Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the Persian emperor Artaxerxes I, the most powerful ruler of that time. Then I went on to the Fountain Gate & to the Kings Pool; but there was no place for the animal I was riding to continue. Archaeologist have not been silent either. Both I and my family have sinned. New migrants were sent from the Persian Empire to Yehud to expand the agricultural production necessary for the army, and a governor was appointed with ancestral ties to the area (Nehemiah). Even today, numerous sections of Hezekiahs wall remain visible. . Jerusalem was, certainly in the later Persian period, more than a sparsely inhabited settlement or just a temple city without any economic or administrative significance. Herod Agrippa (r. 4144 C.E.) Upon regaining the city from the Crusaders, Saladin began refortifying the walls in 1192. Nehemiah Inspects the Walls 16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, for I had not yet told the Jews or priests or nobles or officials or any other workers. In 586 BC the Babylonians left behind a town largely destroyed. He became Governor of Judah somewhere after. And those interpretations can be quite diverse. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we will no longer be a disgrace . Having faith doesnt mean we ignore problems, that were blind to the facts, or that we are ignorant of what has taken place over time. Nehemiah receives His Commission 1. A book about Judah in the Babylonian era is aptly subtitled The Archaeology of Desolation (Faust 2012). However, much of the southern part of the city walls were omitted in the new construction. Kulakov in Zaoksky<br><br>1 In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when the wine was brought, I took the cup to the king and gave it to him. Nehemiahs speech to the citizens of Jerusalem is masterful in its simplicity & directness. Nehemiah then requested and obtained permission from Artaxerxes to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city (Neh 2:5). After the Babylonian captivity and the Persian conquest of Babylonia, Cyrus II of Persia allowed the Jews to return to Judea and rebuild the Temple. Ancient foundations of the walls of Jerusalem. May the joy of the Lord be your strength. Indeed, the walls that surround the Old City of Jerusalem today are only around 500 years old, having been constructed by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in the mid-16th century. Although the Persian town walls have not been found, there are indications that they may be hidden under the later Maccabean fortifications. Nehemiah is the account of the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. It took the water from the Gihon Spring under the mountain to the Pool of Siloam below the city. LOVE THE VIDEOS OR PHOTOS OF JERUSALEM or WHATEVER PHOTOS YOU MAY HAVE. This made it necessary to reinforce western Palestine, especially the provinces of Yehud and Samaria and the coastal areas (Carter 1999, 293). The rebuilding and repair of the wall was a miracle. It was only late in the Iron Age that the settlement expanded over the western hill. If our plans are not based on reality or the facts its highly unlikely our plans will be successful. The walls were still in ruin 140 years later when Nehemiah came to Jerusalem. During the Second Temple period, especially during the Hasmonean period, the city walls were expanded and renovated, constituting what Josephus calls the First Wall. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer. century. [8][9] The tower as well as the entire city wall were long destroyed by the time the Ottoman Turks built theirs, possibly since 1219 when Ayyubid ruler Al-Mu'azzam Isa razed most of the city fortifications.[9]. Next, we learn about Ezra's trip back to Jerusalem to beautify the temple. Josephus, Ant. ), Judah and Judeans in the Persian Period, Winona Lake 2006, 147166. Then I turned back & entered by the Valley Gate, & so returned. The Old City is home to three major shrines of the world\\'s religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This, however, is a methodological error. The Jerusalem that King David conquered from the Jebusites covered only about 12 acres and was defined on three sides by high ridges and deep valleys. When the moment comes, Nehemiah offers one last brief prayer & shares his desire with the king & its granted. It was King Artaxerxes I who would have moved the capital of the province from Mitzpa to Jerusalem because the later site was more strategically located and had a better water supply. Plan of Jerusalem in the Iron Age. He was able to rebuild . Submitted by Jason Silverman on Sun, 11/28/2021 - 12:20. Its about restoring a wall, rebuilding a sense of community, & constructing a sense of identity for the people. He said, The risk of doing nothing is the greatest risk of all. Thats why were doing what were doing because the risk of doing nothing is the greatest risk of all. In 54 bce, however, Crassus plundered the Temple treasury. The job is bigger than he first suspected. When the Babylonians conquered and destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC, they also destroyed the walls and burned the gates with fire. xi. October 2021. 2 Chronicles 32:5: He set to work resolutely and built up all the wall that was broken down and raised towers upon it, and outside it he built another wall, and he strengthened the Millo in the city of David. Are you rebelling against the king? Then I replied to them, The God of heaven is the one who will give us success, & we his servants are going to start building; but you have no share or claim or historic right in Jerusalem.. This fortress housed the governor of Yehud together with a garrison of soldiers and their families, as well as local service personnel and merchants. `The Borders and de Facto Size of Jerusalem in the Persian Period, in O. Lipschits and M. Oeming (eds. By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Although eight gates can be seen along the walls, only seven are in use today. Solomon, David's son, built the First Temple on the hilltop rising right above the city he had inherited, the Temple Mount, and then extended the city walls in order to protect the temple. According to Jewish tradition, as expressed in the Tanakh, Jerusalem remained a Jebusite city until the rise of David, who conquered Jebus, renamed it City of David and started expanding it. He can see that rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem is a restoration job on several levels. Who first built the walls of Jerusalem? 11O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. He doesnt play the visiting political official saying, You people are in a mess, & Ive come to help you. Rather he says, You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. 2 Samuel 5:610: And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, You will not come in here, but the blind and the lame will ward you offthinking, David cannot come in here. 7 Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David. Another problem: if this list includes only the walls around the southeastern hill and the Temple Mount, then nine city gates seem to be an extravaganza for such a small area. talked to God and prayed for it What are the 4 Reasons why the Israelites were discouraged to rebuild the walls? Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer. So it was about 22 years after returning to Jerusalem that they finally finished the temple. In April of 445 B.C., after a prayer period of four months, Nehemiah speaks with the king. The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing; I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, & the rest that were to do the work. Even though he had an important job in the palace of the king, he has given that up to take on a dangerous job in a city that has been ruined by war. Later - in Persian times - the temple would have been provisionally restored and Jerusalem would have been a non-walled, largely empty settlement where some priests lived who maintained the temple services. The Bible's grand narrative about Israel's Exodus from Egypt is central to Biblical religion, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim identity and the formation of the academic disciplines studying the ancient Near East. O. Lipschits, Y. Gadot et al., `Palace and Village, Paradise and Oblivion: Unraveling the Riddles of Ramat Rael, Near Eastern Archaeology 74 (2011), 1-49. 10 And David became greater and greater, for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him. That could be two years later, a hundred years later or a thousand years later. 2011, 307-17. [7], At the northwest corner of the Ottoman wall, archaeologists have discovered the meager remains of a large tower, c. 35x35 metres, probably first built in the 11th century during the Fatimid period, that fell to the Franks at the end of the First Crusade in 1099, and was apparently expanded by the Ayyubids after Saladin's reconquest of the city in 1187. ), The Fire Signals of Lachish; Studies in the Archaeology and History of Israel in the Late Bronze Age, Iron Age and Persian Period in Honor of David Ussishkin, Winona Lake, Ind. . Tisha B'Av: The 9th of Av is observed as a fast day known as Tisha B'Av, which commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. The oldest settlement of Jerusalem was not located in what is now called the Old City, but on the hill southeast of it. Hold up one of the paper bricks and explain the following: The wall of Jerusalem is about 40 feet high and 2.5 miles long! The Walls that Nehemiah Built: The Town of Jerusalem in the Persian Period, Many biblical scholars have been allured by these texts to sketch a map of the city based on the descriptions therein - see for instance, https://medium.com/@chrisvonada/the-courage-and-calling-of-nehemiah-1b64df490373. I. Finkelstein, `Jerusalem in the Persian (and Early Hellenistic) Period and the Wall of Nehemiah, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 32 (2008), 501-520. While the ancient city was mostly limited to the City of David, the walls were greatly expanded under King Hezekiah during preparations for the Assyrian invasion (c. 701 B.C.E.). During the First Temple period the city walls were extended to include the northwest hill as well, i.e. What do we learn from Nehemiah about how to face the challenges in our lives? When the work does become public, the opposition begins immediately & steadily grows, escalating in intensity to the point of his enemies unsuccessfully plotting his assassination. This would be the largest area the city walls would encompass. Moriah upon the threshing floor of Araunah. When Nehemiah took this responsibility, by God's help and through his effective leadership, the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt only in 52 days. IF WE GET THIS BIBLE HISTORY DAILY, DO WE HAVE TO PAY FOR THAT? Upon hearing that the wall of Jerusalem was down and destroyed, along with the gates being burned down, Nehemiah cried. Do you know the difference between Noahs Ark & the Titanic? Many paint a dark situation, with only some 'people of the land' living in the collapsed houses and making sacrifices in the ruins of the temple. C. E. Carter, The Emergence of Yehud in the Persian Period A Social and Demographic Study (JSOT Supplement Series 294), Sheffield 1999. E. Mazar, The Palace of King David. The answer was given during the July 20th the television program 60 Minutes which included a fascinating segment on the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Nehemiah 4. Unlike Joseph in Genesis, he didnt make the mistake of revealing Gods vision too soon. Well, you might be thinking . We have all met people whose defenses have . (Courtesy Ancient Jerusalem Project). What Nehemiah lacked in technical knowledge, he more than makes up for with his ability to motivate and unite people to share in the challenge of rebuilding the walls. A History of Excavations in the Holy Land Inspired by the Photographs and Accounts of Leo Boer. This hill is now commonly referred to as the City of David, but that is a fairly recent name (Steiner 2019). Hezekiah also built a water tunnel in order to keep the water from the Gihon Spring inside the city walls so the Assyrians couldnt cut off the water supply (2 Chron. The Broad Wall constructed by King Hezekiah (late eighth-century B.C.E.). When I look at what is happening in our nation, I am seriously concerned that there is little to no concern for the common good as so many leaders & members of every political party seem more focused on power & money than what is for the long term common good of our country. The Titanic was built by professionals. The church faces a similar challenge. It was a massive undertaking and measured around 2.5 miles (4 km.) who destroyed the walls of jerusalem When Titus conquered and destroyed Jerusalem, he was putting an end to many decades of rebellion that had erupted long before his time. In the Old Testament, Nehemiah and the Israelites were asked to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem! Was any town wall of the Persian period ever excavated? Indeed, the walls that surround the Old City of Jerusalem today are only around 500 years old, having been constructed by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in the mid-16th century. We heard in Nehemiah 1 how Nehemiah inquired about the situation in Jerusalem (verses 2-3), empathized with those who were hurting (verse 4), humbled himself before God (verse 4) & prayed (verses 5-11) expressing adoration to God (v. 5), confessing his nations sin to the Lord (verses 6-7)), & petitioning God for help (verses 8-11). These walls were built by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in the sixteenth century, roughly following the course of the walls built by the Romans to encircle Jerusalem in the second century. 2006. Above the Gichon spring she dug a long trench from top to bottom in order to analyse all layers of habitation of the ancient city. The fish bones analysed come from fish from the Mediterranean Sea and Lake Tiberias. In 701 BC, the Assyrians, headed by Sennacherib invaded Judah, the Southern Kingdom of Israel, because of their disobedience to God. ), Media, Video and Lectures From The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies of the University of Arizona, Teaching the Bible in Public Schools and Higher Ed, Scholars, Frauds, the Media and the Public, Essays on Minimalism from Bible and Interpretation, Final Reports on the Yehoash Inscription and James Ossuary from the Israeli Antiquities Authority, Essays on the James Ossuary and the Temple Tablet from Bible and Interpretation, University of Arizona, Center for Judaic Studies, Department of Archaeology and Art History, University of Evansville. The wall had been broken down, community had broken down and with everyone thinking about themselves, people worked on their own places but no one was working for the common good. Diana Edelman, who made an in-depth study of Jerusalem in Persian times based on biblical texts, archaeological finds and information on the Persian empire, sees Jerusalem as a birah, a small fortress used by the Persians (Edelman 2005). See, e,g,, Holman Bible Dictionary, op. And Jerusalem is a symbol of the city of God, God's dwelling place and the center of life for the world. 8 And David said on that day, Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack the lame and the blind, who are hated by David's soul. Therefore, it is said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house. 9 And David lived in the stronghold and called it the city of David. How long did it take to rebuild the. Ironically, rather than raising peoples feelings of fear & anxiety; facing the brutal facts can have a remarkable impact on peoples confidence & motivation. Did Jerusalem become a walled settlement in Persian times, or is that an unlikely notion? Nebuchadnezzar The walls of Jerusalem had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. M. L. Steiner, `One Hundred and Fifty Years of Excavating Jerusalem, in B. Wagemakers (ed. Spoiler alert: there are as many opinions as there are scholars, and the archaeological evidence is meagre. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer. The finds do not disprove my dating of the tower in the Maccabean era. The Persian Empire rose to power, and they overthrew the Babylonians as the world superpower. There is the technical side & the human side. These walls were built by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in the sixteenth century, roughly following the course of the walls built by the Romans to encircle Jerusalem in the second century. He stands before them, knowing what the problems are, but ready to begin the hard work of rebuilding & this encourages & gives hope to the people. In 1535, when Jerusalem was part of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Suleiman I ordered the ruined city walls to be rebuilt. The identification of Jebus with Jerusalem has been disputed, principally by Niels Peter Lemche. 16 And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. God provided me with safe passage, timber, & the authority & permission to build. But irrespective of whether those walls did or did not exist, in my opinion Jerusalem was not as desolate as is sometimes assumed, both before and after the arrival of Nehemiah. Who first built the walls of Jerusalem? This meant building new defenses. Some attention, but how much? ), M. L. Steiner, `The Palace of David Reconsidered in the Light of Earlier Excavations, op, http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/palace_2468.shtml, The Persian Period City Wall of Jerusalem. Did archaeologists actually find the Persian city walls? 1 The first exiled people, who came back seventy years later with Zerubbabel on the first order of return (Cyrus' 2 ), found only ruins and rubbles. After this destruction the wider area was largely, but not entirely, abandoned. The city was blessed with natural valleys around it that made it easy to defend. M. L. Steiner, `The City of David as a Palimpsest, in L. Niesioowski-Span and E. Pfoh (eds. In the 19th century, many building updates were made to the Old City, including the construction of New Gate and the filling in of the moat that surrounds the Tower of David. You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form. Very interesting. In this map the walls surround the southeastern hill and the Temple Mount only; it is assumed that other parts of the Late Iron Age city were not reconstructed. Nehemiah believed in the power of prayer & perseverance in solving problems. In preparation for the expected Crusader siege of 1099, the walls were strengthened yet again but to little avail.