![]() Next it was up to Ezra to set up a spiritual wall. Thanks to Nehemiah, Jerusalem now had a physical wall to protect the Jewish people. Remember, this was without heavy equipment and under the constant threat of attack. Day after day, from dawn into the night, they worked: “We labored in the work… from the break of dawn till the stars appeared” ( Nehemiah 4:15).Īll their work paid off and, miraculously, they completed the job in a mere 52 days. However, Nehemiah organized them into family units capable of defending themselves at the same time they continued the work of fixing the wall. However, as it actually began to spring up before their eyes their arrogance turned into panic and they schemed to disrupt the work ( Nehemiah 4:1-5). Their enemies at first looked on mockingly and doubted their ability to build any type of useful wall. Quickly, the downtrodden Jews joined together and completed the wall halfway, injecting them with a new sense of hope and courage ( Nehemiah 3:38). Tactically, Nehemiah realized that the first task was to fill in the gaps and create one continuous wall ( Nehemiah 2:17). Building the WallĪlthough decades earlier the walls of Jerusalem had been breached by the Babylonians, in effect making the city indefensible, many parts of the wall still stood. And battle he did - physical battle and political battle. However, when Nehemiah came he came with the might of the Persian army behind him. When Ezra came the Samaritans were not too nervous. Not only that, but he gave him an army contingent and carte blanche to use them as he saw fit. Why should his most trusted advisor be worried about Jerusalem when he was working for him in the palace? Nehemiah took a great risk asking it.įortunately, the king agreed. In the ancient world, if the king did not like an idea like that you were a head shorter. He asked to be allowed to take a leave of absence to help his brethren get settled and build the Temple. Hearing about the situation, he approached the king with a very brazen proposition. He was a prominent Jew who rose to very high office under the Persian emperor Darius. NehemiahĮnter the second man to turn the situation around: Nehemiah. They were not allowed to build the Temple and the Samaritans dominated the scene – threatening with violence anyone who would oppose them. It was like Moses coming down from Mount Sinai with the Tablets of the Ten Commandments in his hand and seeing the Golden Calf.Įzra also had to deal with the political problem. The Jewish shop-owners told Ezra that they had found legal loopholes in Jewish law for doing so. The non-Jews from the neighboring towns and villages would come into Jerusalem on the Sabbath to make purchases. The situation was so bad that the High Priest - whom all the Jewish people looked to for spiritual leadership - had sons who married non-Jewish women.Įzra also saw that all the Jewish-owned stores in Jerusalem were open on the Sabbath, which was the market day. Some traditional sources that suggest the intermarriage rate was as high as 85-90%. When Ezra did arrive in the Land of Israel, he saw a Jewish community that had broken down spiritually. The greatest Torah scholars and the Levites stayed behind. Worse, he could not conscript the caliber of Jews he wanted. Out of a population of perhaps a half million Jews that number was not very impressive. While in Babylon, Ezra organized a little over 40,000 Jews to return with him to the Land of Israel. As the primary disciple of Baruch the son of Neriah (who had been the primary disciple of Jeremiah), he remained by the side of his great teacher in Babylon until his passing, the Talmud says ( Megillah 16b). ![]() Surveying the SceneĮzra did not come with the original group of returnees who accompanied Zerubbabel when the decree by Cyrus was first announced that the Jews could return to their land and build their Temple ( Ezra 1:1-3). It sounds like headlines in this week’s newspaper, but it describes the situation 2,500 years ago at a major crossroads in Jewish history.īy the force of his great personality, Ezra was able reverse the terrible situation in a very short period of time. The fledgling Jewish community in the Land of Israel was under siege and disintegrating. The Talmud says that if the Torah would not have been given through Moses it would have been given through Ezra ( Sanhedrin 21b). If history is people, the history of the Second Commonwealth begins with one of history’s greatest personalities: Ezra the Scribe, who was descended from the priestly family of Aaron. If not for legendary efforts of Ezra and Nehemiah the fledgling Jewish community in Israel would not have survived as we know it.
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