NEHEMIAH (<W∏}), governor of Judaea under Artaxerxes Longimanus; see Israel, vol. xiii. p. 418. The book of Nehemiah is really part of the same work with the book of Ezra (q.v.), though it embodies certain memoirs of Nehemiah in which he writes in the first person. Apart from what is related in this book, we possess no trustworthy information about Nehemiah. Even the legend in 2 Mac. ii. 13 that he founded a library containing ancient documents, which is often taken as authentic and as marking an important step in the history of the Old Testament canon (see vol. v. p. 2), is discredited by standing in an epistle of which the manifest aim was to give currency to certain spurious books.

professes himself the author of the book which bears his name, in the very beginning of it, and he uniformly writes in the first person. He was of the tribe of Judah, and was probably born at Babylon during the captivity. He was so distinguished for his family and attainments, as to be selected for the office of cup bearer to the king of Persia, a situation of great honour and emolument. He was made governor of Judea, upon his own application, by Artaxerxes Longimanus; and his book, which in the Hebrew canon was joined to that of Ezra, gives an account of his appointment and administration through a space of about thirty-six years to A. M. 3595, at which time the Scripture history closes; and, consequently, the historical books, from Joshua to Nehemiah inclusive, contain the history of the Jewish people from the death of Moses, A. M. 2553, to the reformation established by Nehemiah, after the return from captivity, being a period of one thousand and forty-two years.