09/07/2024
Nehemiah, was an Israelite prophet and political leader who supervised the rebuilding of Jerusalem in the mid-5th century BCE after his release from captivity by the Persian king Artaxerxes I. He also instituted extensive moral and liturgical reforms in rededicating the Israelites to YAHAWAH.
Nehemiah was the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes I at a time when Judah had been partly repopulated by Israelites released from their exile in Babylonia.
The Temple at Jerusalem had been rebuilt, but the Israelites were dispirited and defenseless against their heathen (Samaritans, Ammonites, Arabs and Philistines) neighbours. Nehemiah obtained permission from Artaxerxes to journey to Palestine to help rebuild its ruined structures.
He was provided with an es**rt and with documents that guaranteed the assistance of Judah’s Persian officials. Nehemiah journeyed to Jerusalem and aroused the people to the necessity of repopulating the city and rebuilding its walls.
Nehemiah encountered hostility from the local officials in neighbouring districts, but in the space of 52 days the Israelites under his direction succeeded in rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls.
He then took measures to repopulate the city and purify the Israelite community, enforcing the cancellation of debt, assisting Ezra in promulgating the law of Moses, and enforcing the divorce of Israelite men from their heathen wives.
Nehemiah 1:1-3
[1]The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,
[2]That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.
[3]And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
By: ITAL Knowledge
