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Nehemiah is a cup-bearer to king Artaxerxes I of Persia – an important official position. At his own request Nehemiah is sent to Jerusalem as governor of Yehud, the official Persian name for Judah. Jerusalem had been conquered and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC and Nehemiah finds it still in ruins.
The Rebuilding of Jerusalem. In the 20th year of Artaxerxes I (445 or 444 BC), [7] Nehemiah was cup-bearer to the king. [8] Learning that the remnant of Jews in Judah were in distress and that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down, he asked the king for permission to return and rebuild the city, [9] around 13 years after Ezra's arrival in Jerusalem in ca. 458 BC. [10]
Nehemiah before the king Artaxerxes I. Illustration of Book of Nehemiah Chapter 2. Biblical illustrations by Jim Padgett. The scene of this part is the banqueting hall of King Artaxerxes, where Nehemiah carries out his duties as a cup-bearer. [9] [10] H. E. Ryle suggests that Nehemiah is the king's "favourite cup-bearer". [11]
The Neo-Babylonian Empire under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar II occupied the Kingdom of Judah between 597–586 BCE and destroyed the First Temple in Jerusalem. [3] According to the Hebrew Bible, the last king of Judah, Zedekiah, was forced to watch his sons put to death, then his own eyes were put out and he was exiled to Babylon (2 Kings 25).
He incited the Ammonites to hinder Nehemiah's efforts to rebuild Jerusalem. [3] [4] He, along with Sanballat the Horonite and Geshem the Arabian, resorted to a stratagem and, pretending to wish a conference with Nehemiah, invited him to meet them at Ono, Benjamin. Four times they made the request, and every time Nehemiah refused to come.
The original text of this chapter is in Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 18 verses. Daniel Smith-Christopher argues that "the presence of Ezra and the virtual absence of Nehemiah support the argument that chapter 8 is among [several] displaced chapters from the Ezra material", and suggests that "the original place for [this chapter] would logically have been between Ezra 8 and 9".
Nehemiah was passionate for the glory of God, so even while driven by empathy, before he formulated any plan, his first response was to pray to God. [16] Eight times in his prayer, Nehemiah uses the term servant to refer himself, the Jewish people or Moses, also to begin and to close his prayer, showing his 'reverential submission' to God. [17]
Three sources possibly refer to the Geshem who opposed Nehemiah. A 5th-century B.C. Aramaic inscription from Egypt refers to a certain "Qaunu, the son Gashmu, the king of Kedar." [1] Kedar was one of the main Arab groups in this period. Moreover, both a contemporary account and a king list from Dedan mention Gashmu. If Nehemiah's "Geshem the ...