or NEEMIAS, son of Hachaliah, was born at Babylon during the captivity, (Neh. i. 1, 2, &c.). He was, according to some, of the race of the priests, but according to others, of the tribe of Judah and the royal family. Those who maintain the first opinion, support it by a passage in Ezra, (x. 10.) where he is called a priest; but those who believe that he was of the race of the kings of Judah, say, 1st, That Nehemiah having governed the republic of the Jews for a considerable time, there is great probability he was of that tribe of which the kings always were. 2dly, Nehemiah mentions his brethren Hanani, and some other Jews, who coming to Babylon during the captivity, acquainted him with the sad condition of their country. 3dly, The office of cupbearer to the king of Persia, to which Nehemiah was promoted, is a further proof that he was of an illustrious family. 4thly, He excuses himself from entering into the inner part of the temple, probably because he was only a laic, (Neh. vii. 11.) "Should such a man as I be? And who is there that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life?"

The Scripture (Ezra ii. 63, Nehem. vii. 65,) calls him אָבִי הַכֹּהֵן, that is to say, "cup-bearer;" for he had this employment at the court of Artaxerxes Longimanus. He had an exceeding great tenderness for the country of his fathers, though he had never seen it; and one day, as some Jews newly come from Jerusalem acquainted him with the miserable estate of that city, that its walls were beat down, its gates burnt, and the Jews were become a reproach among all nations; he was sensibly affected with this relation; he fasted, prayed, and humbled himself before the Lord, that he would be favourable to the design he had then conceived of asking the king's permission to rebuild Jerusalem. The course of his attendance at court being come, he presented the cup to the king according to custom; but with a countenance sad and dejected; which the king observing, entertained some suspicion, as if he might have had some bad design; but Nehemiah (ii.) discovering the occasion of his disquiet, Artaxerxes gave him leave to go to Jerusalem, and repair its walls and gates; but, however, upon this condition, that he Nehemiah should return to court at a time appointed. Letters were made out, directed to the governors beyond the Euphrates, with orders to furnish Nehemiah with timbers necessary for covering the towers and gates of the city, and the house designed for Nehemiah himself, who was now appointed governor of Judea, in the year of the world 3350.

Nehemiah being arrived at Jerusalem with the king's commission, went round the city; and having viewed the condition of the walls, assembled the chief of the people, produced his commission, and exhorted them to undertake the reparation of the gates and walls of the city. He found every person ready to obey him; whereupon he immediately began the work. The enemies of the Jews observing these works in such forwardness, made use of all the means in their power to deter Nehemiah from this undertaking, and made several attempts to surprise him; but finding that their designs were discovered, and that the Jews kept upon their guard, they had recourse to craft and stratagem, endeavouring to draw him into an ambush in the fields, where they pretended they would finish the dispute at an amicable conference; but Nehemiah gave them to understand, that the work he had begun required his personal attendance; and therefore he could not come to them. He sent the same answer to four several messengers that they sent one after another on the same subject, (Id. iv. and vi.)

Sanballat, the chief of the enemies of the Jews, together with his associates, wrote word, that a report was spread that the Jews were building the walls of Jerusalem only with a design to make it a place of strength, to support them in an intended revolt; that it was said also that Nehemiah had suborned false prophets to favour his designs, and to encourage the people to choose him king; and to stop the course of these rumours, he advised him to come to him, that they might confer together, and take such resolutions as should be found convenient. Nehemiah gave himself no trouble on this account, but returned for answer, that all those accusations were false and made at random. About the same time he discovered, that a false prophet, called Shemaiah, had been corrupted by his enemies, and that some of the chief of the city were secretly in confederacy with them. Yet all this did not discourage him; he went on with his work, and happily completed it in two and fifty days after it had been begun.

Then he made a dedication of the walls, of the towers, and of the gates of Jerusalem, with the solemnity and magnificence that such a work required. He separated the priests, the Levites, and the princes of the people, into two companies, one of which walked to the south and the other to the north, on the top of the walls. These two companies were to meet at the temple. The procession was accompanied with music both vocal and instrumental; and when they were all come to the temple, they there read the law, offered sacrifices, and made great rejoicings. And as the feast of tabernacles happened at the same time, it was celebrated with great solemnity, (Id. viii.) Nehemiah observing that the compass of the city was too large for its inhabitants, he ordered that the chief of the nation should fix their dwelling in the city; and caused them to draw lots, by which a tenth part of the whole people of Judah were to dwell at Jerusalem, (Id. xi.) Then he applied himself to the reformation of such abuses as had crept into the administration of the public affairs. He curbed the inhumanity of the great ones, who held in a state of slavery the sons and daughters of those who were poor or unfortunate, keeping their lands in possession, which these poor people had been obliged either to mortgage or to sell to the rich. Another abuse there was, which Ezra had in vain attempted to redress, that they had contracted marriages with strange and idolatrous women. Nehemiah undertook to dissolve these marriages, succeeded in it, and sent away all such women as had been taken against the express command of the law, (Id. ix.) Having likewise observed, that the priests and Levites were obliged to take refuge wherever they could, and so the ministry of the temple was not attended or performed with that decency it ought, because they did not receive the revenues that the law had appointed for their subsistence; he obliged the people punctually to pay the ministers of the Lord what was due to them, and enjoined the priests and Levites duly to attend on their respective duties, and to discharge their functions, (Id. xiii. 10, 11, &c.) He enforced the observation of the Sabbath, which had been much neglected at Jerusalem, and would not permit strangers to come in to buy and sell, but kept the gates of the city shut all that day. And, to perpetuate as much as was possible these good regulations which he had newly established, he engaged the chief men of the nation solemnly to renew the covenant with the Lord. This ceremony was performed in the temple, and an instrument was drawn up, which was signed by the principal men, both priests and people (Id. ix. x.), in the year of the world 3351.

We read in the books of Maccabees (2 Macc. i. 19, 20, 21, &c.), that Nehemiah sent to search for the holy fire, which before the captivity of Babylon the priests had hid in a dry and deep pit; but not finding any fire there, but instead thereof a thick and muddy water, he sprinkled this upon the altar; whereupon the wood which had been sprinkled with this water took fire presently as soon as the sun began to appear. Which miracle coming to the knowledge of the king of Persia, he caused the place to be encompassed with walls where the fire had been hid, and granted great favours and privileges to the priests. It is recorded in the same books, (2 Macc. ii. 13, 14,) that Nehemiah erected a library, wherein he placed whatever he could find, either of the books of the prophets, of David, or of such princes as had made presents to the temple. Lastly, He returned to Babylon (Id. v. 14, and xiii. 6,) according to the promise he had made to King Artaxerxes, about the thirty-second year of this prince, in the year 3363. From thence he returned again to Jerusalem, where he died in peace, about the year 3380, having governed the people of Judah for about thirty years.

The book which in the English Bible, as also in the Hebrew, has the name of Nehemiah, in the Latin Bible is called the book of Esdras; and it must be confessed, that though this author speaks in the first person, and though at first reading one would think that he had writ it day by day as the transactions occurred, yet there are some things in this book which could not have been written by Nehemiah himself; for example, memorials are quoted wherein were registered the names Nehemiah of the priests in the time of Jonathan the son of Elia- shib, and even to the times of the high priest Jaddus, who met Alexander the Great. There therefore must have been added afterwards.

It may well be questioned, whether this Nehemiah be the same that is mentioned in Ezra, (ii. 2. and Neh. vii. 7.) as one that returned from the Babyloni- nib captivity under Zerubbabel; since from the first year of Cyrus to the twentieth of Artaxerxes Longi- manus, there are no less than ninety-two years inter- vening; so that Nehemiah must at this time have been a very old man, upon the lowest computation an hun- dred, consequently utterly incapable of being the king's cup-bearer, of taking a journey from Shushan to Jeru- salem, and of behaving there with all the courage and activity that is recorded of him. Upon this preump- tion, therefore, we may conclude that this was a differ- ent person, though of the same name, and that Tir- shatha (the other name by which he is called, Ezra ii. 63. and Neh. vii. 65.) denotes the title of his office, and both in the Persian and Chaldean tongues was the general name given to the king's deputies and gover- nors.