1950 This Means Everlasting Life - A2Z.org

COUNTING THE WEEKS 85
s Nehemiah 2 :1 reads : "And it came to pass in
the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes
the king, that wine was before him : and
I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king ."
Asked the reason for his sadness, Nehemiah said
to the king : "If it please the king, and if thy servant
have found favour in thy sight, that thou
wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my
fathers' sepulchres, THAT I MAY BUILD IT." Then
he asked for timber "for the gates of the palace
which appertained to the house, and for the WALL
of the city, and for the house that I shall enter
into." He tells us : "And the king granted me,
according to the good hand of my God upon me ."
-Nehemiah 2 :1-8 .
The king's decree really went into effect when
Nehemiah rebuilt Jerusalem's wall . After some
months of travel he arrived at Jerusalem toward
the beginning of the 5th Jewish month Ab .
Work began on the 3d day of that month, July 29,
Gregorian Calendar, and was finished the following
month Elul in 52 days . "So the wall was
finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month
Elul, in fifty and two days." Nehemiah 2 :11,18 ;
6 :15 That was September 18, 455 B .C., if that
year was a normal lunar year with no intercalary
lunar month inserted near spring's beginning .
August 3, Julian Calendar .
t September 23, 455 B.C ., Julian Calendar .
t See Babylonian Chronology 626 B .C.-A .D . 45, by
Richard A. Parker and Waldo H . Dubberstein, 2d edition
of June, 1946, page 30, under Artaxerxes .
6. When and how did Nehemiah receive his commission?
7. When did the king's decree really go into effect?