Nehemiah 1:1

Nehemiah was a *Jew. He was an important servant of the king of Persia (Nehemiah 1:11). Many years earlier the *Persians had defeated the *Babylonians. Then the *Persian king had allowed the *Jews to return to *Judah from the *Babylonian *exile. Some of the *Jews had gone, but many of them still lived in Persia. Nehemiah was probably born in Persia. The book starts when Nehemiah was in Shushan. The *Persian kings had a palace there, which they used during the winter. The story of Esther in the Bible happened in Shushan (Esther 1:1-2).

v2 Hanani, one of my brothers, visited me. He had come from *Judah with some other men. I asked them about the *Jews who had escaped the *exile. Also, I asked Hanani and the other men about Jerusalem. v3 They told me about the *Jews who had escaped. ‘They are now living in *Judah. They suffer much trouble and shame. The walls of Jerusalem are now only heaps of stones. Fire has burned the gates of the city.’