Part III. (cbs. xi., xii. 1-26). Enlargement of the population of Jerusalem; number of the adult male inhabitants, and namea of the chiefs. Various lists of priests and Levites at different periods. Subdivisions. Section 1 (eh. xi. 1, 2). Artificial enlargement of the population of Jerusalem. Section 2 (eh. :xi. 3-19). Number of the adult male inhabitants, and names of the chiefs. • Section 3 (eh. xi. 20-36). Geographic disposition of the rest of the population. Section 4 ( eh. :xii. 1-9). List of the priestly and Levitical houses which returned ~-ith Zerubbabel Section 5 (eh. xii. 10, 11). List of the high priests from Jeshua to Jaddua. Section 6 (eh. xii. 12-21). List of the beads of the priestly courses under Joiakim. Section 7 ( eh. xii. 22-26). List of the chief Levitical houses at this period and afterwards.
Part IV. (eh. xii. 27-47, and eh. xiii.). Dedication of the wall of. Jerusalem und,;r Nehemiah and Ezra, with Nehemiah's arrangement of the temple officers, and his efforts for the reform of religion. Subdivisions. Section 1 (eh. xii. 27-43). Dedication of the wall. Section 2 (eh. xii. 4447). .Arrangement of the temple officers. Section 3 (eh. xiii.). Religious reforms carried into effect by Nehemiah,, THE
BOOK OF NEHEMIAH. PART I.
INTBODUCTOBY SECTION. CHAPTERS I., II. 1-11.
EXPOSITION. At any rate, more than three months had CHAPTER I. elapsed from the time when he heard of the CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH NEHE· affliction of Jerusalem before his changed MIAH OBTAINED HIS COMMISSION TO REBUILD appearance was noted by the king. It was THE WALL OF JERUSALEM (chs. i., ii. 1-8). the month Nisan, that which followed the Living at the Persian court, far from the land vernal equinox, the first of the Jewish year, whichhelookedonas his true country, though when Artaxerxes, observing the sadness of perhaps he had never seen it, Nehemiah his attendant, inquired its cause. Nehemiah seems to have known but little of its con- revealed it, and the king further inquired, dition and circumstances ; and it is quite "For what dost thou make request 1" This possible that he might have remained in his was the origin of. Nehemiah's commission. ignorance during the term of his natural life He asked and obtained permission to quit but for an accident. Some event-we do the court for e. definite time (eh. ii. 6), not know what-called his brother Hanani e.nd to go to Jerusalem with authority to to Jerusalem ; and on his return to Susa "build" the city. This was understood to this brother gave him a description of the include the repair of the governor's house, dismantled state of the holy city, and the of the fortress which commanu.ed the k11j•le "affliction and reproach" of the inhabitants area, and of the city wall (ibid. ver. 8). It consequent thereupon, which threw him into necessarily involved Nehemiah's appoint- a paroxysm of grief. With the openness and ment as governor, and the notification of passion of an Oriental, he abandoned him- this appointment to the existing satraps self to his feelings ; or, in his own words, and pashas. Leave was also given him to ' sat down and wept, and mourned for days, cut such timber as was needed for the work and fasted, and prayed before the God of in the "king's forest" or "park,'' a royal hea,en" (eh. i. 4). Whether he was in domain situated in the neighbourhood of regular attendance at this time upon the Jerusalem. Nehemiah, having obtained. this king does not appear. Perhaps the court firman, left Susa early in the spring of B. c. W&s absent, wintering-as it sometimes did 444, accompanied by an escort of Persian -at Babylon, and he had not accompanied troops (ver. 9), and reached.Jerusalem in safety, it ; perhaps it w&s at Sus&, but the office of having on his way communicated his appoint- cupbearer w&s being discharged by othel'S, ment to the officials of the Syrian provinoo. NEIIEMIAH, B 2 THE BO(.)K OF NEHEMIAH. [cu. 1. 1--11.