Introduction

1 In this document, I,^[a] Hacaliah’s son Nehemiah, recount^[b] what occurred during the twentieth year of Artaxerxes.^[c]

Background

In the month of Chislev,^[d] while I was in Shushan at the palace, ² Hanani, one of my brothers, arrived with some men from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had escaped, about those who had survived the Babylonian^[e] captivity, and about Jerusalem.

³ They told me, “The survivors of the captivity there in the province are living in great distress and shame. Furthermore, the Jerusalem wall remains broken down and its gates have been burned by fire.”