Old Testament · History · book 16 of 66 · 2 min read
The book of Nehemiah
A civil servant takes leave from a Persian court to rebuild a wall in fifty-two days, and the book is as much about opposition management as about construction.
“Don't be grieved, for the joy of Yahweh is your strength.”
At a glance
- Chapters
- 13
- Author
- Anonymous; built around Nehemiah's first-person memoir
- Written
- Likely fourth century BC
- Written for
- The same community, now rebuilding its walls
- Themes
- rebuilding, opposition, organisation, public reading
What it is about
Nehemiah is the most practical book in the Old Testament. A cupbearer to the Persian king hears Jerusalem's walls are down, asks for leave and materials, arrives, inspects the damage at night, organises the families by section and starts.
The opposition is constant and varied — ridicule, threatened attack, legal complaint, an attempt to lure him to a meeting, a hired prophet advising him to hide. He answers each one and keeps building, and the wall goes up in fifty-two days.
The second half is Ezra reading the law aloud to the assembled people, an all-day public reading that produces first weeping and then a feast, with the instruction that the joy of the Lord is their strength.
Where to start
Chapter 2, where he inspects the walls at night and then makes his case. It is the best short study of getting something difficult started in the Bible.
The chapters worth knowing
- Nehemiah 2 — The night inspection of the walls before anybody is told what he intends.
- Nehemiah 4 — Building with one hand and a weapon in the other, under continuous threat.
- Nehemiah 8 — The law read aloud from morning to midday, the people weeping, and the instruction to feast instead.
What people get wrong about it
That the famous line is about mood. It is said to people weeping at hearing the law, and the instruction attached is to eat well, drink something sweet and send food to anyone who has none.
From this book
Questions
How long did it take Nehemiah to rebuild the wall?
Fifty-two days, according to chapter 6 — under continuous opposition, with the workers organised family by family along their own sections.
What does the joy of the Lord is your strength mean?
It is said to a crowd weeping after hearing the law read aloud, and it comes with practical instructions: eat, drink something sweet, and send portions to those who have nothing prepared.