Originally a single book, Ezra-Nehemiah, 15th century rabbis separated this final historical book of the Tanakh into two. It mades sense, as the books cover two different, albeit consecutive periods. Ezra was a third person account of the rebuilding of the Temple and the “purifying” of the Jewish people by an enforced ban on intermarriage. Nehemiah, is told in first person and expands on the no intermarriage theme, to create a no gentiles allowed, walled city, Jerusalem, as the capital of the restored Jewish state. Nehemiah himself, if he existed (there’s quite the debate over this), was the first royal appointed governor of the restored Jewish nation.
- Nehemiah, the Persian king’s “cup-bearer” (kind of a combo sommelier and poison taster), is chatting with some noble friends recently returned from Jerusalem. They note that the city is being rebuilt but that it’s walls are in ruins and no attempt seems to be being made to rebuild them. This is, apparently, very personally upsetting for Nehemiah, as he spends the rest of the chapter carrying on about it, both to his friends and in a monologue to God.
- One day, while serving wine to the king and his consort, the king notices and comments that Nehemiah seems out of sorts – not ill, but clearly troubled. Nehemiah explains his preoccupation with Jerusalem and asks the king’s permission to go see for himself. The king grants it, along with letters of introduction, and sends a security detail with him. He goes to Jerusalem, spends a day surveying the crumbled walls, then goes to the leaders of the community and introduces himself and exhorts them to rebuild the walls for the safety and security of the people.
- Everybody, like, really, everybody, gets in on rebuilding the wall. Today’s passage enumerates dozens and dozens of different residents and which part of the wall and its gates they were responsible for beginning to restore. We learn about the key points that are under reconstruction – the Hundreds Tower, Hananel’s Tower, Fish Gate, Jeshanah Gate, Broad Wall, Tower of Ovens, Dung Gate, Fountain Gate, House of Warriors, Water Gate, Horse Gate, East Gate, Muster Gate, Sheep Gate, and various homes that backed against the wall. By the end of this chapter, the wall is rebuilt to half its original height, all the way around. A bunch of Samarians make fun of them and their endeavors.
- The Samarians and Ammonites are back – that’s the construction mafia we dealt with in the last book, Ezra. They’re not at all happy that the wall is being rebuilt, and they take to first taunting the workers and residents and then making death threats. Nehemiah sees it all, reassures the Jewish people that they will be protected – by God and him, the latter in the form of using the king’s military force that is still with him, as well as arming the workers themselves.
- Nehemiah discovers that there are wealthy Jewish landowners and nobles who had been oppressing the poorer Jews in Jerusalem and demands that they give the poor back their property and stop taxing them. Seemingly without protest, they all agree, and he puts the priests in charge of making sure it happens. What’s not clear, that I’m now wondering about… is why there were Jews, poor or wealthy, still in Jerusalem. Does this mean that only some Jews were sent into exile in Babylonia? Were these Jews who pretended not to be Jews so they could stay? Is the exile story exaggerated?
- As the wall nears completion, Nehemiah starts receiving invitations from “previous” enemies, the construction mafia of the area, surrounding Jerusalem to come meet them and celebrate the finishing of the wall. Realizing it’s a trap, he declines, over and over again. He even finds that there are people in Jerusalem who are secretly in their employ who are trying to trap him as well. But he perseveres and the wall is completed.
- The wall rebuilt, Nehemiah opines that first and foremost is security of the city, and sets up a rotating watch of all the gates and streets. Everyone gets to participate in some way. And, now that the wall is there and the city secure, it’s time to rebuild the homes and businesses. He does an inventory of people and assets, lists them all… 42,360 residents, 7.337 slaves, and… 245 singers. Well that’s an interesting category to break off. And that’s where today’s chapter breaks off.
- Nehemiah wants to restore religious traditions to the people now that Jerusalem is being restored. He notes that people have stopped celebrating most of the traditional holidays, and gathers everyone in town together for the Sukkoth festival. Over several days, he reads to them from the Torah, and explains the meaning of the ancient Hebrew and Aramaic in local lingo, in terms they can understand, and talks to them of the joy it can bring rather than being a burden. It ends up being a big festival with eating and drinking, as it was intended to be from the start.
- After four days of feasting and merriment, the priests decide it’s time to kill the mood. With the people all gathered, they lead a mass confession, followed by a mass prostration, followed by a long diatribe about the history of the Jewish people and how they got to this point – Egyptian slavery, Red Sea, forty years in the desert, Mt. Sinai, Golden Calf, idol worship, going astray, rebellion, killing of prophets, exile, and more. They’re still going as this chapter winds up… stay tuned, I imagine they’ll get to the point in the next one.
- Having listed off all the things that the community has done wrong for the last centuries, the leaders, who are listed off ad nauseum, sign a pledge to change all that. They recommit to spiritual and ethical practices, they set up the tithing system, the various types of offerings and annual fees to the Temple. Basically, a lot of it is a funding document to keep the Temple and its priests going.
- The pledge document signed, it’s time to determine who wants/gets/has to live in Jerusalem. All the leaders and officers, obviously, but there’s not enough room for everyone in the community, nor do all of them want to live there. So they draw lots for ten percent of the community to relocated into the city. The rest are to remain behind in the surrounding towns and countryside. We, of course, get a list of the more important people who get to move in and who get to stay behind.
- First, a listing of all the priests and Levites brought in to live in Jerusalem. Then they’re assigned, in teams, to the different entry gates (see chapter 3), and each team takes on blessing the gate. Following that, two choirs are assembled, each to wend their way from one gate to another, singing praises of thanksgiving – one goes clockwise, one goes counterclockwise. Quite the production number!
- As, I suppose, befits the final chapter of any self-important, nationalistic, exclusionary sort, we return to the first person as Nehemiah recounts to God all the evil things he discovered going on in Jerusalem when he arrived, and how he, himself, put things right, and umm, hey God, just want you to remember this whole list of how righteous I am and you gotta give me all the credit.