gave thanks went to the left, and I after them, with the half of the nobles of the people, upon the wall, above the Tower of the Furnaces, even to the broad wall, and above the Gate of Ephraim and by the Old Gate and by the Fish Gate and the Tower of Hananel and the Tower of the Hundred, even to the Sheep Gate; and they stood in the Gate of the Guard.  So the two companies of those who gave thanks in the house of God took their position, and I, and the half of the rulers with me.

I. Nehemiah’s Memoirs.  Fortunately the author of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah has quoted at length in the opening chapters of Nehemiah from the personal memoirs of the noble patriot through whose activity the walls of Jerusalem were restored.  They are the best historical records in the Old Testament and they shed clear, contemporary light upon this most important period in the evolution of Judaism.  The narrative is straightforward and vivid.  It lights up the otherwise dark period that precedes Nehemiah and enables the historian to bridge with assurance the century that intervened before the apocryphal book of I Maccabees throws its light upon the course of Israel’s troubled history.  The detailed description of the rebuilding of the walls in Nehemiah 3 is probably from the Chronicler, but it reveals an intimate acquaintance with the topography and the later history of Judah’s capital.

II.  Nehemiah’s Response to the Call to Service.  The presence of a deputation from Jerusalem (including Nehemiah’s kinsman Hanani) in the distant Persian capital of Susa was not a mere accident.  Nehemah’s response to their appeal and the epoch-making movement which he inaugurated reveal the presence of an impelling force.  Probably back of all this movement was the work of the great prophet who speaks in Isaiah 40-66.  In all that Nehemiah did that influence may be seen.  In the fervent and patriotic prayer that he uttered on learning of conditions in Jerusalem he used the term servant or servants of Jehovah eight times in six short verses.  It also echoes the phraseology and thought of the ii Isaiah.

The king under whom Nehemiah served was evidently Artaxerxes I. In Nehemiah 12:10-11 the Chronicler states that Eliashib, the high priest in the days of Nehemiah, was the grandson of Joshua, who shared in the rebuilding of the temple in 520 B.C.  Eliashib was also the great-grandfather of Jaddua, who was high priest in Jerusalem in 332 B.C., when Alexander conquered Palestine.  References in the recently discovered Elephantine letters, as well as in the history of Josephus, confirm the conclusion that Nehemiah set out upon his expedition in the spring of 445 B.C.  Like all those who ministered personally to the Persian kings, he was probably a eunuch and still a young man.  The true piety which is revealed in his prayer, the courage shown by his daring to appear with sad face in the presence of the absolute tyrant who ruled the Eastern world, and his tact in winning the