Nehemiah

No. 53 Nehemiah 3:13-27
Nehemiah was a Jewish official in the Persian court who got permission to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the city wall, still in ruins more than a century after Babylon broke it. Chapter 3 is the work...
No. 74 Nehemiah 8:1-6
The wall is rebuilt, the exiles are home, and the community gathers in the square before the Water Gate. This passage is the moment Ezra the scribe brings out the book of the law and reads it aloud, and it is...
No. 123 Nehemiah 1:1-11
Nehemiah is a Jew serving in the Persian court at Susa, in a position of real access. This passage is how the book opens: his brother Hanani arrives from Judah, and Nehemiah asks him about the exiles who...
No. 169 Nehemiah 3:1-5
An earlier reading in this series covered the middle of Nehemiah's building roster, the stretch along the southern wall. This passage is how the list opens, and the order is deliberate.
No. 241 Nehemiah 9:16-20
This is part of the long prayer of confession in Nehemiah, prayed by the community back in Jerusalem after the exile. Ezra has read them the law, they have seen how far their ancestors drifted from it, and now...
No. 263 Nehemiah 8:12-18
Ezra has just read the law of Moses aloud to the whole assembly in Jerusalem, and the people have understood it, some of them for the first time in their lives. This passage is what they do next, and it turns...
No. 351 Nehemiah 8:7-11
Ezra has read the law of Moses aloud to the whole assembly, and this passage describes two things that happened next. The first is quiet and important: a group of Levites, named one by one, moved among the...
No. 374 Nehemiah 7:31-35
This is one of the least promising passages in the Bible to read devotionally. It is a register of numbers: the men of Michmas, a hundred twenty-two; the men of Bethel and Ai, a hundred twenty-three; the men...
No. 558 Nehemiah 12:1-7
This is a list of the priests and Levites who came back from exile in the first wave, with Zerubbabel and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra, Amariah, and a couple dozen more names, the chiefs of the priests in...
No. 630 Nehemiah 7:57-61
Buried in a long register of the exiles who returned to Judah is a poignant note about a particular group of people. They came up from various towns in Babylon, the text says, but they could not prove their...
No. 728 Nehemiah 9:1-8
The wall of Jerusalem is finished, the law has been read aloud, and now the returned exiles gather for a day of confession, in sackcloth with dust on their heads. They separate themselves, and they stand and...
No. 733 Nehemiah 10:1-16
Nehemiah has led the returned exiles through the reading of the law and a long day of confession, and now the chapter that follows does something the emotion of confession does not do on its own. The people...
No. 980 Nehemiah 7:46-56
This is a list buried in the register of those who returned from exile: the temple servants, called the Nethinim, the given ones. Verse after verse of names, the children of Ziha, of Hasupha, of Tabbaoth, of...
No. 1028 Nehemiah 7:16-20
This is a fragment of the long register Nehemiah copied out, the roll of those who came back from exile, family by family, with their numbers. The sons of Bebai, six hundred twenty-eight; the sons of Azgad,...
No. 1035 Nehemiah 12:38-47
The wall of Jerusalem is finished, and Nehemiah leads the dedication. Two great choirs of thanksgiving march in opposite directions along the top of the rebuilt wall, priests with trumpets, Levites with...
No. 1049 Nehemiah 2:6-10
Nehemiah, cupbearer to the Persian king, has asked permission to go rebuild Jerusalem, and the king grants it. Nehemiah presses further, asking for official letters to the governors so he can travel safely,...
No. 1397 Nehemiah 9:21-25
In the great prayer of confession the Levites lead, they recount God's faithfulness to Israel in the wilderness and beyond. Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, they pray, and they lacked nothing;...
No. 1500 Nehemiah 7:26-30
This passage is part of a long register of the people who returned from exile to rebuild Jerusalem, listed by their home towns: the men of Bethlehem and Netophah, one hundred and eighty-eight; the men of...
No. 1566 Nehemiah 4:6-11
The rebuilding of Jerusalem's wall is going well, joined together to half its height, because the people have a mind to work. But their enemies, Sanballat, Tobiah, and others, are enraged that the work is...
No. 1578 Nehemiah 12:27-37
The wall of Jerusalem is finished, and Nehemiah gathers the people for its dedication, a great celebration of thanksgiving. The Levites and singers are sought out from all their villages; the priests and...
No. 1613 Nehemiah 13:1-9
Returning to Jerusalem after an absence, Nehemiah discovers a scandal. Eliashib the priest, who was in charge of the storerooms of God's house, had allied himself with Tobiah, an enemy of God's people, and had...
No. 1663 Nehemiah 9:31-38
The Levites' long prayer of confession comes to its close. In your great mercies, they pray, you did not make a full end of us, nor forsake us, for you are a gracious and merciful God. They acknowledge God's...
No. 1871 Nehemiah 10:28-39
After hearing the law read and confessing their sins, the returned exiles bind themselves in a solemn, written covenant to obey God. And it is not vague. They spell it out in detail: they will not intermarry...
No. 1879 Nehemiah 3:6-12
The account of rebuilding Jerusalem's wall reads like a roll call of ordinary people, each repairing a section. Joiada and Meshullam repaired the old gate; goldsmiths and perfumers made repairs; rulers of...
No. 1973 Nehemiah 2:11-20
Arriving in Jerusalem, Nehemiah does not rush into action. For three days he says nothing of his plans; then he rises by night with a few men and quietly inspects the ruined walls and burned gates, surveying...
No. 1995 Nehemiah 12:8-21
Among the lists of Levites and priests who served in Jerusalem after the return from exile, a small detail stands out: Mattaniah, it notes, was over the songs of thanksgiving, he and his brothers. Amid the...
No. 2018 Nehemiah 7:62-73
The long census of those who returned from exile ends with a quiet, hopeful line. After all the names and numbers, the passage concludes: so the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the...
No. 2147 Nehemiah 7:1-5
With the wall of Jerusalem finally built, Nehemiah appoints those who will oversee the city, and his reason for choosing one of them is worth noting. I put my brother Hanani, he says, and Hananiah the governor...
No. 2288 Nehemiah 13:23-31
Nehemiah confronts a serious problem among the returned exiles: they had married foreign women who drew them toward the idolatry of the surrounding peoples, so that their children could not even speak the...
No. 2358 Nehemiah 13:15-22
Nehemiah, back in Jerusalem, sees the Sabbath eroding: men treading wine presses, loading donkeys, merchants from Tyre selling fish and wares on the holy day. He confronts the nobles, then acts. He orders the...
No. 2512 Nehemiah 5:6-11
Nehemiah hears the cry of the poor among his own people: in a time of hardship, the wealthier Jews have been lending at interest to their struggling brothers, taking their fields and even their children as...
No. 2621 Nehemiah 6:1-7
With the wall of Jerusalem nearly finished, Nehemiah's enemies change tactics. Sanballat and Geshem invite him to meet in a village on the plain, but Nehemiah knows they mean to harm him. His answer is a model...
No. 2758 Nehemiah 9:9-15
This is part of a great national confession, and the Levites pray it by retelling their own history. You saw our fathers' affliction in Egypt and heard their cry at the sea. You divided the waters and threw...
No. 2809 Nehemiah 5:12-19
Nehemiah has just persuaded the nobles to stop exploiting their own poor, and he seals the promise with an oath and a vivid gesture, shaking out the fold of his garment as a curse on anyone who breaks it. Then...
No. 3099 Nehemiah 11:7-14
This lists the men of Benjamin and the priests who settled in Jerusalem after the exile, family by family, with their numbers and their overseers, including many able men for the work of the house of God.
No. 3144 Nehemiah 3:28-32
This is a section of the list of those who rebuilt Jerusalem's wall: priests, goldsmiths, merchants, gatekeepers, each repairing a stretch of the wall. And a phrase keeps recurring: each one made repairs...
No. 3191 Nehemiah 11:22-36
This is a list of Levites and singers responsible for the service of God's house, of officials, and of the many villages where the people of Judah and Benjamin resettled after the exile, town after town, from...
No. 3204 Nehemiah 13:10-14
Nehemiah discovers that the portions due to the Levites had not been given, so the Levites and singers who did the work of the temple had each gone off to their own fields to survive. He confronts the...
No. 3230 Nehemiah 11:15-21
This is a list of the Levites, gatekeepers, and temple servants who settled in Jerusalem. Among the names is a lovely detail: Mattaniah, who was the leader of the praise, who gave thanks in prayer. And there...
No. 3326 Nehemiah 4:12-23
Under threat of attack, Nehemiah does two things at once. He trusts God: do not be afraid of them; remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families. And in the same breath he takes...
No. 3482 Nehemiah 2:1-5
Nehemiah, cupbearer to the king, cannot hide his grief over ruined Jerusalem, and when the king notices and asks why he looks so sad, Nehemiah is afraid, for showing sorrow before the king was dangerous. But...
No. 3638 Nehemiah 5:1-5
A bitter cry rises among the returned exiles, not against outside enemies but against their own wealthier brothers. The poor are being crushed: famine, heavy taxes, and debt have forced them to mortgage their...
No. 3798 Nehemiah 7:11-15
This passage is part of a long register of the families who returned from exile to Judah, listed by name and number. To a modern reader it is just a column of figures, so many of this family, so many of that....
No. 3886 Nehemiah 11:1-6
As Jerusalem is being resettled, a need arises: the holy city has been rebuilt, but few people live in it. So lots are cast to bring one in ten of the people to dwell in Jerusalem, and the passage adds a warm...
No. 3900 Nehemiah 7:41-45
This part of the register of returned exiles counts not only the priests and Levites but also the singers and the gatekeepers, each group listed and numbered. It is easy to pass over such a list, but notice...
No. 4020 Nehemiah 6:15-19
Against relentless opposition, the wall of Jerusalem is finished, in just fifty-two days. And the reaction of the enemies is telling: they were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived...
No. 4037 Nehemiah 12:22-26
This passage records the ordered arrangement of the Levites, priests, singers, and gatekeepers who served in the rebuilt temple, and it notes their appointed task: to praise and give thanks according to the...
No. 4110 Nehemiah 7:6-10
This passage begins a register of the exiles who returned from Babylon to Jerusalem, those who went up out of the captivity and came back, each to his own town, to rebuild a ruined homeland. Behind the list of...
No. 4140 Nehemiah 4:1-5
When Sanballat and Tobiah hear that the Jews are rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, they respond with contempt and ridicule. What are these feeble Jews doing? Sanballat sneers; will they finish in a day? will...
No. 4144 Nehemiah 9:26-30
In a great prayer of confession, the Levites recount the long, painful history of Israel's dealings with God, and the pattern that recurs again and again: the people rebelled, cast God's law behind them, and...
No. 4193 Nehemiah 7:36-40
This passage is part of a long register of those who returned from exile in Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem, listed group by group, family by family, with their numbers carefully recorded. To a casual reader it...
No. 4195 Nehemiah 10:17-27
This passage is a list of names, the leaders of the people who set their seal to a solemn covenant to follow God. After returning from exile and hearing God's law read, the people committed themselves afresh...
No. 4207 Nehemiah 7:21-25
This passage continues the register of those who returned from exile, listing small groups by their ancestral families: the children of Ater, ninety-eight; the children of Hashum, three hundred twenty-eight;...
No. 4301 Nehemiah 6:8-14
As Nehemiah rebuilds Jerusalem's walls, his enemies try every tactic to stop him, including intimidation. They spread false reports to frighten him, and they hire a man to lure him into hiding in the temple...