And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.—Nehemiah 8:9

James Parkinson

Foremost among the last great men of Israel’s return are Ezra and Nehemiah. They led thousands back to the land and reformed them. To do so, each had to overcome many human obstacles.

The rebuilding of the Temple (the Second Temple, Zerubbabel’s Temple) had been started early in Cyrus’ reign, then restarted B.C. 520 August 29, and completed 515 March 12 (about 12 days before the equinox) in the sixth year of Darius I of Persia. They began observing the annual Passover at the Temple four weeks after the equinox. {Footnote: Apparently in Medo-Persian times the first day of the first month was reckoned as the new moon on, or next after, the Spring Equinox, which then was typically on March 24 (Julian calendar). But in Roman times (1^st century A.D.) it could be either the new moon nearest, or next after, as the Sanhedrin decided that year.} But over the next half century it would appear that the worship of the Lord had become only half-hearted, ritual had largely been substituted for God’s Law given through Moses.

The foreigners around Jerusalem appealed time and again to the Persian kings to slow up or stop the construction of the temple and the city. They wrote accusations to Xerxes (Ahashverosh) early in his reign, but, after the rise of Queen Esther in year seven, such overt opposition became unwise. His successor, Artaxerxes (Artachshastha), in his seventh year, sent Ezra, the priest and scribe, to Jerusalem with his commission over the Law of God. Thirteen years later he sent Nehemiah with his commission to rebuild the wall and gates, and to build his own house. Thus was revived the worship of the Lord from the heart.

Ezra

Ezra was a priest, in direct descent from such faithful high priests as Hilkiah in the days of Josiah king of Judah, Zadok in the days of David king of all Israel, and Eleazar and Aaron in the days of Moses. He was also a scribe, wise in the Law of Moses. As such, he combined the two works prized most by the later Sadducees (Zadokites, the priesthood for temple worship) and Pharisees (doctors of the Law).

Ezra asked King Artaxerxes to send him to Jerusalem, with Levites and other Israelites among the captives, to teach Israel the statutes and ordinances of the Law of the Lord. Written in Aramaic, these are the essentials of the king’s decree: “Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heavens, perfect and so forth. I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and their priests and the Levites, in my realm, that are minded of their own free will to go to Jerusalem, go with thee. Forasmuch as thou art sent of the king and his seven counselors, to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of thy God which is in thy hand, and to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counselors have freely offered unto the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem … Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heavens, let it be done exactly for the house of the God of heavens; for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons? Also we certify you, that touching any of the priests and Levites, the singers, porters, Nethinim, or servants of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose tribute, custom, or toll upon them. And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God that is in thy hand, appoint magistrates and judges, who may judge all the people that are beyond the River, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye him that knoweth them not. And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed upon him with all diligence, whether it be unto death, or to banishment [Aramaic: rooting out], or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment” [Ezra 7:12-16, ARV]. Abundant funding was provided by the king for the sacrifices and for maintenance of the temple.

About 1,500 Israelites began the journey from Babylon, and along the way another 258 joined them. When the returnees arrived at Jerusalem, they offered a bullock and a goat for each of the twelve tribes of Israel (perhaps suggestive of the Atonement Day sacrifices in Leviticus 16), eight rams for each tribe, and seventy-seven lambs total (perhaps suggestive of the seven-day consecration of the priesthood in Leviticus 8).

Some four months later the princes of Israel came to Ezra to tell him the people, the priests, and the Levites had taken foreign wives, contrary to the Law (Ezra 9:1-2; Exodus 34:12-16). Moreover, some of the princes and their deputies were the worst offenders. As Ezra prayed, and confessed the iniquity of Israel to God, the faithful gathered to him at the temple. Shecaniah, a man who had brought three hundred others with him out of Elam (the lowlands of western Iran), urged that the Israelites should divorce their foreign wives and send them away with their children (born or unborn). Ezra then required the priests, Levites, and all Israel divorce the foreign wives and send them away. With only four dissenters, seventeen priests, six Levites, four singers and gate-keepers, and about eighty-eight other Israelites put away their foreign wives. Nevertheless, as it was early in the winter rainy season, the process was allowed to take three months, concluding Nisan 1 (in April). The dissenters were to leave Israel and leave their property behind.

To the modern mind it may seem harsh to require those who had married foreign women to either leave the community of Israel or divorce the foreign wives. On the other hand, would any of us want his banker to marry a daughter of the underworld? Should the prime minister or the president of a country marry the daughter of a foreign intelligence service? Would a Jewish man marry a Nazi advocate, a member of the Palestinian organization Hamas, or any other group attempting to annihilate Jews from the face of the earth?

It might be argued that both Rahab from Jericho and Ruth from Moab had been foreign wives, and all the kings of Judah had descended from them. True, but each voluntarily left her own culture and adopted the culture of the faithful in Israel (Matthew 1:5; Ruth 4:13-22).

On the other hand, Jacob’s brother Esau took daughters of the Hittites for wives, “and they were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.” David married the daughter of a foreign king, and their son Absalom took away David’s throne and tried to take away his life. Solomon married many foreign women, and “his wives turned away his heart after other gods.” Ahab married Jezebel, daughter of the king of Sidon, which led to famine in Israel and to the destruction of all their children (Genesis 26:34-35; 2 Samuel 3:3; 1Kings 11:1-13, 16:32).

There is a lesson for Christians today. As the apostle Paul writes, The widow “is free to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.” That is good advice for widows and everyone else as well (1 Corinthians 7:39; 2 Corinthians 6:14).

Nehemiah

Nehemiah also had been among the captivity of Judah, but he had risen to prominence in the government of Persia, as cupbearer to king Artaxerxes I. While Nehemiah did not hold political or military office, he was in a position of highest personal trust. {Footnote: The two most trusted positions in the royal household were necessarily the baker who prepared the food, and the butler, or cup-bearer, who served the food. Thus, when Pharaoh Ammenemes III of Egypt got a brief ptomaine poisoning, both butler and baker were jailed Genesis 40:1-3).}

When some men came from Judah and reported the poverty and affliction there, and that the city of Jerusalem was broken down—a slum—Nehemiah’s heart was saddened. He mourned and then prayed to the Lord. He first confessed the sins of the sons of Israel, and then recounted God’s promise to scatter Israel when they disobeyed, but then to regather Israel when they repented: “If ye trespass, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples: but if ye return unto me, and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts were in the uttermost part of the heavens, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen, to cause my name to dwell there. Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand. O Jehovah {Footnote: Sopherim changed to, O Lord,} , I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who delight to fear thy name; and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man” (Nehemiah 1:8-11).

No more than four months later Artaxerxes the king noticed that Nehemiah was uncharacteristically sad and said, “This is nothing else but sorrow of heart.” Nehemiah replied, Let the king live out a full life, but the city of my family’s graves lies in waste. So the king {Footnote: Where Nehemiah 2:6 says, “the queen also sitting by him,” it could possibly imply Esther, the queen mother.} sent with him letters to the governors to allow him to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls, and at least one house, at government expense.

Sanballat was then governor of Samaria,¹  Thus, Sanballat the Horonite was likely not quite middle-aged in the time of Nehemiah. If he was from Horonaim in Moab (rather than Beth-Horon in Ephraim), then likely he was a Moabite, and like Tobiah the Ammonite, ineligible to enter the temple. [Deuteronomy 23:3-5; Nehemiah 13:1].}and Tobiah the Ammonite was his assistant. Any assistance given to Jerusalem would be seen as a threat to their domination of the region. But here was Nehemiah, with authorizations from the king himself and captains of his army. A direct attack would be virtual suicide. So once the wall of Jerusalem began to be rebuilt, they ridiculed it and suggested they were rebelling against the king. But Nehemiah told them they had no rights and privileges in Jerusalem.

When the wall was already half finished, Sanballat and Tobiah put together an alliance with Arabians, Ammonites, and Philistines, to attack, slay, and destroy. Nehemiah countered by arming half the available manpower, while the other half continued building the wall. So Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian {Footnote: Sargon II of Assyria, in his seventh year (seven years after the fall of Samaria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel), says he deported Arab survivors of his battles “and settled them in Samaria.” ANE, Vol. I, p. 196. Geshem may have been a chief of the descendants of those deportees.} shelved the military option, and repeatedly urged Nehemiah to confer with them in the plain toward Joppa expecting they could assassinate him. Four times he replied, “Don’t bother me; I’m busy.” The fifth time Sanballat sent an open letter accusing the Jews of rebelling and preparing to name Nehemiah their king. Nehemiah sent a return message, saying, “You made it up yourself.” Sanballat and Tobiah then hired Shemaiah, a Jew, to appear fearful and urge Nehemiah to barricade himself inside the temple from Sanballat. Nehemiah saw through that too. Tobiah sent letters to put him in fear; he ignored them. Because “the people had a mind to work,” the wall was completed in just fifty-two days. The next week the 42,360 of Judah were settled in their homes.

But there were internal problems to contend with. The harvest had been sparse that year so grain prices would have been high. Large families went into debt, mortgaging their farms, and even selling their children into bondage to the wealthier Jews. Nehemiah called them all together to tell the wealthy that he himself had previously bought back the Jewish slaves from the Gentiles but had not held them in bondage to himself.² Then the wealthy, faced with the multitude, agreed to release the children from bondage, give back the farms, and refund the 1% interest they had charged.

Tobiah and his son had each married Jewish women so some of the Jews were on Tobiah’s side. They even acted as spies for Tobiah against Nehemiah. After Nehemiah returned to Persia, the high priest allied himself with Tobiah the Ammonite, took away the treasure room of the Levites, and converted it into spacious living quarters for Tobiah. When Nehemiah returned, he angrily threw out Tobiah’s furniture, restored the room for the Levites’ tithe, recalled the Levites from their refuges, and appointed another priest, a scribe, and two Levites over the treasuries.

Twenty days after the wall was completed, the eight-day feast of tabernacles (Sukkoth, booths) was kept for the first time since Joshua died, a thousand years before. Two days afterward the sons of Israel were fasting and confessing their sins, the Levites read aloud the Law of the Lord for three hours, and then they recounted for another three hours the Lord’s protection from the time he called Abram out of Ur in Chaldea, to the coming into the Promised Land, and then the disobedience of Israel in the land for which they had been dispersed and impoverished. Thereupon they all made a covenant to be faithful, and eighty-four priests, Levites, and princes set their seal to it.

Again there is a lesson for Christians today: When one is discouraged by circumstances, consider what is right and pleasing to the Lord. When Nehemiah heard of the difficulties of others, he put his life on the line to ask the king for permission to do what is right. There was opposition from without and opposition from within. Compromise was made to seem the easiest way to handle problems. But right is right; by diligently pursuing what was right, Nehemiah avoided mental problems and got the job done. It can work for Christians today.

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1. James B. Pritchard, The Ancient Near East [ANE], Vol. I, p. 279-281, gives an Aramaic-language letter of the Jews in Elephantine, written in the 17^th year of Darius II, month 8, day 20 (BC 407 Nov. 25), referring to a letter written “to Delaiah and Shelemiah, the sons of Sanballat the governor of Samaria.

2. In his twelve years as governor, Nehemiah took no taxes from the people for himself (Nehemiah 5:14-18).