There are several objections to the idea that the wall around Jerusalem was completed in a mere fifty-two days. First of all, Josephus records that it took two years and four months to complete.[1] Nevertheless, he also claims the wall was completed in the 28th year of the reign of Xerxes, which seems odd, because the scriptures seem to conclude that the wall was finished in his eighth year. Ezra arrived in Jerusalem during the seventh year of Xerxes (Ezra 7:8), and this was one year after the Temple was dedicated (Ezra 6:15), but the walls weren’t finished and dedicated until about one year afterward (Nehemiah 12:27). This is understood, in that, when Ezra arrived in Jerusalem, he became appalled with corruption of the Jews, as that pertained to their marriages with the heathen. He then preached against those marriages and in favor of divorcing the heathen wives, because those marriages represented rebellion against the Lord.
The Jews’ repentance, and their embracing a covenant with the Lord to obey him, took about eight months after Ezra arrived in Jerusalem (Ezra 7:8; cp. Ezra 9 and 10:9, 16-17; Nehemiah 8-10). After this was done, the wall was dedicated, and Ezra led a procession of priests in one direction around the wall (Nehemiah 12:36), while Nehemiah and the sons of David marched in the other direction around the wall (Nehemiah 12:38, 40), all praising God. Keeping this in mind, the wall was completed and dedicated in or about the eighth year in the reign of Xerxes, king of Persia, which was about forty-nine years after the original release of the Jews under Cyrus, and this was the fulfillment of the first part of Daniel’s Seventy Weeks Prophecy (Daniel 9:25).
The text, however, does say the wall was finished in fifty-two days on the twenty-fifth day of the sixth month, vis-à-vis Elul in the Jewish calendar (Nehemiah 6:15), answering to our August/September. This, if true and as most scholars understand the scripture, means that Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes (Nehemiah 2:1, 11). It took Ezra four months to arrive in Jerusalem after leaving Babylon (Ezra 7:8-9), but Nehemiah and those with him traveled on horseback and, no doubt, made much better time (Nehemiah 2:9; cp. verse-14). However, even if we make our calculations according to Ezra’s journey, making Nehemiah arrive in Jerusalem in the fifth month, we have fifty-five days from the first day of the fifth month to the twenty-fifth day of the sixth month, minus the three days in which Nehemiah inspected the walls (Nehemiah 2:11-16), this leaves the fifty-two days he mentioned in Nehemiah 6:15, wherein Nehemiah and the Jews planned and built the wall around Jerusalem. What can we determine about this period?
We are told that the work was great and large and the builders were separated by some distance, so that they needed an alarm system, so one group would know when another was being attacked by the enemy and needed help (Nehemiah 4:19-20). The Jews enemies had time, first, to find out about the work done in Jerusalem, after which they came to both ridicule and intimidate the workers (Nehemiah 4:1-3). When they learned that those efforts failed, they conspired with one another to come upon the workers secretly and slay them. However, enough time elapsed that Nehemiah was warned by Jews living in the heathen lands, what their enemies had planned to do. Nehemiah was then able to counteract the plans of the enemy. Moreover, at least five meetings were requested by the enemy, to which Nehemiah rejected in favor of continuing the work. Finally, there was correspondence between the enemy without and the enemy within, all in an effort to slay Nehemiah and stop the work on the wall around Jerusalem. It strains ordinary credulity to think all these things occurred in a period of fifty-two days. If this conclusion is logical and true, what is meant by Nehemiah 6:15, because we are forbidden to read scripture in a manner that causes it to contradict its claims elsewhere (John 10:35), the implication is to find a way to cause all things to agree.
Notice that Nehemiah seems to be concerned with closing the breaches or gaps in the wall around Jerusalem (Nehemiah 4:6-7). Moreover, Nehemiah came up to Jerusalem in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes’ reign, and remained as the Jews’ governor for twelve years (Nehemiah 5:14). If the wall was completely finished in fifty-two days, why hadn’t he returned to the king, as he promised he would (Nehemiah 2:6)? It seems to me that the clear understanding of the text at Nehemiah 6:15 requires the wall to continue around Jerusalem without a breach. In fact, Nehemiah 6:1 supports this idea, showing that the only breaches in the wall were the gateways that Nehemiah hadn’t closed, because the doors still needed to be hung. Thus, it seems Nehemiah 6:15 indicates that Nehemiah had finished closing the gaps in the wall, except for setting up the doors in the gateways of the wall. At this point in time, there were no breaches at all in the wall surrounding Jerusalem.[2] However, its height remained unfinished, but the wall continued around the city without a breach.
When the Jews’ enemies understood what was done, they were greatly discouraged, understanding that this thing was the work of the great God of the Jews (Nehemiah 6:16). This conclusion is further emphasized, in that, all the while the building was underway, there was much correspondence between Tobiah and some of the elite families in Jerusalem. Tobiah, we are told in the text, was related by marriage to the Jewish nobility at Jerusalem. Thus, much correspondence occurred between them. Tobiah knew what Nehemiah did, and Tobiah’s threats were reported to Nehemiah, putting him in fear (Nehemiah 6:17-19).
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[1] See Antiquities of the Jews 11.5.8.
[2] See also Keil & Delitzsch Commentary of the Old Testament.
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