What Are the Purpose and Theme of the Book of Nehemiah?

One obvious purpose of the book of Nehemiah is to chronicle the history of the Jewish people during the period of the return from exile to see them reestablished in the land of promise and awaiting the coming of Messiah. Too often the book is seen as mere history, or as a leadership manual using Nehemiah for a character study. Additionally, prayer is a common theme in Nehemiah as the narrator prays several times (1:5-11; 2:4; 4:9) and regularly brackets a section of the text with “Remember me, O my God” or “Remember them” (5:19; 6:14; 13:14, 22, 29, 31).

Yet, the book is primarily a recapitulation of the initial conquest of the land of Canaan under Joshua, as will be detailed throughout the commentary. This understanding of Nehemiah as a “second Joshua” parallels the common portrait of Ezra as a “second Moses,” one who restores the law to the people. Just as Moses brought the law to the people but it was left to Joshua to bring the people into the land, so Nehemiah completes that which Ezra initiates. Much textual evidence supports this interpretation, including: (1) Nehemiah’s opening appeal to Dt 20:2-4 (Neh 1:8-9); (2) Nehemiah’s secret scouting of Jerusalem’s walls in 2:13-15 (compare the spies’ visit to Jericho in Jos 13:16); (3) the division of the labor of the walls in Neh 3 paralleling the division of the conquest of the land in Jos 13–19 (note Nehemiah’s explicit but rare usage of “portion” in Neh 2:20, and “inheritance,” in 11:20; for the use of “portion” in Joshua, see Jos 14:4; 15:13; 17:14; 19:9; 22:25; for some of the uses of “inheritance,” see Jos 11:23; 13:6-8, 14-15, 23-24, 28-29, 32-33); (4) the restoration of the Feast of Booths, explicitly reminiscent of similar celebrations in the time of Joshua (Neh 8:17), and culminating in the dedication of the walls as the Jewish people marched around the city led by trumpet-blowing priests (Neh 12). This march clearly echoes a similar procession initiating the prior conquest under Joshua with the defeat of Jericho (Jos 6). For these reasons, the central theme of the book of Nehemiah is “the reconquest of Canaan.”