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| NEHEMIAH |
| Explanatory Footnotes |
| 2:4 The "Arrow Prayer" Nehemiah characteristically prayed to God while he went about his duties. He even "shot an arrow" to God, silently asking him for help in the middle of this crucial conversation with the king. He spontaneously inserted prayers as he wrote his memoirs. Some other examples: 1:5-11; 4:4-5; 5:19; 6:9, 14; 13:14, 22, 31. 2:10 Powerful Opponents Both Sanballat and Tobiah were influential local politicians. Sanballat's family governed Samaria and had managed to marry into the high priest's family (see 13:28). Tobiah, an official in Ammon (a small country east of Judah), had family ties and influence among the top Jewish families (see 6:17-19; 13:4, 5). There is some evidence both men were from Jewish backgrounds, though they preferred the political status quo in which Jewish identity was diluted. 4:9 Praise the Lord and Fight Nehemiah felt no difficulty combining prayer and action, as this verse shows: "We prayed to our God and posted a guard." Verse 14 gives another unembarrassed combination of spiritual and military tactics: "Remember the Lord . . . and fight." 7:6 Remembering Our Past Because their cultural identity was threatened, the Jews in Ezra and Nehemiah kept careful track of their roots. This list (verses 8-73) almost exactly repeats the one found in Ezra 2. 8:9 The Joy of the Lord People sometimes think of the Old Testament as gloomy. Here, however, (verses 9-12) Israel's leaders urged the people to stop weeping. Sadness, they said, did not suit a sacred day. As they discovered the next day, the law they mourned over commanded not weeping, but an eight-day |