Nehemiah 1

World English Bible 81 include this book

1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the palace,

2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came, he and certain men out of Judah; and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped, who were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.

3 They said to me, “The remnant who are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”

4 When I heard these words, I sat down and wept, and mourned several days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,

5 and said, “I beg you, LORD, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments,

6 let your ear now be attentive and your eyes open, that you may listen to the prayer of your servant which I pray before you at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel your servants, while I confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against you. Yes, I and my father’s house have sinned.

7 We have dealt very corruptly against you, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances, which you commanded your servant Moses.

8 “Remember, I beg you, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you trespass, I will scatter you among the peoples;

9 but if you return to me, and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts were in the uttermost part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and will bring them to the place that I have chosen, to cause my name to dwell there.’

10 “Now these are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand.

11 Lord, I beg you, let your ear be attentive now to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name; and please prosper your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” Now I was cup bearer to the king.

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2 places named in this chapter.

Where this was written

Jerusalem traditional Nehemiah's memoir concerns the rebuilding of Jerusalem, where he governed.

When this was written

Traditions differ. Each position is shown rather than one asserted as settled.

Traditional: 430 BC–420 BC Nehemiah
The memoir is written in the first person.
Critical: 400 BC–300 BC The Chronicler
Same compilation as Ezra, of which it was anciently one book.

Elsewhere in the world

Events overlapping the period this book is dated to (430 BC–300 BC).

1200 BC–400 BC Olmec civilisation Mesoamerica
The earliest major Mesoamerican civilisation, known for colossal stone heads and an early calendar.
1070 BC–350 AD The kingdom of Kush Africa
A Nubian power on the upper Nile that ruled Egypt itself as its twenty-fifth dynasty.
550 BC–330 BC The Persian empire founded Persia
Cyrus and his successors ruled from the Aegean to the Indus, the largest empire the world had yet seen.
500 BC–500 AD The Nazca lines South America
Vast figures drawn on the Peruvian desert, visible only from the surrounding hills.
484 BC–425 BC Herodotus writes his Histories Greece
The first sustained attempt to inquire into the causes of events rather than simply record them.
322 BC–185 BC The Mauryan empire India
The first empire to unite most of the Indian subcontinent.
300 BC Euclid's Elements Egypt
A geometry textbook still in use two thousand years later.
460 BC–370 BC Hippocratic medicine Greece
Medicine separated from religion, seeking natural causes for disease.

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