171 | Dedication and final reforms (Nehemiah 12-13)

It's around 445 BC. Jerusalem's walls — smashed and burned by the Babylonians 141 years earlier — have just been rebuilt in 52 days. Nehemiah, a Jewish man who served as cupbearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes, got royal permission to come home and fix the city. He pulled it off. The exiles are back. The temple is standing. The walls are up. In the ancient world, walls meant you were a real city, not just a camp. Before we get to the celebration, chapter 12 opens with a long list of names — and it's worth knowing what that list is actually doing.Source:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1emNt9ziXNoKqHR_Ga3cGn5P4lO-3XJ9I/view?usp=sharing