Writings
עֶזְרָא־נְחֶמְיָה
Ezra and Nehemiah
Return, rebuilding, and the arguments that came with both.
One book in the Hebrew reckoning, printed as two in most English Bibles.
What is in it
Exiles return and rebuild the temple and then the walls, against opposition and their own exhaustion. Nehemiah's account is unusually administrative: rosters, work assignments, and a night ride to inspect rubble.
It also contains the hardest material in the Hebrew Bible about foreign marriage, which is presented without softening and has been argued over ever since.
If you read one chapter
Nehemiah 8
The law read aloud to people who weep, and are told the day is not for weeping.
Passages worth knowing
- Ezra 3:10 to 13The old men weeping while the young shout, and no one able to tell which is which.
- Nehemiah 2The night inspection of the ruined wall.
- Nehemiah 4Building with one hand and a weapon in the other.
- Nehemiah 8The reading, and the festival rediscovered from the text.
Questions to sit with
- 01
In Ezra 3 weeping and shouting are indistinguishable. What is that describing?
- 02
How should a reader handle the passages on foreign marriage?