Nehemiah

About Nehemiah

Nehemiah, a Jewish official in the Persian royal court, gets permission to return and rebuild Jerusalem's broken walls — and, with Ezra, to rebuild the people around God's Law. The book mixes gritty leadership, fierce opposition, constant prayer, and heartfelt revival. In the Bible's big story, it closes the Old Testament's history: God's people are home, but still waiting for something greater.

Written by

Much of the book is Nehemiah's own memoir, told in the first person; tradition holds that Ezra or Nehemiah shaped the final book.

When

The events run from about 445 to 430 BC, and the book was likely completed not long afterward, around 430 to 400 BC.

Themes

• Prayer joined to hard work
• Courage against opposition
• God's Word renews a people
• The joy of the LORD is strength

Key verses

• Nehemiah 2:17-18¶ Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king’s words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.
• Nehemiah 6:15-16¶ So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days. And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God.
• Nehemiah 8:10Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.