The Return · 445 BC
Chapter 18
The Wall Finished
So the wall was finished in the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days.When all our enemies heard of it, all the nations that were around us were afraid, and they lost their confidence; for they perceived that this work was done by our God.
For parents
Families say that to buy grain and pay the king’s tax, they have mortgaged their fields, vineyards and houses. Now they are having to hand over their sons and daughters as slaves, and some of their daughters are slaves already (Nehemiah 5:1–5). Nehemiah’s enemies plot to harm him, and a prophet they hired tells him men are coming in the night to kill him (6:2, 10–13). No one is hurt.
Then the people, and their wives with them, cried out loudly against their own fellow Jews.
Some of them said, “There are many of us, with our sons and our daughters. We have to get grain, so we can eat and live.”
“We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our houses,” said others, “to get grain, because of the famine.”
Still others said, “We borrowed money to pay the king’s tax, and we promised our fields and our vineyards to the lenders in case we couldn’t pay it back. We are the same flesh and blood as our brothers, and our children are just like their children. Yet here we are, handing our sons and our daughters over to be slaves. Some of our daughters are slaves already. And there is nothing we can do about it, because other men have our fields and our vineyards.”
When heard their outcry and what they were saying, he was very angry.
He thought it over, and then he confronted the nobles and the officials. “Every one of you is charging his own brother interest!” he told them. And he called a great assembly against them.
“As far as we could,” he said, “we have paid to free our Jewish brothers who were sold to the nations. And now would you sell your own brothers? Should they be sold to us?” They said nothing. They could not find a word to say.
“This thing you are doing is not good,” Nehemiah told them. “Shouldn’t you live in the fear of our God, because of the insults of the nations, our enemies? I lend them money and grain myself, and so do my brothers and my servants. Please, let’s give up charging interest! Please give them back their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves and their houses today. And give back the one percent you are charging them on the money, the grain, the new wine and the oil.”
“We will give them back,” they said, “and we won’t ask anything more from them. We will do just as you say.” Then Nehemiah called the , and he had the nobles and officials swear an oath to keep this promise.
He also shook out the fold of his robe. “If anyone does not keep this promise,” he said, “may God shake him out of his house and away from all he has worked for, like this. Yes, may he be shaken out and left empty like this!”
Everyone in the assembly answered, “,” and praised the Lord. Then the people kept the promise.
Nehemiah had been appointed governor in the land of . For twelve years, from King ’ twentieth year to his thirty-second, he and his brothers never ate the governor’s share of food.
The governors before him had been supported by the people. They took bread and wine from them, and forty of silver on top of that, nearly a pound of it. Even their servants ruled over the people. But Nehemiah did not do that, because he feared God.
He kept on with the work of the wall, too. He and his men bought no land, and all his servants were gathered there for the work.
A hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at his table, besides those who came to him from the nations around. Each day, one ox and six choice sheep were prepared, and birds for him too. Once every ten days there was a supply of all kinds of wine. Even so, he never demanded the governor’s pay, because the people had a heavy load to carry.
“Remember me, my God,” Nehemiah prayed, “for all the good I have done for this people.”
, , the Arabian and the rest of the Jews’ enemies heard that Nehemiah had built the wall. There was no break left in it, though he still had not hung the doors in the gates. Then Sanballat and Geshem sent him word: “Come, let’s meet in the villages on the plain of .” Their plan was to harm him.
Nehemiah sent messengers back to them with his answer: “I am doing a great work. I can’t come down. Why should the work stand still while I leave it and come down to you?”
They sent for him like this four times, and four times he answered them the same way.
The fifth time, Sanballat sent his servant to him in the same way, but with an open letter in his hand, not sealed shut. This is what it said: “The nations are saying, and Geshem says so too, that you and the Jews mean to rebel. That is the reason you are building the wall. These reports say you mean to be their king. You have also appointed in to announce this about you: ‘There is a king in Judah!’ The king is going to hear these reports. So come, and let’s talk it over together.”
Nehemiah sent back this reply: “None of the things you say have happened. You dreamed them up yourself.”
They were all trying to frighten Nehemiah and his people. “Their hands will grow too weak for the work,” they said, “and it won’t get done.”
“But now,” Nehemiah prayed, “strengthen my hands.”
Nehemiah went to see the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabel. Shemaiah was shut in at home. “Let’s meet together in God’s house, inside the temple,” he said, “and let’s shut the temple doors, because they will come to kill you. They will come in the night to kill you.”
But Nehemiah said, “Should a man like me flee? Is there anyone like me who would go into the temple to save his life? I won’t go in.”
Then Nehemiah saw it: God had not sent Shemaiah. Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him, and he had spoken this prophecy against Nehemiah. He was hired so that Nehemiah would be afraid, do what Shemaiah said, and sin. Then they would have something bad to say about Nehemiah, and they could disgrace him.
“My God,” Nehemiah prayed, “remember Tobiah and Sanballat, and these deeds of theirs. Remember the prophetess too, and the rest of the prophets who tried to make me afraid.”
So in fifty-two days the wall was finished. It was the twenty-fifth day of .
When all the Jews’ enemies heard about it, all the nations around them were afraid and lost their nerve, because they could see that God had done this work.
In those days, too, many letters went from the nobles of Judah to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them.
Many people in Judah had sworn an oath to Tobiah, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah. And Tobiah’s son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah.
They also talked about Tobiah’s good deeds in front of Nehemiah, and they carried Nehemiah’s words back to Tobiah. And Tobiah sent letters to frighten Nehemiah.
Now the wall was built, and Nehemiah had set up the doors. The gatekeepers, the singers and the were appointed. Then he put two men in charge of Jerusalem: his brother , and the governor of the fortress, because he was a faithful man, and he feared God more than many did.
He told them, “Don’t let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot. Have the doors shut while the guards are still standing there, and bar them yourselves. And set guards from among the people who live in Jerusalem, each one keeping his own watch, and each one near his own house.”
The city was big and spread out, but only a few people lived in it, and its houses had not been built.
Then God put it into Nehemiah’s heart to gather the nobles, the officials and the people and list them by their family lines. He found the book that recorded the families of those who had come back first, and this is what he found written in it.
It told about the people of the province who came back from captivity. They were from among the captives whom king of had carried away. They went back to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one of them to his own town. They had come with , and others whose names were written there. And this is how many men of Israel there were.
Some were counted by families: the family of Parosh, 2,172; of Pahathmoab, 2,818; of Azgad, 2,322; of Bigvai, 2,067; and many more. Others were counted by the towns they came from: Gibeon, Bethlehem and Netophah, Anathoth, Kiriath Jearim, Chephirah and Beeroth, Ramah and Geba, Michmas, Bethel and Ai, Jericho, Lod, Hadid and Ono, and more. There were forty-two men from Beth Azmaveth, and 3,930 from Senaah.
The priests were the families of Jedaiah, 973; Immer, 1,052; Pashhur, 1,247; and Harim, 1,017.
There were seventy-four Levites. There were 148 singers, descendants of . And there were 138 gatekeepers, descended from Shallum, Ater, Talmon, Akkub, Hatita and Shobai.
Then came the , family after family, from Ziha, Hasupha and Tabbaoth to Neziah and Hatipha. Then came the families of ’s servants, from Sotai, Sophereth and Perida to Amon. All together there were 392 of them.
Some set out from Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Cherub, Addon and Immer, but they could not show which family they belonged to or who their ancestors were, to prove they were from Israel. There were 642 of them.
There were priests among them too: the families of Hobaiah, Hakkoz and Barzillai. The Barzillai family got its name from a man who married into the family of and took their name. These priests searched for their family records but could not find them. So they were disqualified and removed from the priesthood. The governor told them not to eat the most holy food from the offerings until there was a priest to serve with the .
All together, the whole assembly came to 42,360. Besides them there were 7,337 male and female servants, and they had 245 singing men and singing women. They had 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels and 6,720 donkeys.
Some of the heads of families gave to the work. The governor gave the treasury a thousand gold , coins of the Persian kings, as well as fifty basins and 530 garments for the priests. Some of the heads of families gave twenty thousand darics of gold and 2,200 of silver to the treasury for the work. That much silver weighed nearly a ton and a half. The rest of the people gave twenty thousand darics of gold, plus two thousand minas of silver and sixty-seven garments for the priests.
So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants and all Israel lived in their own towns. When the seventh month came, the Israelites were in their towns.