(4) Assisted by Ezra. In these important public proceedings, which appear all to have hap pened in the first year of his government, Nehe miah enjoyed the assistance of Ezra, who is named on several occasions as taking a prominent part in conducting affairs (chapters viii 9, 13; xii :36). Ezra had gone up to Jerusalem thirteen years be fore according to some, or thirty-three years ac cording to others; but on either reckoning, with out supposing unusual longevity, he might well have lived to be Nehemiah's fellow-laborer. (See EZRA).
(5) Return to Babylon. Nehemiah, at the close nf his successful administration. 'front the twentieth year even to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king' (chapter v :14), returned to Babylon (B. C. 432), and resumed, as some think, his duties as royal cupbearer.
(6) Again at Jerusalem. He returned, how ever, after a while, to Jerusalem, where his serv ices became again requisite, in consequence of abuses that had crept in during his absence. His stay at the court of Artaxerxes was not very long (certainly not above nine years) ; 'for after cer tain days he obtained leave of the king and catne to Jerusalem' (chapter xiii :6, 7).
After his return to the government of judzea, Nehemiah enforced the separation of all the mixed multitude from Israel (chapter xiii :1-3) ; and accordingly expelled Tobiah the Ammonite from the chamber which the high-priest, Eliashib, had prepared for him in the temple (chapter xiii :4-9). Better arrangements were also made for the sup port of the temple service (chapter xiii and for the rigid observance of the Sabbath (chapter xiii :15-22). One of the last acts of his government was an effort to put an end to mixed marriages, which led him to 'chase' away a son of Joiada the high-priest, because he was son-in law to Sanballat the Horonite (chapter xiii :23 29). The duration of this second administration
cannot be determined ; only it is evident that Joiada was high-priest during that period. Now Joiada, according to some chronologists, succeeded his father Eliashib in the year B. C. 413; and hence we may gather that Nehemiah's second rule lasted at least ten years, namely, from B. C. 42.1 to 413. It is not unlikely that he remained at his post till about the year B. C. 405, towards the close of the reign of Darius Nothus, who is men tioned in chapter xii:22. (See DARTUS.) (7) Death. At this time Nehemiah would be between sixty and seventy years old, if we sup pose him (as most do) to, have been only between twenty and thirty when he first went to Jerusalem. That he lived to be an old man is thus quite prob able from the sacred history; and this is expressly declared by Josephus, i.vho (Antiq. xi:5, 6) states that he died at an advanced age. Of the place and year of death nothing is known.
(8) Character. Few men in any age of the world have combined in themselves a more rigid adherence to duty, a sterner opposition to wrong, private or public, a more unswerving faith in God, or a purer patriotism, than Nehemiah. His character seems almost without a blemish.
2. The son of Azbuk (Neh. El:16), respecting whom no more is known than that he was ruler in Beth-zur (B. C. 445), and took a prominent part in repairing the wall of Jerusalem. (See