoring that city to its former state anddignity as a fortified town. To this great object thereforeNehemiah directed his whole energies without an hour sunnecessary delay. In a wonderfully short time the wallsseemed to emerge from the heaps of burnt rubbish, end toencircle the city as in the days of old. It soon becameapparent how wisely Nehemiah had acted in hastening on thework. On his very first arrival, as governor, Sanballat andTobiah had given unequivocal proof of their mortification athis appointment; but when the restoration was seen to berapidly progressing, their indignation knew no bounds. Theymade a great conspiracy to fall upon the builders with anarmed force and put a stop to the undertaking. The projectwas defeated by the vigilance and prudence of Nehemiah.Various stratagems were then resorted to get Nehemiah awayfrom Jerusalem and if possible to take his life; but thatwhich most nearly succeeded was the attempt to bring him intosuspicion with the king of Persia, as if he intended to sethimself up as an independent king as soon as the walls werecompleted. The artful letter of Sanballat so-far wrought uponArtaxerxes that he issued a decree stopping the work tillfurther orders. If is probable that at the same time herecalled Nehemiah, or perhaps his leave of absence hadpreviously expired. But after a delay, perhaps of severalyears he was permitted to return to Jerusalem land to crownhis work by repairing the temple and dedicating the walls.During his government Nehemiah firmly repressed the exactionsof the nobles and the usury of the rich, and rescued the poorJews from spoliation and slavery. He refused to receive hislawful allowance as governor from the people, inconsideration of their poverty, during the whole twelve yearsthat he was in office but kept at his own charge a table for150 Jews, at which any who returned from captivity werewelcome. He made most careful provision for the maintenanceof the ministering priests and Levites and for the due andconstant celebration of divine worship. He insisted upon thesanctity of the precincts of the temple being preservedinviolable, and peremptorily ejected the powerful Tobiah fromone of the chambers which Eliashib had assigned to him. Withno less firmness and impartiality he expelled from all sacredfunctions those of the high priest s family who hadcontracted heathen marriages, and rebuked and punished thoseof the common people who had likewise intermarried withforeigners; and lastly, he provided for keeping holy theSabbath day, which was shamefully profaned by many both Jewsand foreign merchants, and by his resolute conduct succeededin repressing the lawless traffic on the day of rest. Beyondthe thirty-second year of Artaxerxes, to which Nehemiah s ownnarrative leads us, we have no account of him whatever.

One of the leaders of the first expedition from Babylon toJerusalem under Zerabbabel. (ezra 2:2; nehemiah 7:7)

Son of Azbuk and ruler of the half part of Beth-zur, whohelped to repair the wall of Jerusalem. (nehemiah 3:18)