Boys · Hebrew · Old Testament · uncommon · Post-exile (5th century BC)
Nehemiah
/nee-heh-MY-uh/
נְחֶמְיָה
"Comforted by God; the Lord comforts"
Nehemiah 1:1
RoleCupbearer to the king; governor; wall-builder; reformer
Etymology
From 'nacham' (to comfort, to console) and 'Yah' (God). The name declares that God provides comfort — fitting for a man who rebuilt what was broken.
Who they were
Nehemiah was a Jewish exile serving as cupbearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes — a position of enormous trust and proximity to power. When he received news that Jerusalem's walls were still in ruins, he wept, mourned, fasted, and prayed. Then he asked the king for permission to go and rebuild. The king granted it. Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem, secretly surveyed the walls by night, and organised the entire community — priests, merchants, goldsmiths, perfume-makers — into work crews, each responsible for a section of wall. When enemies tried to stop the work through mockery, threats, and conspiracy, Nehemiah armed the builders: they worked with one hand and held a weapon in the other. The wall was completed in fifty-two days. His book is a masterclass in leadership: pray first, plan carefully, involve everyone, refuse distraction, and finish. When Sanballat and Tobiah tried to lure him into a meeting, he sent a message: 'I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down.' That sentence has defined focused leadership ever since.
Family
- Father
- Hakaliah
Character qualities
- Prayer before action
- Strategic planning
- Inclusive leadership
- Refusal to be distracted
- Completion of what he started
Key verse
Nehemiah 6:15-16
Where they appear
Themes
Variants & related forms
Nechemyah
Read their story
Nehemiah's story begins in Nehemiah.
The full passage is at Nehemiah 1:1. Any modern translation will do — the NLT and NIV are the most readable; the ESV and NKJV stay close to the wording the church has used for centuries.
Find a Bible to read it in →