Nehemiah — Chapter 1

Verba Nehemiae filii Helchis

Nehemias here speaks and narrates his deeds on behalf of the Jews, recording them as he recounts them. It is thus clear that he is the author of this book. Note: Nehemias, under Cyrus together with Zorobabel, had led the Jews back from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and temple. When Cambyses, son of Cyrus, impeded the construction of city and temple for nine years, Nehemias returned to Babylon, and through his industry, holiness, and service, bound King Artaxerxes to himself and the Jews. \"In the month of Casleu (corresponding partly to our November, partly to December), in the twentieth year\" — of Artaxerxes Longimanus, not Mnemon, as Scaliger and Pererius contend, but Longimanus, as interpreters generally teach. \"And I was in the castle of Susa\" — Susa was the seat and royal palace of Artaxerxes and the Persian kings, so named from lilies and their abundant growth there (for Susan means lily). See what was said at Daniel 8:2. This city was most well-fortified and is therefore called a castle.

Et venit Hanani unus

And Hanani came, one of my brethren — that is, of my tribesmen, one coming from the tribe of Levi, from which I descend.

Et murus Jerusalem dissipatus

And the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire — by the Chaldeans (4 Kings 25:10). Yet Nehemias had long known and even seen this when he returned to Jerusalem under Cyrus. Thus it seems the Jews under Darius Hystaspis, while building the temple, had also partially restored the walls and gates with rough work. For where would so many thousands of Levites, priests serving the temple, and citizens returned from Babylon have dwelt safely, if not in a Jerusalem enclosed by walls and gates? Here it becomes clear that, after Nehemias' return from Jerusalem to Babylon, the Samaritans and other enemies of the Jews invaded Jerusalem, tore down the walls, and burned the gates; and Hanani here brings this news to Nehemias, who hearing it groaned and lamented the calamity of his fatherland of which he was most loving. For many Jews who had returned from Babylon to Jerusalem seem to have gone back to Babylon when they saw the desolation of the city and the frequent assaults of enemies, making it easy for the enemies to demolish the walls and burn the gates — the temple however they did not, since it served as a kind of citadel vigorously defended by a few Jews fighting for their homes and altars.

Extrema coeli id est

The ends of heaven — that is, the uttermost regions of the earth; for what in our horizon appears to be extreme seems to touch the edge of the curved and round heaven. So the common eye judges, to whose perception Sacred Scripture sometimes accommodates itself. The Septuagint translates: \"at the summit of the foundation of heaven,\" that is, from that part where heaven appears to be founded, resting and leaning on the edge of the earth. So it says in Deuteronomy 30:4: \"Even if you are scattered to the farthest parts of heaven\" (i.e., to the ends of the earth which appear as the pivots sustaining the heavens), \"He will gather you from there.\"

Quos redemisti ex Aegyptia

Whom you redeemed — from Egyptian servitude, and thereafter often from the yoke of the Philistines, Ammonites, Midianites, etc., as is clear from the books of Judges and Kings.

Et da ei misericordiam

And give him (me, Nehemias) mercy before this man — Artaxerxes the king, whose cupbearer I am, that I may obtain from him what I desire to ask on the proper occasion, namely the restoration of Jerusalem.