Another form of trouble now required the leader’s attention. The people who were labouring at the walls had been obliged to abandon their usual occupations, many of them to leave their homes and fields. The enemy overran the country dis- tricts at will, and very likely plundered the homes of those who were working at the walls. Supplies were getting scarce for such people, so that they had to mortgage their fields and vineyards and houses, either to get food or to pay the king’s tribute. Many ἢ pe their aide for debt, and these were sold as slaves. The wealthier classes had taken advantage of the necessity of the poor. Neh. was justly angry, and promptly summoned the offenders before a public meeting. He reviewed his own generous course, and appealed to them to be liberal, restoring the mortgaged land, and remitting a part of the debt which the people were unable to pay. It is pleasant to know that his request was responded to cordially ; and oe eee took an oath to execute their pledge ch. 5).
The walls were finished amidst such trying diffi- culties, and there only remained the doors to be set Bp in the gates to make the city’s defences com- plete. But Nehemiah’s enemies had not yet given up. Having failed to intimidate him by threats, or cheouraye him by ridicule, or take him un- awares by force, they now tried cunning. Four times they invited him to meet them in conference in the valley of Ono in the land of Benjamin; but Neh. replied that he could not leave the great work he was engaged in (6'). A fifth messenger came with an open letter + from Sanballat saying that it
* The Heb. text in 46 (Eng. 412) is obscure and confused. The LXX furnishes a clear and satisfactory reading: ‘And it was so that when the Judwans who dwelt by them came, they said to us, They are coming up from all places against us. The first news of the intended assault was brought by the ee προ γε at remote parts.
is said that an open letter insult ; Thomson, Land and the Book, it. 81.0 se ee
NEHEMIAH
NEHEMIAH
509
was reported that Neh. aspired to the kingdom of Judah and had appointed prophets to proclaim him, and giving warning that word of this ramour would surely reach the king; Sanballat asked for a conference, as if he wished to aid Neh. in clearing himself of the charge. Neh. knew well that auto- cratic kings listened eagerly to such imputations, and were not apt to investigate very closely, pre- ferring to err on the (for them) safe side ; neverthe- less he rested secure in his integrity, and accused Sanballat of feigning the charges out of his own evil mind (68), Sanballat all the while had allies and emissaries in Jerus. (617-19), and, having failed himself to get within reach of the leader, he set them to work. A prophet named Shemaiah coun- selled Neh. to shut himself in the temple at night to ayoid assassination. Other prophets* were also hired to stir up his fears, and induce him to take a step that would lead to his downfall (6191), But they reckoned without their host.
y the month Elul (Aug.-Sept.), of what year we do not know, the restoration was complete, having been accomplished, we are told, in the remarkably short time of fifty-two days + (6). Neh. appointed his brother Hanani, who had evidently come with him from Susa (ef. 13), and Hananiah the governor of the castle, in charge over Jerus. ; he enjoined them strictly to eg the gates shut until the sun was well up in the heavens,} and to keep a guard posted. he latter command was not easy of execution, for the people in Jerus. were few, and the houses for the most part still in ruins. It was apparently difficult to induce people to take up residence in the city.§ Those who did so volun- tarily were commended as patriots, and one of every ten drawn by lot was obliged to move from the country to the city (7411). The completion of the walls was celebrated with a great dedication service.|| Walls and gates and people were purified, and two processions formed to move around the cirenit of the walls in opposite directions, Ezra Ἵ at the head of one company, and Neh. of the other, until they met near the temple, where the cere- monies of thanksgiving and dedication culminated in sacrifices and rejoicings. Appointments were also made for the proper observance of the temple rites (127), These things being completed, Jerus. being once more a city without reproach, social and religious order being well established, and Neh.’s leave of absence expiring, he returned to the court of Persia (13°). Rawlinson holds that he was re- called, but there is no evidence for such a theory.
How long Neh. had been in Jerus. is uncertain. The text bears conflicting testimony not easy to reconcile. The memoirs are in this part preserved only in somewhat mutilated fragments. In 514 we appear to have a sufficiently definite statement that the first stay at Jerus. was twelve years: ‘From the day when he appointed me to be governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the