Nehemiah, definition

Nehemiah,





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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  Nehemiah
       n : an Old Testament book telling how a Jewish official at the
           court of Artaxerxes I in 444 BC became a leader in
           rebuilding Jeruslaem after the Babylonian Captivity [syn:
            {Book of Nehemiah}]



From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Nehemiah
     comforted by Jehovah. (1.) Ezra 2:2; Neh. 7:7. (2.) Neh. 3:16.
     
       (3.) The son of Hachaliah (Neh. 1:1), and probably of the
     tribe of Judah. His family must have belonged to Jerusalem (Neh.
     2:3). He was one of the "Jews of the dispersion," and in his
     youth was appointed to the important office of royal cup-bearer
     at the palace of Shushan. The king, Artaxerxes Longimanus, seems
     to have been on terms of friendly familiarity with his
     attendant. Through his brother Hanani, and perhaps from other
     sources (Neh. 1:2; 2:3), he heard of the mournful and desolate
     condition of the Holy City, and was filled with sadness of
     heart. For many days he fasted and mourned and prayed for the
     place of his fathers' sepulchres. At length the king observed
     his sadness of countenance and asked the reason of it. Nehemiah
     explained it all to the king, and obtained his permission to go
     up to Jerusalem and there to act as _tirshatha_, or governor of
     Judea. He went up in the spring of B.C. 446 (eleven years after
     Ezra), with a strong escort supplied by the king, and with
     letters to all the pashas of the provinces through which he had
     to pass, as also to Asaph, keeper of the royal forests,
     directing him to assist Nehemiah. On his arrival he set himself
     to survey the city, and to form a plan for its restoration; a
     plan which he carried out with great skill and energy, so that
     the whole was completed in about six months. He remained in
     Judea for thirteen years as governor, carrying out many reforms,
     notwithstanding much opposition that he encountered (Neh.
     13:11). He built up the state on the old lines, "supplementing
     and completing the work of Ezra," and making all arrangements
     for the safety and good government of the city. At the close of
     this important period of his public life, he returned to Persia
     to the service of his royal master at Shushan or Ecbatana. Very
     soon after this the old corrupt state of things returned,
     showing the worthlessness to a large extent of the professions
     that had been made at the feast of the dedication of the walls
     of the city (Neh. 12. See {EZRA}). Malachi now appeared
     among the people with words of stern reproof and solemn warning;
     and Nehemiah again returned from Persia (after an absence of
     some two years), and was grieved to see the widespread moral
     degeneracy that had taken place during his absence. He set
     himself with vigour to rectify the flagrant abuses that had
     sprung up, and restored the orderly administration of public
     worship and the outward observance of the law of Moses. Of his
     subsequent history we know nothing. Probably he remained at his
     post as governor till his death (about B.C. 413) in a good old
     age. The place of his death and burial is, however, unknown. "He
     resembled Ezra in his fiery zeal, in his active spirit of
     enterprise, and in the piety of his life: but he was of a
     bluffer and a fiercer mood; he had less patience with
     transgressors; he was a man of action rather than a man of
     thought, and more inclined to use force than persuasion. His
     practical sagacity and high courage were very markedly shown in
     the arrangement with which he carried through the rebuilding of
     the wall and balked the cunning plans of the 'adversaries.' The
     piety of his heart, his deeply religious spirit and constant
     sense of communion with and absolute dependence upon God, are
     strikingly exhibited, first in the long prayer recorded in ch.
     1:5-11, and secondly and most remarkably in what have been
     called his 'interjectional prayers', those short but moving
     addresses to Almighty God which occur so frequently in his
     writings, the instinctive outpouring of a heart deeply moved,
     but ever resting itself upon God, and looking to God alone for
     aid in trouble, for the frustration of evil designs, and for
     final reward and acceptance" (Rawlinson). Nehemiah was the last
     of the governors sent from the Persian court. Judea after this
     was annexed to the satrapy of Coele-Syria, and was governed by
     the high priest under the jurisdiction of the governor of Syria,
     and the internal government of the country became more and more
     a hierarchy.
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Nehemiah, consolation; repentance of the Lord
  

















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