What Nehemiah Saw - LifeWay Nehemiah Saw LESSON REFERENCE FBSC: Nehemiah 1:1–2:18 At Pasargadae, capital of ancient Persia under Cyrus the Great, column with inscription in Old Persian

BI

Su

mm

er

2

00

4

NEHEMIAH’S ARRIVAL inJerusalem marked a new era inthe storied history of the

ancient city. In concert with thecovenant faithfulness of God,Nehemiah hoped to restore Jerusalem’ssecurity and prosperity and to over-come the lingering effects on the city ofthe Babylonian exile (Neh. 1:2-11). Byhis own account, Nehemiah intended torebuild Jerusalem since its gates hadbeen burned and it was desolate (2:3-5). What conditions motivated the report Nehemiah received from themen of Judah detailing the shamefulstate of Jerusalem? What wouldNehemiah have seen as he arrived in Jerusalem?

From Humble Beginnings. . .As with most ancient cities, the successof Jerusalem depended on a balance ofgeographical, topographical, and his-torical advantages and disadvantages.The two north-south ridges in the cen-tral hill country on which Jerusalemdeveloped are surrounded on threesides by steep valleys. The rugged ter-rain makes the site easy to defend, a dis-tinct military advantage that surelymade Jerusalem an attractive capital forDavid. The Gihon Spring, located at the

southeastern base of the eastern hill,provided ample water for the site and isthe major factor behind the original settlement on the eastern ridge. Thecentral hill country location, however,isolated Jerusalem from the commercialcenters of the coastal plain. Thus, beforeDavid made Jerusalem his capital, asmall population of no more than onethousand settled on about 12 acres ofthe eastern ridge.1

David’s capture of the city, howev-er, changed everything. Jerusalem’s for-tunes rose and fell with the Davidicmonarchy’s triumphs and failures. Asthe political, religious, and administra-tive center of the United Kingdom ofDavid and Solomon (1000-922 B.C.),Jerusalem grew from the 12-acre forti-fied site to a 32-acre walled city with anelaborate palace and temple. Severalcenturies later, the great reformerHezekiah (715-687 B.C.) expanded thecity to about 150 acres when he fortifiedthe hill west of the original city and builtan ingenious water supply system stillchanneling water to the famed SiloamPool. The population may have reachedas high as 25,000. Hezekiah’s ingenuity

BY KEVIN HALL

47

What Nehemiah Saw

LESSON REFERENCE

FBSC: Nehemiah 1:1–2:18

At Pasargadae, capital of ancientPersia under Cyrus the Great, columnwith inscription in Old Persian script,ascribed to Cyrus, who encouragedcaptives to return to their homeland.ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO (23/1/1)

BI

Su

mm

er

2

00

4

48

and faith, however, only forestalled the eventual destructionof Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians in 586 B.C.2

. . . To Babylonian AssaultThe Babylonian destruction and the subsequent years ofneglect during the exile begin to explain the report thatmotivated Nehemiah’s mission. According to the biblical andarchaeological record, the Babylonian destruction ofJerusalem, coming at the end of a decimating 18-monthsiege of the city, was total.3 A major excavation of the cityconcluded in the 1980s found evidence of the militaryassault throughout the site. Thick layers of dark ash, a clearsign of the wholesale burning of the city, mark the destruc-tion level. The scattered bronze and iron arrowheads andcollapsed structures further attest the devastation.4 Thelooting and plundering of the city’s treasures and populationdemoralized any survivors and effectively put an end to anyhopes for rebellion against Babylon. Mount Zion, the epito-me of Jerusalem’s fame and glory, became a desolate hillwhere jackals prowled (Lam. 5:18).

Before Nehemiah’s arrival, however, attempts to rebuildJerusalem had met with some success. In 539 B.C., thePersian king Cyrus conquered Babylon and established apolicy encouraging captive peoples to return to their home-land. Soon thereafter in 538, the first group of Jews returnedto Judah from Babylon and established a foundation for anew temple in Jerusalem. By 520 B.C., a second group ofreturnees, led by Zerubbabel and inspired by the prophetsHaggai and Zechariah, renewed the work on the temple, and

their efforts led to the completion and dedication of the newtemple in Jerusalem in 515 B.C. The former kingdom ofJudah, however, remained a small province within the pow-erful Persian Empire; thus Jerusalem, even with the rebuilttemple, functioned as no more than a small provincial capital. Jerusalem’s enemies, mere provincial powersthemselves, nevertheless capitalized on the Persianpolitical context in order to impede Jerusalem’srecovery. Attempts to rebuild Jerusalem that coin-cided with the rebuilding of the temple met withstiff resistance (Ezra 4). Thus when Nehemiaharrived in Jerusalem in 445 B.C., some 70 years afterJerusalem’s temple had been rebuilt, he encoun-tered a city still in need of renewal, indeed even of rebuilding.

. . . To DestructionAccording to the archaeological record, Jerusalem inNehemiah’s day covered approximately 30 acres with a popu-lation of around 4,500. By comparison, Jerusalem duringJesus’ time covered approximately 230 acres with a popula-tion of around 40,000.5 The small population concentratedmainly on the original eastern ridge south of the templemount explains why the reports Nehemiah receiveddescribed the city as “desolate” (Neh. 2:3, NASB). The west-ern hill, “Mount Zion,” remained unsettled, and the sparsesettlements on the eastern hill remained unfortified.

As Nehemiah approached the city, the lamentable condi-tion of Jerusalem must have been grievous to him. Did he

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ JAMES MCLEMORE (13/27/12)

BI

Su

mm

er

2

00

4sigh, “How lonely sits the city That was full

of people” (Lam. 1:1, NASB) or ponder thepath he took and join in the mourning of the roads of

Zion? (Lam. 1:5). We know of the broken walls and burnedgates, but what else did he see? Were people milling about,conducting business? Did children play in the streets? Did well-constructed homes catch his eye or hovels and ramshackle buildings?

Nehemiah’s survey of the city confirmed what healready knew while still in Persia. Jerusalem was a wasteland(“desolate,” Neh. 2:17, NASB; “lies in ruins,” NIV; compare2:3). The word desolate (Hebrew: chareb) occurs frequentlyin the Old Testament and has a wide range of meanings.However, the term most commonly implies, as it does inNehemiah’s usage, not a pristine wilderness but a barren,

forsaken area populated more by ruined relics of a previousprosperity than by any thriving human or animal life. Thusthe picture painted by Nehemiah’s choice of words comportswell with the archaeological record and confirms thatNehemiah saw the skeleton of a city, dried up and devoid ofviable community.

But what of the homes the earlier groups of returneeshad built (Hag. 1:4)? Is the statement of Nehemiah 7:4 that“the houses were not built” (NASB) a denial of any housesbeing in Nehemiah’s Jerusalem? The fact that repairs weremade in the vicinity of the workers’ homes removes thatpossibility (for example, Neh. 3:10,21). The phrase mayimply that there were not enough houses built to supportthe larger population that Nehemiah deemed necessary forthe city’s security and general welfare.6 Such issues 49

Left: The westernwall of templemount inJerusalem isalmost 1,600 feetin length. Thewestern wallhoused the foun-dations and fourtemple gates.

Right: The GihonSpring in theKidron Valley.King Hezekiahbuilt a tunnelfrom the springto the Pool ofSiloam, which healso built, to provide a watersupply forJerusalem. Thiswater supplyencourageddevelopment onthe east ridge ofJerusalem.

Below: A pieceof charred woodfrom the ruins ofJerusalem whenNehemiaharrived fromPersia as the newgovernor ofJudea in 445 B.C.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (9/38/5)

ILLU

ST

RA

TO

R P

HO

TO

/DA

VID

RO

GE

RS

/JO

SE

PH

A.

CA

LLA

WA

YA

RC

HA

EO

LOG

ICA

L M

US

EU

M/T

HE

SO

UT

HE

RN

BA

PT

IST

TH

EO

LOG

ICA

LS

EM

INA

RY

, LO

UIS

VIL

LE,

KY

(13

/6/1

6)

BI

Su

mm

er

2

00

4

50

Jerusalem were at once vital centers of city life and the mostvulnerable aspect of civil defense. Almost every aspect of citylife—commercial, administrative, social—transpired in andaround the gates of the city (compare Deut. 21:19; Josh. 20:4;Ruth 4:1; 1 Kings 22:10; Neh. 8:1-3; 13:15-22; Prov. 31:22).Even though present archaeological evidence does not permitprecise identification of most of the gates mentioned in theBook of Nehemiah, the detailed attention to the gates in thebiblical record demonstrates the level of concern. Damagedand neglected city gates signaled a city whose vital signs wereflagging. Nehemiah could effectively take the pulse of the cityby inspecting the city’s gates.

. . . To HopeSo what did Nehemiah see as he arrived in Jerusalem? He sawa city long on history and short on prospects. He witnessed acity whose populace seemed more like scavengers than citi-zens. In the final analysis, however, I believe he perceived inthe wasteland of that war-torn and politically waylaid city,concrete, visible expressions of the justice and mercy of God.As the prophets before him, he found the courage not todespise the day of small things (Zech. 4:10; compare Hag. 2:3-4). Rather, Nehemiah believed God’s purposes could not bewaylaid; even in the rubble and ruin, faith could find thematerials to rebuild for the future. i

1. Philip J. King, “Jerusalem” in Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 751-753.

2. Thomas Brisco, Holman Bible Atlas (Nashville: Holman & Broadman Publishers, 1998), 145-46; see also King, 756-757.

3. 2 Kings 25:1-21; 2 Chronicles 36:17-21; Brisco, 156.4. King, 757.5. Ibid.6. Mervin Breneman, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, The New American Commentary, vol. 10

(Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993), 219.7. Ze’ev Herzog, “Cities (Cities in the Levant)” in Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1038. 8. King, 757.

Kevin Hall is associate professor of religion, OklahomaBaptist University, Shawnee, Oklahoma.

Above:Overview of theruins of theSamaritan tem-ple on MountGerizim. Thetemple, whichwas destroyed in128 B.C., wasbuilt by the fami-ly of Sanballatwho opposedNehemiah andhis efforts torebuildJerusalem.

Left: A Persianhorse and riderfrom the time ofNehemiah.

remained his chief concern. Studies of ancient cities in andaround Judah reveal that the more economically and polit-ically significant a city was, the more uniform and pur-poseful was its home building. Conversely, housing devel-opment in poorer, less important cities—like Jerusalemhad become during the exile—tended to be more ad hocand less efficient.7 Furthermore, archaeologists have con-cluded that many of Jerusalem’s homes from the preexilicperiod were lost due to the destruction of the southeasternretaining wall. Excavation evidence indicates the rubblefrom these collapsed homes prevented Nehemiah’s passageduring his nighttime inspection (2:14) and forced him toabandon the old line of the wall on the southeastern slopeand to build higher up on the ridge, further restricting thesize of the city.8 Nehemiah, therefore, possibly discoveredhomes but no housing development. The disarray of thecity’s houses mirrored the dilapidation of its surrounding walls.

Nehemiah’s concern for Jerusalem’s gates provides sig-nificant clues regarding the city’s overall condition as well.Built into the city wall, city gates in ancient cities like

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (9/23/18)

ILLU

ST

RA

TO

R P

HO

TO

/ D

AV

ID R

OG

ER

S/

JOS

EP

H A

. C

ALL

AW

AY

AR

CH

AE

OLO

GIC

AL

MU

SE

UM

/T

HE

SO

UT

HE

RN

BA

PT

IST

TH

EO

LOG

ICA

L S

EM

INA

RY

, LO

UIS

VIL

LE,

KY

(13

/7/1

8)

B iblical Illustrator Magazine

In the pages of Biblical Illustrator you'll find:

• Well-researched articles related to LifeWay Sunday School lessons

• Vivid portraits of Bible lands, people, and customs

• Maps, archaeological finds, and breathtaking color photos

$19.55 for 4 Issues* (*Price per issue varies for bulk orders. See Order for Church or Organization for details, plus save 5% with standing orders.)

Want more? Biblical Illustrator Plus (CD-Rom) includes:

• The current issue of Biblical Illustrator • Quick access to over 200 pages of additional

material • Multiple articles for the current Family Bible Study,

Explore the Bible and MasterWork lessons • Archived articles from previous issues of Biblical

Illustrator

The following article and nine other articles dealing with Nehemiah are available on the Biblical Illustrator Plus CD-Rom. Go to www.lifeway.com/magazines to learn more about Biblical Illustrator Magazine and Biblical Illustrator Plus CD-Rom from LifeWay Christian Resources. ©2004 LifeWay Christian Resources. Permission is granted to download, store, print, and distribute this article for its intended use. Distribution for sale is strictly prohibited.