Nehemiah was a Jew. Nehemiah was alive when King Artaxerxes ruled. Nehemiah served King Artaxerxes as a cupbearer. A cupbearer tests the king’s drink to see if it is poison or not.

   One day, another Jew came to the temple and told Nehemiah about the wall of Jerusalem. Nehemiah was sad. The king asked him why. Nehemiah was afraid what the king’s answer might be, but he asked the king if he could go to Jerusalem and the king’s answer was yes!

   Nehemiah returned to his home and saw that it hadn’t been rebuilt. He gathered up all the people and rebuilt the wall in 52 days. They did it so quickly because they each worked on the section their home was at. While the wall was being rebuilt, other cities heard of it and tried to attack, but Nehemiah told everyone to defend their part of the wall and they defeated the other cities and were successful with rebuilding the wall. The wall stood until 70 A.D.