Nehemiah Rebuilds Jerusalem's Walls

The event

In 445 BC, Nehemiah, a Jewish cupbearer serving in the Persian court at Susa, received devastating news from his brother Hanani: Jerusalem's walls still lay in rubble and its gates burned, generations after the exile, leaving the city and its Temple exposed and its people in disgrace. After days of fasting and prayer, Nehemiah took the bold step of asking King Artaxerxes I — in whose presence sorrow could be a capital offense — for permission and provisions to go and rebuild.

Granted leave, Nehemiah traveled to Jerusalem, inspected the ruined walls quietly by night, then rallied the city's families, organizing them to rebuild simultaneously by section near their own homes so the enormous project could move at speed. Opposition came immediately and relentlessly from regional officials Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem — mockery, conspiracy, even the threat of armed attack — forcing the builders to work with a tool in one hand and a weapon in the other. Nehemiah also confronted internal injustice, rebuking wealthy Jews for charging usurious interest against their poorer countrymen in the middle of the crisis.

Remarkably, the entire wall was completed in just fifty-two days, a feat so fast that "when all our enemies heard of it... they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God." Soon after, Nehemiah and Ezra together led the people in a public reading of the Law and a renewed covenant, restoring both the physical and spiritual walls of the community in one remarkable season.

Dating

Nehemiah received Artaxerxes I's permission in Nisan of the king's twentieth year — spring 445 BC by standard Nisan-year reckoning, the traditional date. Because Nehemiah 1:1 places Chislev before Nisan within that same twentieth year, some evangelical chronologists (notably Harold Hoehner) conclude Nehemiah counted years Tishri-to-Tishri, which moves the decree and the wall's completion to 444 BC — a one-year difference discussed mostly in connection with Daniel 9. Either way, the wall itself went up in just fifty-two days, finished on the twenty-fifth of Elul (Nehemiah 6:15).

Scripture references

• Nehemiah 1:1-11
• Nehemiah 2:1-8
• Nehemiah 6:15-16