Nehemiah 1 Chapter Introduction

Structure and Formatting

“The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah:”

This phrase serves as an introduction to this entire book.

Religious and Cultural Concepts in This Chapter

Repentance

This chapter is a single long record of Nehemiah’s repentance on behalf of the people of Israel. (See: repent)

Translation Issues in This Chapter

I

In this book, the word “I” always refers to Nehemiah.

Israel

In this book, “Israel” probably does not refer to the northern kingdom of Israel. Neither does it likely refer to the twelve tribes of Israel. Instead, it is probably a reference to Israel in the sense of the surviving people group from the southern kingdom of Judah. At Nehemiah’s time, these would be the people from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin who survived the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon in 586 BC and the exile of many of them to Babylon. The other tribes had already been scattered throughout the entire Near East where most of them lost their identity as Israel.