Nehemi’ah, The Book of. The Book of Nehemiah, like the preceding one of Ezra, is clearly and certainly not all by the same hand. See Ezra, The Book of. By far the most important portion, indeed, is the work of Nehemiah, but other portions are either extracts from various chronicles and registers, or supplementary narratives and reflections, some apparently by Ezra, others, perhaps the work of the same person, who inserted the latest, genealogical extracts from the public chronicles.
The main history contained in the book of Nehemiah covers about twelve years, namely, from the twentieth to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes Langimanus, that is, from B.C. 445 to 433. The whole narrative gives us a graphic and interesting account of the state of Jerusalem, and the returned captives in the writer’s times, and, incidentally, of the nature of the Persian government, and the condition of its remote provinces.
The book of Nehemiah has always had an undisputed place in the Canon, being included, by the Hebrews, under the general head of the book of Ezra, and, as Jerome tells us in the Prolog. Gal., by the Greeks and Latins, under the name of the second book of Ezra.
The book is not an appendix to Ezra as its distinct title proves, "the words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah," nor would the same author give two lists of those returned from Babylon (Ezra 2; Nehemiah 7), and yet leave seeming discrepancies in details. In Nehemiah 8; Nehemiah 9; and Nehemiah 10, the prominence of Ezra is probably the cause why Nehemiah uses the third person of himself, instead of the first which he uses elsewhere. The "we" and "our" in Nehemiah 9 and Nehemiah 10, as to sealing the covenant, identifies the writer as an eye witness, yet not singled out for notice from the rest. The prayer in Nehemiah 9 is in style such as Ezra "the ready scribe in the law of Moses" would compose. The close fellowship of Nehemiah and him would naturally in these passages produce the similarity of phraseology (Ezr 4:18; Ezr 6:22, with Neh 8:8; Neh 8:17). Neh 12:10-11-22-23 mentions Jaddua and Darius the Persian; it is probably the addition of those who closed the Old Testament canon, testifying the continuance to their time of the ordinances and word of God.
It is even possible that Nehemiah lived long enough to record there being an heir presumptive to the high priesthood, Jaddua, then an infant. The register of Levites in "the book of Chronicles" reached only down to "Johanan son of Eliashib," Neh 12:23. The two "and’s" in Neh 12:22 show "and Jaddua" is a later addition. Nehemiah was governor for 12 years (Neh 12:14), then in Artaxerxes’ 32nd year returned to his post as "cupbearer"; he "at the end of days" (margin, so 1Sa 27:7 "a full year," margin "a year of days") after a full year obtained leave to return; "all this time," namely, a year, Nehemiah was not at Jerusalem, and Eliashib introduced the abuses (Neh 13:1; Neh 13:4-6 ff). How long Nehemiah stayed this second time is not recorded. "On that day" does not refer to the dedication, but to Nehemiah’s return: Neh 13:6-7. It is a general expression, not strictly chronological. Nehemiah’s description of Artaxerxes’ character as amiable (Neh 2:1-8) accords with Plutarch (Vit. Artax., namely, Longimanus), "the first of the Persian monarchs for mildness and magnanimity."
Diodorus Siculus (Neh 11:71, section 2) says the Persians celebrated the equity and moderation of his government. The mention of the building of the city "walls" in the adversaries’ letter to Artaxerxes Pseudo Smerdis does not justify Smith’s Bible Dictionary in the conjecture that this letter (Ezr 4:12, etc.) was written under Nehemiah’s government, and is in its wrong place in Ezra, for it is an exaggeration of the adversaries, the truth being that only the temple walls, which might be regarded as a city wall on that side of the city, and the walls of private houses, were then being built. In style the book of Nehemiah resembles Chronicles and Ezra, proving that it is of the age it purports to be. The word
"The God of the heavens," in Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel. Peculiar to Nehemiah are certain words and meanings:
Nehemiah and Malachi, under Ezra, the arranger and finisher of the canon, added their inspired writings as a seal to complete the whole. The Book of Nehemiah bears on it the impress of the author’s earnest piety and intense patriotism. And though the opening words, "