The Old Testament Explained (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1885 Excerpt: ... when the narrative returns to the time of the events related in the early part of the book. When Nehemiah was at Jerusalem at the feast of Tabernacles and the sealing of the covenant, he was known by his title of "the Tirshatha" or cup-bearer. (Ezra ii. 2 and 63; Nehem. viii. 9; x. 1; 1 Esdras v. 40). He then returned to Babylon and from thence to Susa, where he was living at the court of Artaxerxes Longimanus, when that king sent him to Jerusalem in order that he might relieve the distress of his countrymen and look after the protection of the city. Nehemiah went to Jerusalem in the year B.c. 445, in the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus (Nehem. ii. 1; xii. 26). Josephus relates that Nehemiah went to Jerusalem in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of Xerxes, meaning, there can be no doubt, the year B.c. 440, or the twenty-fifth year of the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus; for Xerxes only reigned twenty-one years. The probable solution of the disagreement between the Book of Nehemiah and Josephus is that Nehemiah was appointed governor in the year B.c. 445, but that he afterwards returned again to Susa, and was again sent to Jerusalem as governor in the year B.c. 440. 7. The completion of the Wall of Jerusalem, B.c. 437. Josephus relates that the building of the Wall occupied two years and four months, and that it was at last completed in the twenty-eighth year of the reign, that is, in the year B.c. 437. In the Book of Nehemiah the difficulties are set forth which the Jews had to surmount and how the builders had to work with one hand and to hold a weapon in the other; which was exactly in fulfilment of the prophecy of Daniel that the wall should be built again " in troublous times." (Daniel ix. 25). This year B.c. 437 was exactly eight w...