Day 36 ~ Walls of Jerusalem rebuilt

• Chapter 4 - Nehemiah's wall is defended against enemies who taunt them, but the people have a mind to work. The enemies try to get them off focus of the task at hand - rebuilding the wall, and nearly do, but they devise a plan for shifts to construct and defend - one hand working, one holding a weapon.
• Chapter 5 - more obstacles to stying on focus occur - shortage of food, infighting, taxes, slavery.
• Apparently when the king of Assyria sent Nehemiah, he must have appointed him as governor, his length of time to be gone from Assyria looks like it was 12 years.
• Chapter 6 - when he returns to Assyria, Nehemiah gives charge of Jerusalem to his brother, who was a faithful man and feared God more than many. But apparently not good enough, because we see later in chapter 13 that while Nehemiah is gone, the people quickly sway from the covenant that they sign in chapters 9 & 10.
• Chapter 7 - I wondered in Ezra why the people that had returned to Jerusalem were only listed as Levites, or from Judah or Benjamin, then I remembered that they are the tribes that were carried off to Babylon, while the other 10 tribes had been carted off to Assyria. So I decided to look on a map where Babylon and Assyria were, and basically the maps show that Assyria encompasses Babylon. Now I'm more confused. At any rate, they were two segments of a kingdom if not two separate kingdoms. There is a long list of people who returned to Jerusalem with Nehemiah. I assume that the northern tribe and the southern tribe were not held together.
• Ezra had arrived earlier and rebuilt the temple. Now Nehemiah rebuilds the walls, and it is time to fill the city.
• A new currency is listed in vs. 71 - drachmas, minas (also listed in Ezra).
• Chapter 8 - Ezra (scribe) and Nehemiah (governor) work together to read the Law and celebrate the feast of tabernacles. They helped people to understand the Law. They had not celebrated this feast of tabernacles (booths) since the time of Joshua.
• Chapter 9 - the people confess their sin, recall the history of their people, and make a covenant which many of them sign - and it includes not to marry foreigners, no work or sales on the Sabbath, rest the land every 7 years, support the temple and give of their firsts to the Lord.
• Chapter 10 - list of people who signed the covenant - there were many. You would think it would be enough to keep each other accountable, but it isn't
• Chapter 12 - a big choir stands on the wall. More architectural descriptions given.
• Chapter 13 - Nehemiah is back in the capital in the 32nd year of the kings reign, and comes back to Jerusalem to visit. The people in charge had become corrupted and had broken the covenant on several counts. Nehemiah gives new assignments to more reliable men. (We'll see how they fare).
• The downfall of Solomon is given as an example of why not to marry outside of the Hebrews.