Nehemiah Rebuilds the Walls
Nehemiah is cupbearer to Artaxerxes at Susa when travellers bring news that Jerusalem's walls are still broken down and its gates burned. He weeps, fasts, and then waits four months for an opening — and when the king notices his face is sad, he is afraid, prays on the spot, and asks for leave, timber and letters of passage.
He inspects the ruins by night, tells no one, and then puts the case to the officials. The work is organised family by family, each household taking the stretch of wall nearest its own house.
The opposition is unrelenting — ridicule from Sanballat and Tobiah, threats of attack that put half the workforce on guard duty with weapons in hand, four invitations to a meeting Nehemiah recognises as an ambush, and a hired prophet. The wall is finished in fifty-two days, and even their enemies conclude the work was done with God's help.
Where in scripture
[1] The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, [2] Hanani, one of my brothers, came, he and certain men out of Judah; and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped, who were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. [3] They said to me, “The remnant who are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.” [4] When I heard these words, I sat down and wept, and mourned several days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven, …
Nehemiah 1:1–11 — opening verses
[1] In the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, when wine was before him, I picked up the wine, and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad before in his presence. [2] The king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart.” Then I was very much afraid. [3] I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why shouldn’t my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates have been consumed with fire?” [4] Then the king said to me, “What is your request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. [5] I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may build it.” …
Nehemiah 2:1–20 — opening verses
[1] But when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry, and was very indignant, and mocked the Jews. [2] He spoke before his brothers and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, since they are burned?” [3] Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, “What they are building, if a fox climbed up it, he would break down their stone wall.” [4] “Hear, our God; for we are despised; and turn back their reproach on their own head, give them up for a plunder in a land of captivity; [5] don’t cover their iniquity, and don’t let their sin be blotted out from before you; for they have insulted the builders.” …
Nehemiah 4:1–23 — opening verses
[1] Now when it was reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, and to Geshem the Arabian, and to the rest of our enemies, that I had built the wall, and that there was no breach left in it (though even to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates) [2] Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together in the villages in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to harm me. [3] I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work, so that I can’t come down. Why should the work cease, while I leave it, and come down to you?” [4] They sent to me four times like this; and I answered them the same way. [5] Then Sanballat sent his servant to me the same way the fifth time with an open letter in his hand, …
Nehemiah 6:1–19 — opening verses
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, a public-domain translation.
