Verse 3
A SUMMARY OF THE BAD NEWS
"And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire."
"The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down" (Nehemiah 1:3). This should not be read as meaning that the breaking down of the wall had happened only recently. At this point in history, the wall had never been rebuilt since Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed it. There had indeed been an effort by the Jews to rebuild the wall, somewhat earlier in the reign of this same Artaxerxes I; but that had been totally frustrated by the hatred of Rehum and Shimshai the deputy rulers beyond the River; and in Ezra 4:17-22, we have the record of how the enemies of Israel had forcefully stopped all such efforts to rebuild the city. (See my discussion of this in Ezra 4.)
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