Nehemiah rebuilds the wall

Nehemiah has a good job. He's cupbearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes, in the palace at Susa, which means he's trusted, close to power, and comfortable. Then his brother arrives from Judah with news. The people who went back from exile are in trouble and humiliated, and the wall of Jerusalem is still rubble with its gates burned. Nehemiah sits down and cries. Then he mourns, fasts and prays, and the text says it went on for days.

His prayer is worth reading. He doesn't ask God to fix Jerusalem. He confesses, and includes himself: I and my father's house have sinned. Then he reminds God of a promise from Moses, that scattered people who turn back will be gathered. And then, at the very end, one practical line: give me success today, and mercy in front of this man. This man is the king. He's been planning something.

Four months later he's serving wine and the king notices his face. Why are you sad? You're not ill. Nehemiah is very afraid, the text says, because looking miserable in front of a Persian king was a risk. He answers honestly: how can I not be, when the city where my ancestors are buried is in ruins? The king asks what he wants. Nehemiah, in the space between the question and his answer, prays. Then he asks for leave to go and rebuild, and for letters of safe passage, and for timber from the royal forest. He's thought it all through. The king gives him everything.

In Jerusalem he says nothing for three days. Then he rides out at night with a few men and inspects the wall in the dark, section by section, until the rubble is too thick for his donkey to get through. Nobody knows what he's doing. Only after he's seen it himself does he gather the leaders: you see the state we're in. Let's build, so we're not a disgrace any more. He tells them about the king and about God's hand on him. They say: let's get up and build.

Chapter three is a list of who built what, gate by gate, and it's easy to skip and worth a glance. Priests, goldsmiths, perfumers, a district ruler and his daughters, people repairing the stretch opposite their own front door. The whole city built the wall, and the text names them.

The opposition starts immediately. Sanballat, a regional governor, and Tobiah, an Ammonite official, mock them first. Feeble Jews. A fox could knock that wall over. When mockery fails and the wall reaches half height, they plan an attack. Nehemiah's answer is to pray and post guards, both. Then he arms the builders. Half work while half hold spears. Everyone carrying materials works one-handed with a weapon in the other. Nehemiah and his men don't even take their clothes off.

In the middle of all this, a different crisis: the poor are being squeezed by their own people. Families are mortgaging fields and selling children into debt slavery to rich fellow Jews. Nehemiah is furious, calls a public assembly, and shames the nobles into giving it all back. Then the enemies try again, four times inviting him to a meeting in the countryside that's obviously an ambush. His reply each time: I'm doing a great work and I can't come down. A fifth letter accuses him of planning to make himself king. He calls it invented. A paid prophet tries to scare him into hiding in the temple; he sees through it. The wall is finished in fifty-two days. Their enemies, the text says, lost their confidence, because they could see God had done it.