|
Nehemiah
Rebuilds and Purifies the Second Temple
|
Inspired by the LORD
During the reign of King Artaxerxes,
Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah is at the
citadel of Susa when Hanani, one of his
brothers, comes with other men from
Judah. He asks them about the plight of
the Jews after the captivity, and about
Jerusalem. They tell him distressing
news about his people and about
Jerusalem, which lies in ruins and
gutted with fire.
Upon
hearing this, Nehemiah goes into
mourning for several days and prays
before the God of heaven., that although
they had sinned, for the LORD to deliver
them. He also asks the LORD to intervene
so he will find favor before the king,
whom he serves as the cup-bearer.
|
 |
|
|
Finding Favor with the King
When Nehemiah goes back to the royal
palace, he serves his king with wine. The
king notices how sad Nehemiah looks and asks
why. Nehemiah explains that he is sad
because the city where my ancestors are
buried lies in ruins, and its gates have
been eaten out by fire. |
|
 |
The king asks
him what he intends to do. Summoning
courage, Nehemiah asks that if his servant
is deserving of the king’s favor, to send
him to Judah to rebuild it. Then the king,
and the queen seated beside him, asks how
long his journey would take and when he
would return. Nehemiah sets a date that is
acceptable to him, and the king agrees that
he might go.
Nehemiah
asks the king further to send letters with
him: one for the governors of
West-of-Euphrates, that they may afford him
safe-conduct till he arrives in Judah; and
one letter for Asaph, the keeper of the
royal park, that he may give him wood for
timbering the gates of the temple-citadel
and for the city wall and the house that he
shall occupy.
The king
grants Nehemiah’s requests, for the favoring
hand of my God was upon him. |
|
|
|
|
Rebuilding Judah |
|
|
Thus Nehemiah proceeded to the governors of
West-of-Euphrates and presents the king's
letters to them. The king also sends with
him army officers and cavalry.
Nehemiah rests for three days after arriving
in Jerusalem. He has not yet disclosed to
anyone what the LORD has inspired him to do
for Jerusalem. Then he sets out by night
with only a few other men and with only own
mount. He goes out to inspect the ruined
city and its gates.
Upon coming back from his inspection, he
tells the magistrates, priests, and the
nobles that they must rebuild the wall of
Jerusalem. He explains that due to the favor
of God on him the king has told him to come
to Jerusalem and rebuild the city.
As one they
agree to start rebuilding, undertaking |
 |
|
|
the task with
vigor. |
|
|
|
When Sanballat the Horonite (the governor of
the province of Samaria) and Tobiah the
Ammonite slave (the governor of the province
of Ammon in Transjordan) hear of this, they
are very much displeased. They ask if they
Israelites are rebelling against the king. |
|
|
|
 |
Nehemiah
answers that he has been authorized by
the king through the grace of God and
that they will neither share nor claim
memorial in Jerusalem.
Nehemiah leads the construction work on
the gates and walls of the city with the
sons of each family of Judah taking up a
section of the reconstruction of the
city, that gates and the wall of the
Aqueduct Pool near the king's garden as
far as the steps that lead down from the
City of David. The work proceeds in
counterclockwise direction, beginning
and ending at the Sheep Gate (to the
north of the temple).
When Sanballat hears that wall are going
up with vigor it angers him. He
ridicules the Jews, joined by Tobiah the
Ammonite saying that any fox that
attacked it would breach their wall of
stones. |
|
|
|
|
Nehemiah prays
for the LORD to turn back their derision and
mockery upon their own heads and let them be
carried away to a land of captivity.
They, however, continue to build the wall,
which is soon filled in and completed up to
half its height. |
|
| |
|
|
The
Threat
to Attack |
|
Unable to
control their hatred, Sanballat, Tobiah,
the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the
Ashdodites plot together to come and
fight against Jerusalem and thus to
throw them into confusion.
The Israelites pray to their God and
post a watch against them day and night
for fear of the attack that they
promised. Nehemiah stations guards down
below, behind the wall, near the exposed
points, assigning them by family groups
with their swords, their spears, and
their bows.
Nehemiah addresses the nobles, the
magistrates, and the rest of the people
to not be afraid because the LORD will
fight with them, and for them to fight
for their brethren, their sons and
daughters, their wives and their homes. |
 |
|
|
|
|
From that time
on, however, only half his able men take a
hand in the work, while the other half,
armed with spears, bucklers, bows, and
breastplates, stand guard behind the
|
|
 |
whole
house of Judah as they rebuilt the wall.
The load carriers, too, are armed; each
did his work with one hand and holds a
weapon with the other. Every builder,
while he worked, has his sword girt at
his side.
Also,
a trumpeter stands beside Nehemiah ready
to sound the alarm when there is an
attack so everyone will gather and fight
together.
Thus they go on with the work half of
the men with spears at the ready, from
daybreak till the stars come out,
spending the nights inside Jerusalem
with each man with his own attendant,
guarding each other.
|
|
|
|
|
Complain
Against Usury
Then there rise a great outcry of the common
people and their wives against certain of
their fellow Jews. They tell Nehemiah that
they are forced to pawn their sons and
|
|
|
daughters
and their fields, vineyards, and houses
so that they may have food to eat. They
tell Nehemiah that their own kinsmen
have imposed great tax burden on them.
Upon
hearing this Nehemiah becomes extremely
angry. So he calls the nobles and
magistrates and rebukes them severely
for their deeds. He asks them to put an
end to this usury and return to them
their fields, their vineyards, their
olive groves, and their houses, together
with the interest on the money, the
grain, the wine, and the oil that they
have lent them.
They all answer that they will do just
what he asked and that they will return
everything and exact nothing further
from them. They swear an oath to do just
what they promised before the priests.
Nehemiah tells them that if anyone of
them breaks his oath the LORD will shake
from his home his fortune. Then the
people do as they had promised.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
The Enemies
of Judah |
|
 |
When the
enemies of Judah learn that the walls of
the city are complete they send a
message to Nehemiah to hold council
together with them at Caphirim in the
plain of Ono, with the secret intent of
killing him.
However, Nehemiah refuses the
invitation. They invite him again and
again and Henemiah, aware of their evil
intentions, refuse them each time.
Then, on the fifth time, Sanballat sends
Nehemiah the same message by one of his
servants, who bore an unsealed letter
with lies and accusations, threatening
him that they are telling these to the
king.
Instead, Nehemiah redoubles his efforts
to complete the city and the gates.
Amidst the threat to take his life the
Israelites suggest that Nehemiah hide or
take flight, but he refuses. |
|
|
|
|
The
Temple is Completed
When the walls of the city is completed,
their enemies lost much face in the eyes
of the nations, for they knew that it
was with God's help that this work had
been completed. Nehemiah has the doors
set up, and puts the gatekeepers (and
the singers and the Levites) in charge
of them.
Over Jerusalem Nehemiah places his
brother Hanani and Hananiah, the
commander of the citadel, who is a more
trustworthy and God-fearing man than
most. He instructs them to keep the
gates closed until the sun is hot, and
while the sun is still shining for them
to shut and bar the doors. He tells them
to appoint as watchmen the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, some at their watch posts,
and others before their own houses. |
 |
|
|
|
|
The second
temple is completed and the people of Israel
have a great celebration of thanksgiving.
|
|
|
|
 |
After the
rebuilding Nehemiah returns to
Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, as he
promised. However, in due time, he asks
leave of the king again and goes back to
Jerusalem. On his arrival back in
Jerusalem he discovers that the priest
Eliashib, who had been placed in charge
of the chambers of the house of our God,
had set aside a chamber in the courts of
the house of God for Tobiah.
This displeases Nehemiah so much that he
has all of Tobiah's household goods
thrown outside the chamber. Then he
orders to purify the chambers, and has
them replace there the utensils of the
house of God, the cereal offerings, and
the incense.
Nehemiah also learns that the portions
due the Levites are no longer being
given, so that the Levites and the
singers who should have been carrying
out the services deserted, each man to
his own field. |
|
|
|
|
Nehemiah
rebukes the magistrates for abandoning the
house of God. Then he brings back the
Levites together and has them resume their
stations. All Judah once resumes bringing in
the tithes of grain, wine, and oil to the
storerooms.
|
|
|
|
In
Jerusalem Nehemiah learns that the
Tyrians who live there are importing
fish and every other kind of merchandise
and selling it to the Judahites on the
Sabbath. He gathers the nobles and
rebukes them for profaning the Sabbath
day.
Then he orders for the gates to be
closed when the shadows were falling on
the gates of Jerusalem before the
Sabbath and forbids them to be reopened
till after the Sabbath. He posts some of
his own men at the gates so that no
burden might enter on the Sabbath day.
He also drives the merchants and sellers
from outside the walls. From that time
on, they do not return on the Sabbath.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Then Nehemiah
orders the Levites to purify themselves and
to go and watch the gates, so that the
Sabbath day might be kept holy.
Also Nehemiah sees Jews marry foreign women.
Enforcing the laws of Moses, Nehemiah takes
them to task and curses them. He warns them
by force to not betray the commandments, and
forces the Jews to cast their foreign wives
away.
Thus Nehemiah cleanses them of all foreign
contamination and establishes the various
functions for the priests and Levites, so
that each had his appointed task.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
The Chariot of Israel: Exploits of the Prophet of Elijah
THE CHARIOT OF ISRAEL: When Elijah was caught up
to heaven, his disciple Elisha cried out, "the
chariot of Israel, and its horsemen." Elisha was
referring not to the chariot but to the prophet.
This study of Elijah’s life will captivate you
as it walks you through a pivotal period in
Israel’s history, and illustrative maps will
give you a better picture of the physical
geography of this ancient land. |
|
|
|
|
 |
The First Book of Kings (Cambridge Bible Commentaries on the Old Testament) This
volume of commentary on the New English Bible text of the First Book of Kings
follows the pattern of the now well-established series on the Old and New
Testaments. The main divisions of the text are those provided by the New English
Bible itself, but these are further subdivided for the purposes of the
commentary, which is printed in short sections following the relevant portion of
the text. |
|
|
|
Canon Robinson suggests that the editors of I
Kings compiled their history in order to teach
the Hebrews that their existence as Israel, the
covenant people of God, depended upon their
continuing loyalty to their own religious
traditions, and their refusal to exchange them
for the very different traditions of the
Canaanites among whom they lived.
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
I & II Samuel: A Commentary (Old Testament Library)
First sentence in
the book:
""THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL contain that
part of the history of Israel which describes
the foundation of the State, running from the
close of the period of the Judges to the
establishment of the united kingdom." |
| |
|
|
| |
 |
Samson and Delilah and Other Old Testament
Stories (Discovering the Bible)
(Hardcover) by Victoria Parker (Author), Retold
by Victoria Parker (Author)
This book provides known Bible stories from
Israel in the Promised land to the Story of
Ruth. It has the stories we grew up with but it
adds historical and religious facts to each
story. It tells the stories gearing them toward
elementary school children. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Moses Great Lives Series: Volume 4 ,
by Charles R. Swindoll. This book presents the
Bible's real Moses-the Moses who tried to
decline his assignment from God; the Moses who
dazzled Pharoh; the Moses who received the Ten
Commandments; the Moses who was disobedient and
weak; the Moses who was the greatest leader of
God's people in all of history. Through his
faith and selfless dedication, Moses continually
chose to follow God's will through difficult and
seemingly impossible situations.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Jacob and Esau
by Harriette Augusta Curtiss and F. Homer
Curtiss (Paperback - Dec 30, 2005) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction &
Commentary
by J. A. Motyer
Recipient of a Christianity Today 1994 Critics
Choice Award! Among Old Testament prophetic
books no other equals Isaiah's brilliance of
style and metaphor, its arresting vision of the
Holy One of Israel and its kaleidoscopic vision
of God's future restoration of Israel and the
world. Now, after over three decades of studying
and teaching Isaiah, Alec Motyer presents a
wealth of commentary and perspective on this
book. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Saint of the Day: Lives, Lessons, and Feasts
(Paperback)
by Leonard Foley (Editor), Pat McCloskey
(Editor) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Lives of the
Saints You Should Know by Margaret R. Bunson,
Matthew E. Bunson |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
New Illustrated Book of Saints
Author: Catholic Book Publishing Company |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
One Hundred Saints: Their Lives and Likenesses
Drawn from Butler's
This is a coffee-table collection of 100 popular
saints illustrated with art works taken from
international galleries. The saints are listed
alphabetically in a valuable table of contents,
with a larger list of patron saints following
the text. Inclusion is based on popularity
within the Christian world and the
|
|
|
availability of
atypical art works. Entries are generally based
on the 1926-38 edition of Butler's Lives of the
Saints, with the length of each entry varying
from one-half page to several pages. Short
entries giving written insight into the lives of
pious individuals are combined with depictions
rendered by artists such as Raphael and El
Greco. An inexpensive tribute to art and faith
more appropriate for gift-giving than for
libraries. |
|
| |
|