• Nehemiah. Neh. 1:1-13:31.
• Review.

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NEHEMIAH.

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§ I. NEHEMIAH OBTAINS PERMISSION TO REBUILD
JERUSALEM. i. 1-ii. 20.

1. He Is Distressed about the Condition of the City and the
People. i. 1-11.

• Which month is called Chislev?
• Twentieth year of whom? 1, cf. ii. 1.
• Was it news to him that the walls had been broken down? 3.
• Why then such distress? 4.
• Whence the quotation in 8, 9, cf. Deut. xxx. 1-5.
• What mercy in the sight of the king desired? 11, cf. ii. 5.
• What the duties of the cupbearer? 11.

2. His Request Is Granted. ii. 1-8.

• Which month was Nisan? 1.
• How long his mourning? Cf. i. 1.
• Why was he afraid? 2.
• Why did he pray? 4, 5.
• Why was the queen present? 6.
• Why wish the letters? 7, 8.
• What was "the king's forest"?
• How long was this after Ezra's commission? 1, cf. Ez. vii. 8.

3. His Journey, and a Secret Examination of the Ruins. 9-16.

• Why the military escort? 9, cf. Ez. viii. 22.
• Who were Sanballat and Tobiah? 10, cf. iv. 1, 2; Ez. iv. 1-24.
• Why so secret in his movements? 12. [133]

4. His Purpose Made Known, and the Enemy Excited. 17-20.

• Meaning of "strengthened their hands"? 18.
• Why charge them with rebellion? 19.
• Why the title, "God of heaven"? 20, 4; i. 5, cf. Ez. i. 2; vi. 10; vii. 12.

§ II. THE WALLS REBUILT. iii. 1-iv. 23.

1. The Work Distributed in Forty-two Sections. iii. 1-32.

• Why this distribution?
• Why say, "builded" for some, and "repaired" for the rest?
• What the value of this chapter?

2. The Enemies Mock, and Nehemiah prays. iv. 1-6.

• What the motive of Sanballat?
• Why did Nehemiah pray for their captivity? 4, 5.
• Why the work so rapid? 6.

3. A Plot of the Enemy Defeated. 7-15.

• Why was Judah discouraged? 10.
• Who were the Jews "which dwelt by them"? 12.

4. Precaution against an Attack. 16-23.

• Who meant by, "half of my servants"? 16.
• How work with one hand, and hold a weapon with the other? 17.
• Why not undress? 23.
• Meaning of, "went with his weapon to the water"? 23.

§ III. OPPRESSION OF THE POOR BROKEN UP. v. 1-19.

1. Complaints of Suffering and Usury. v. 1-5.

• Why mortgage rather than sell?
• What law was there for mortgaging?
• What right to sell their children? 5.
• Cause of this trouble?

2. The Evil Corrected. 6-13. [134]

• How could it be claimed that usury was wrong? 7.
• Why exact it of the heathen? 10.
• What fields, etc. restored? 11, cf. 3.
• Why restore the hundredth part? 11.
• Meaning of, "shake out"? 13.

3. Nehemiah's Own Example. 14-19.

• Meaning of, "bread of the governor"? 14.
• Point in not buying land? 16.
• Why the one hundred and fifty men at his table? 17.
• How was he able to bear the expense?
• What effect had his example in correcting usury?
• Why pray, "Remember unto me, O my God, for good"? 19.

§ IV. THE PLOTTINGS OF THE ENEMY. vi. 1-vii. 4.

1. A Conference Requested. vi. 1-4.

• Meaning of, "doors in the gates"? 1.
• Purpose of the request? 2.
• Force of his response? 3.

2. A False Charge Presented. 5-9.

• Design of this charge?

3. Treacherous Counsel within the City. 10-14.

• Meaning of, "shut up"? 10.
• What would have been the sin and evil report?
• Why these false prophets? 14.
• Why the prayer against them? 14.

4. Treacherous Correspondence with Tobiah. 15-19.

• Which the month Elul? 15.
• How could they build the wall in fifty two days? 15.
• In what sense, "sworn unto him"? [135] 18.
• Design of the correspondence? 18, 19.
• When had these marriages taken place? 18, cf. Ez. ix. 14.

5. The City carefully Guarded. vii. 1-4.

• Why was Hanani present? 2, cf. i. 1, 2.
• Meaning of, "governor of the castle"? 2.
• Why open so late? 3.
• Why every watcher opposite his own house? 3.
• Why so few inhabitants? 4.

§ V. THE GENEALOGY OF ZERUBBABEL'S CARAVAN.
vii. 5-73.

• Why this repeated? Cf. Ez. ii. 1-70.
• What differences? and how accounted for?
• Meaning of, "the book of the genealogy"? 5, cf. Matt. i. 1.
• Where had it been kept?

§ VI. THE READING OF THE LAW. viii. 1-18.

1. The Time, the Place and The Reading. viii. 1-3.

• What prompted the people's request?
• How long the reading?
• Meaning of, "broad place that was before the water gate"? 1, cf. viii. 16.
• Had the outer court of the temple been walled in?

2. The Method of Procedure. 4-8.

• Why the thirteen with Ezra? 4.
• Why the other thirteen? 7.
• Why did the people stand up? 5, 6.
• How did the Levites cause "the people to understand"? 7, 8.

3. The People Comforted. 9-12.

• Why the weeping? 9.
• Why was the day holy? 9, cf. 2.
• Why give presents and make mirth? 12.

4. The Feast of Tabernacles Observed. 13-18. [136]

• Why only the heads of houses the second day? 13.
• What is that had not been done since Joshua? and why? 17.
• Why the reading every day? 18, cf. Deut. xxxi. 10, 11.

§ VII. A CONFESSION OF SINS AND A COVENANT. ix. 1-x. 39.

1. A Penitent Assembly. ix. 1-3.

• Why the fasting and humiliation? 1, cf. viii. 9, 10.
• How long after the feast? 1.
• Why another reading? 3.

2. A Prayer of the Levites. 4-33.

• What the general character of the prayer?
• To what Old Testament books did they allude?
• In what sense were they servants? 36, 37.
• What covenant and sealings? 38.

3. The Parties Who Sealed the Covenant. x. 1-29.

• What meant by it?
• Had they any doubt as to the origin of the law? 29, cf. ix. 13, 14.

4. The Statutes Which They Covenanted To Keep. 30-39.

• Why the specifications?
• Why an annual poll-tax of one third shekel? 32, cf. Ex. xxx. 13; Matt. xvii. 24.
• Design of this procedure?

§ VIII. A REPEOPLING OF JERUSALEM. xi. 1-36.

1. The Plan Adopted. xi. 1, 2.

• What the policy of it? and why needed?

2. A Register of the Chiefs in the City. 3-24.

• How are they classified? 3.
• Who the last two classes? See I. Chron. ix. 2; I. Ki. ix. 20-22.
• What was Ophel? 21.
• Why this register? [137]

3. The Cities of Judah and Benjamin at This Time Inhabited.
25-36.

• Why so few?

§ IX. THE DEDICATION OF THE WALLS. xii. 1-47.

1. A Register of Priests and Levites. xii. 1-26.

• To what date is it brought down? 22.
• Did Nehemiah write all of it? cf. x. 11; xiii. 28.

2. The Walls Are Dedicated. 27-43.

• State in brief the process.
• Who led the two processions? 36, 38.

3. Keepers of Tithes Appointed. 44-47.

§ X. CERTAIN REFORMS EFFECTED BY NEHEMIAH. xiii. 1-31.

1. Separation from the Moabites and Ammonites. xiii. 1-3.

• Meaning of the law?
• Where written? Deut. xxiii. 3-5.

2. An Unlawful Privilege of Tobiah Broken Up. 4-9.

• How was he allied to Eliashib? 5, cf. vi. 15-19; xiii. 28.
• On what plea the privilege granted?
• Had Nehemiah resigned his office? 6.

3. Neglected Tithes Restored. 10-14.

• Why had the Levites fled to the fields? 10.
• Why the tithes neglected so often?

4. Sabbath-breaking Broken Up. 15-22.

• Why appoint Levites over the city gates? 22.

5. Heathen Marriages Broken Up. 23-31.

• In what sense did he curse them? 25.
• Why so different from [138] Ezra? 25, cf. Ex. ix. 1-3.
• Force of the reference to Solomon? 26.
• Why chase the son of Joiada away? 28.
• What became of him? 1, cf. Josephus, Antiquities, XI. viii. 4.
• At what date does the history close? 6. [The thirty-second year of Artaxerxes = B. C. 431.]
• To what date is the genealogy of the priests brought down? xii. 10, 11, 22, cf. Josephus, Antiquities, XI. viii. 4. [Alexander's invasion was B. C. 332.]
• When, then, was the book completed?

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REVIEW.
NEHEMIAH.

• What was the distinctive work of Nehemiah?
• What motive prompted him to undertake it?
• When, where, and under what circumstances did he conceive the purpose?
• What danger in avowing it? and how averted?
• How was he affected when he heard the condition of Jerusalem, and of the returned captives?
• What authority did he obtain for his purpose?

• What were his first movements on reaching Jerusalem?
• How did he distribute the work of rebuilding?
• With what opposition did he meet? and how did he provide against it?
• What evil among his own people did he discover? and how did he correct it?
• What example of unselfishness did he set before them?

• When the work was nearly completed, what new plots of the enemy?
• What treacherous advice from his friends?
• What [139] treacherous correspondence was detected?
• What precautions were then taken against a sudden attack?

• What document is copied in chapter vii. 1-73?
• Whence obtained?
• As it is found in Ezra and Nehemiah both, what inference as to the authorship of the two books?
• How the differences accounted for?
• When, and where did Ezra begin his work of publicly teaching the law?
• How long after he first came to Jerusalem? Cf. Ez. vii. 7.
• Where had he been all this time?
• Describe the reading and interpretation.

• What festival was now renewed, and how observed?
• Describe the proceedings of an assembly which followed.
• What knowledge of history seen in the prayer of the Levites?
• What the general character of the covenant which was made and sealed?
• Why the ritual of the law made so prominent?

• How was the population of Jerusalem increased?
• Why such a measure needed?
• Describe the dedication of the walls.

• What reforms effected by Nehemiah at his second visit to Jerusalem?
• What became of the priest who was chased away?
• What became of Nehemiah?
• At what date does this history close?
• To what date is the genealogy of the high priest extended?

MALACHI. i. 1-iv. 6.

1. The Time of This Prophecy?

(1.) After the temple service had been restored. i. 10; iii. 10.

(2.) In a time of unlawful marriages. ii. 11. [140]

(3). When the tithes had been withheld. iii. 8-10.

• All agree with Nehemiah, xiii. 1-31.

2. Its Design?

(1.) To support the reforms of Nehemiah. Neh. xiii. 1-31.

(2.) A Messianic prediction. iv. 1-6. [141]

[CNSH2 133-141]