UNROLL
Dawn from the valley below Jerusalem: in the lower third, a plain rough-stone wall with a flat, level top runs along the ridge above olive terraces, one plain gate standing open and a few small figures going in with a donkey, a small plain temple above the wall with a thread of smoke, under a calm, clear, empty sky.

The Book of

Nehemiah Intro

A king’s cupbearer, a broken wall, and a people rebuilt by prayer, hard work and God’s Word.

Before chapter 1≈ 2 min13 chapters

Images are artistic interpretations.

In 30 seconds

A cupbearer hears Jerusalem lies open, and weeps.

He prays, and the king sends him.

The people build the wall in 52 days.

Ezra reads the Law, and they weep, then feast.

They promise. They fail. They still wait.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

Who wrote it

Nehemiah

Cupbearer, governor, and the ‘I’ of this book

  • Ezra and Nehemiah were one book in the Hebrew Bible.Jewish tradition
  • Much of it is Nehemiah’s own memoir, told as ‘I’.Nehemiah 1:1
  • He was cupbearer to Artaxerxes I, then governor of Judah.Nehemiah 5:14
  • Put together by about 400 BC, many think by Ezra.Most scholars

How it’s built

Three returns

First return538 BC · Zerubbabel ·Ezra 1–2The templefinished516 BC · Ezra 3–6Quiet yearsEsther’s story, about483–473Second return458 BC · Ezra · Ezra7–10Third return445 BC · Nehemiah ·the walls

Whiteboard

Nehemiah tells the third return: thirteen years after Ezra came, a wall for a people who had a temple and the Law but no protection. Then Ezra reads, and the two men stand together.

Big themes

Four threads to follow

Where it happens

EuphratesSusaBabylonJerusalem

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

From Susa to Jerusalem

Nehemiah served at the Persian winter palace in Susa. The road west ran about 1,000 miles, by way of the Euphrates, to a small, poor province and a city with no wall.

Meet the cast

Five people to know

Watch for

the joy of the LORD is your strength

Nehemiah 8:10

Start reading

Question

Quick question

The man who rebuilt Jerusalem’s wall was no builder by trade.

What was Nehemiah’s job at the Persian court?

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