Hebrew Life and Times Part 14

CHAPTER XXIII

THE GOOD DAYS OF NEHEMIAH

About seventy years after the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem a committee of Jews went to Persia to seek aid for their distressed country from their more prosperous kinsfolk. In the Persian capital, Susa, they found a man named Nehemiah, who was cup-bearer and personal adviser to the king of Persia. He was a man of good sense, of kindly sympathy, and of great ability--just the man to help them. They told him how the walls of the city of their fathers had never been rebuilt in all these years since the Babylonians had captured it, and how the poor people suffered from robbers and oppressors, who took advantage of their helplessness.

NEHEMIAH'S GREAT ADVENTURE

All this was news to the young man. They did not have newspapers and magazines in those days, and people in one part of the world knew little about what was going on in other parts, even those near by. The stories told by his brother Jews made Nehemiah sad, and his sadness showed in his face even when he came before the king. This was dangerous, for a part of his duty was to keep the king in a cheerful humor. But his Majesty was not angry, but asked him "Why are you so sad?" Nehemiah answered by telling him the story of his native land and its pitiable condition; and then and there with a prayer in his heart he asked the king to give him a leave of absence, and to permit him to go to Jerusalem and help the people there to rebuild the walls.

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=Why walls were greatly needed.=--All cities in those days were surrounded by walls. These were necessary, because no government had yet been strong enough to rid the country of the bands of robbers who made their dens in almost every cave or lonely valley. Not only the road between Jerusalem and Jericho, of which Jesus tells, but on almost all roads one was in danger of falling among thieves. In the deserts on the edge of Palestine whole tribes lived by robbery, and were large enough and well enough organized to defeat good-sized armies. Hence no city was safe unless it was well fortified.

Nehemiah's request was granted by the king of Persia. So, with letters to the governors of the provinces through which he was to pa.s.s, the young leader set out, perhaps on camel-back, to Jerusalem. After looking about and seeing for himself the condition of the city, and the work which needed to be done, he called the people together and proposed that they rebuild the walls. His energy carried the day. They answered, "Let us rise up and build."

THE WALLS REBUILT

The task which Nehemiah had undertaken was a difficult one. Jerusalem is situated on a ridge, with deep valleys on all sides except the north. The walls did not need to be high where there were cliffs or steep slopes falling away into the valley. But along the entire north side, and in many other places also, they had to be at least thirty feet high, and fifteen or twenty feet thick at the base. The stones and bricks for this were buried in the rubbish where the old walls had been battered down. They had to be dug up and dragged into their places, stone by stone. Most of the work had to be done by hand, although they perhaps used a.s.ses with basket-paniers for carrying lime and sand. They may have constructed small cranes for lifting the heaviest stones, but they had very little machinery.

=Difficulties overcome.=--For a time the work went merrily forward.

But soon their rapid progress became known and those who had prospered because of their weakness became jealous. There was a certain Sanballat, governor of Samaria, who wanted to keep Jerusalem helpless so that Samaria might always be the chief city in the land. They were willing that the poor people of Jerusalem should go on suffering from the attacks of cruel bandits if only they themselves could keep on growing richer. He and others did all in their power to stop the work.

They organized a force of men and planned to attack and kill the builders. But Nehemiah had his workers carry their swords as they worked, and arranged for signals at which all should rush to the help of any part of the wall which might be attacked. He also kept the people working at top speed from early morning every day "until the stars appeared," and cheered them on when they were tired and discouraged.

Their enemies tried all kinds of tricks; they threatened to report to the king of Persia that Nehemiah was organizing a rebellion; they plotted to seize Nehemiah himself. But the man was too clever for them. The walls kept steadily going up and up. The gates were set in place and locked; and at last, fifty-two days, or just a little more than seven weeks after the first stone was laid on the old foundations, the work was done.

Once more they could lie down in peace behind protecting walls, and not tremble at the thought that fierce robbers might swoop down upon them before the morning light to plunder, burn, and murder. Once more they could begin to live their lives in peace and plan for the future.

Traders could bring their goods into the city without fear of losing everything. Men could buy and sell and prosper.

NEHEMIAH'S REFORMS

But security from outward foes is not enough to bring happiness to a people. Even before the walls were finished some of the poor people among the Jews came to Nehemiah with a bitter complaint against their rich neighbors. "We are starving," they said. Others said: "We have mortgaged our fields in order to borrow money that we may buy food for our children. And now because we cannot pay these men take our fields from us, and even sell our sons and daughters into slavery." It was the old story of greed and oppression. Those who were stronger and more fortunate used their advantage to oppress their brothers and extort from them all that they could pay. So a few men were able to live in luxury, even in those troubled days, while the great majority suffered in poverty and misery and despair.

=The great ma.s.smeeting.=--In that little country of Judaea it was possible to gather into an a.s.sembly, perhaps in the open s.p.a.ce in front of the temple, men from almost every country village and city street. Such an a.s.sembly Nehemiah called and laid before it the complaints he had received. He told the rich n.o.bles to their faces: "You exact usury, every one, of his brother. The thing you do is not good.... I pray you leave off this usury." The n.o.bles had nothing to say. Every one knew that what Nehemiah said was true. Then he went on: "Restore to them their fields, their vineyards, their olive-yards, and their houses, also the grain, the new wine, and the oil that you exact from them." Then said they, "We will restore them."

And Nehemiah made them take oath to carry out their promise. "Also I shook out my lap," Nehemiah writes in his memoirs, "and said, So G.o.d shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, that performeth not this promise; even thus be he shaken out and emptied.

And all the congregation said 'Amen,' and praised the Lord. And the people did according to this promise."

=The beginnings of a just and happy nation.=--Nehemiah could not stay long in Jerusalem. But he was able to make another visit a few years later. And for a time at least his ideas were carried out. During this time there was happiness among the people. They all had something to eat and clothes to wear. All fathers and mothers had a little time to play with their children after the close of work each day. All who could read had a little time to study the rolls of the prophets and the law of Jehovah. And all were brothers. More than ever before the old dreams, handed down from Abraham, had begun to come true.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Look up the story of Nehemiah in the Bible dictionary.

2. Read Nehemiah 1-2, or 5. 1-6, 16.

3. On the right side of the line, below, write what in your judgment corresponds to the men and conditions of Nehemiah's time.

_Nehemiah's Time_ | _Our Own Time_ | _a._ Walls around the city. | _a._ ___________________________ | _b._ Robbers, and enemies such as | _b._ ___________________________ Sanballat. | | _c._ The poor and enslaved people. | _c._ ___________________________ | _d._ Nehemiah. | _d._ ___________________________

CHAPTER XXIV

HYMN AND PRAYER BOOKS FOR THE NEW WORs.h.i.+P

We have seen that a new kind of public wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d had been growing up among the Hebrews, beginning with the time when the prophets began to condemn the misuse of the old animal sacrifices. The new wors.h.i.+p consisted chiefly of prayer. We have seen how the exiles in Babylon began to come together on the Sabbath days to study the law and other sacred writings, and also for prayer. Those exiles who returned to Judaea brought this custom with them. Special buildings, called synagogues, were erected in Judaea as well as wherever there were faithful Jews in other lands. These synagogues rather than the temple gradually came to be the real home of the Jewish religion even in Jerusalem itself. The chief part of the synagogue service was always the study of the Scriptures. But prayer was also given an important place.

In the temple also, after it was rebuilt, public prayer was regarded as very important--even if not quite so important as the regular burnt-offerings. There were also prayer-hymns, sung by the people and by special choirs.

=Making hymnals and prayer books.=--In our churches, to-day, we could scarcely conduct our services without the hymn books scattered through the pews. In some denominations there is a prayer book, which is considered just as necessary as the book of hymns. In those ancient synagogues and in the temple service the Jews found such books needful. Had we gone into one of their meetings, we would not indeed have found a book waiting for us in the seat or handed to us by the usher. The art of printing was unknown. Books could not be purchased cheaply by the hundred. Each copy had to be written out by hand with pen and ink on a roll of papyrus. But we would probably have discovered that the leader of the wors.h.i.+p had a book of prayers and hymns before him. He would read them, line by line, each Sabbath for the others to memorize. To make this task of memorization easier many of the Jewish hymns were written in acrostic form--that is, each line or stanza began with a different letter in the order of the Hebrew alphabet.

HYMN AND PRAYER BOOKS IN THE BIBLE

Our book of Psalms is a collection of smaller collections of just such hymns and prayers to be used in wors.h.i.+p. Each one of these smaller collections came out of some synagogue or group of synagogues, or was prepared by the members of one of the choirs who led the wors.h.i.+p in the temple. By studying these we may learn something about how they were used.

=The Prayers of David.=--This was the t.i.tle of one of these smaller books. It contained Psalms 2 to 41, and some others of our book of Psalms. All of these are headed in our Bible, "A Psalm of David."

These words, in the original Hebrew, mean "dedicated to David." The last page in this smaller book is perhaps now found where our Psalm 72 comes to an end with the words, "The Prayers of David the Son of Jesse are Ended." This sentence corresponded, in the little book, to the words, "The End," in our modern books. It was copied in what is now our book of Psalms, even though it is no longer "the end."

These "David" hymns were probably written not only by David, but as well by members of a synagogue of wors.h.i.+pers who were poor and oppressed. There are a great number of references to "enemies."

"Deliver me not over unto the will of mine adversaries." "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies." These people probably lived in the days before the reforms of Nehemiah, when there were indeed many enemies both outside of Jerusalem and within the city, heathen robbers, and rich oppressors of their own race, men who cheated them and who mocked them when they prayed for help to Jehovah.

=The Pilgrim Songs.=--Another very different hymn book embedded in our book of Psalms is one which we may call the "Pilgrim Songs." It is found in chapters 120 to 134 of our Psalter. All of these psalms have the t.i.tle, "A Song of Ascents." This probably means a song to sing on the ascent to Jerusalem. These come from the happy time after Nehemiah when the city was safely protected by walls. Because of this blessed safety it was now possible for the people once more to go on pilgrimages to the great annual religious feasts as prescribed in the law-book of Deuteronomy. Before the walls were rebuilt such gatherings of pilgrims with their gifts would merely have been an invitation to robbers. But now the custom of pilgrimages was renewed, and they came to be among the happiest events of the year in the lives of Jewish men and women and older boys and girls.

The journey to Jerusalem was usually made in large companies or caravans for the sake of protection. For the roads outside of Jerusalem were by no means safe. And naturally in such a crowd of folks from the home village there would be much singing. These "Pilgrim Songs" grew out of the spirit of these journeys. They are filled with grat.i.tude to G.o.d for his kindness, and with trust in his care, and with pride in their beautiful city Jerusalem which G.o.d had helped them to rebuild.

="I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord."

"As mountains are round about Jerusalem, So the Lord is round about them that fear him."=

HEBREW MUSIC AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

These hymns were frequently sung to the accompaniment of instrumental music. There are many allusions in the book of Psalms and elsewhere in the Old Testament to the harp (_kinnor_), the psaltery (_nebel_), the cornet (_shophar_) and other instruments.

We know just how they looked, for pictures of them, or at least of similar instruments, are found on Egyptian and Babylonian monuments.

The harp was probably like a large guitar, only it was played like a mandolin, with a plectrum. The psaltery or lute was a larger-sized harp. The cornet or trumpet was simply a curved ram's horn blown with the lips like our cornets; there was also another form made out of bra.s.s, long and straight. The Hebrews also used a wind instrument like our flute, a pipe with holes on the side for making the different notes. They seem also to have been very fond of percussion instruments--the timbal, a small drum, and the cymbals, metal plates clashed together.