Hebrew word · H5166

נְחֶמְיָה

nechemyah

Nehemiah

A sentence-name built from the verb nāḥam in its intensive form, 'to comfort, console', plus -yāh, a short form of YHWH: 'Yah has comforted' or 'Yah comforts'.

Appears 8 times in 8 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

A man living at the time of Exile and Return, first mentioned at Neh.1.1;

son of: Hacaliah (H2446);

brother of: Hanani (H2607J)

§ Nehemiah = "Jehovah comforts"

1) the son of Hachaliah, cupbearer to king Artaxerxes, who became governor of Judah after the return from exile

2) one of the 12 heads of the people who returned from exile with Zerubbabel

3) son of Azbuk and ruler of the half part of Beth-zur, who helped to repair the wall of Jerusalem

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Nehemiah 1:1

Range of meaning

A sentence-name built from the verb nāḥam in its intensive form, 'to comfort, console', plus -yāh, a short form of YHWH: 'Yah has comforted' or 'Yah comforts'.

Against the English

English Bibles transliterate the name, so readers miss that it is a short statement about God.

Used elsewhere in the period

The verb niḥam ('comfort') is central to the post-exilic hope in Isaiah 40:1, 'Comfort, comfort my people'. Names built on nḥm (Nahum, Menahem, Nehemiah) are common in Iron Age and Persian-period Hebrew.

Where it appears

Ezra · 1

  1. Ezra 2:2 נְ֠חֶמְיָה Nehemiah

    accompanied by Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. This is the count of the men of Israel:

    Here: 'The LORD has comforted.' A leader of the early return, not the Nehemiah who rebuilt the walls about ninety years later (445 BC). The name was common.

Nehemiah · 7

  1. Nehemiah 1:1 נְחֶמְיָ֖ה Nehemiah

    These are the words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: In the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa,

    Here: The author-narrator. The name means 'Yah has comforted' (or 'Yah comforts'), a name expressing gratitude or hope toward Israel's God, here carried by a Jewish official at a Persian court.

  2. Nehemiah 3:16 נְחֶמְיָ֣ה Nehemiah

    Beyond him, Nehemiah son of Azbuk, ruler of a half-district of Beth-zur, made repairs up to a point opposite the tombs of David, as far as the artificial pool and the House of the Mighty.

  3. Nehemiah 7:7 נְחֶמְיָ֡ה Nehemiah

    accompanied by Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, and Baanah. This is the count of the men of Israel:

  4. Nehemiah 8:9 נְחֶמְיָ֣ה Nehemiah

    Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to all of them, “This day is holy to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the Law.

    Here: The name means 'Yah comforts', which fits a verse about stopping mourning. Nehemiah was a Jewish official at the Persian court who had been sent to govern Judah (Neh 2; 5:14). Whether his name stood here originally is debated (see textual notes).

  5. Nehemiah 10:1 נְחֶמְיָ֧ה Nehemiah

    Now these were the ones who sealed the document: Nehemiah the governor, son of Hacaliah, and also Zedekiah,

  6. Nehemiah 12:26 נְחֶמְיָ֣ה Nehemiah

    They served in the days of Joiakim son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor and Ezra the priest and scribe.

  7. Nehemiah 12:47 נְחֶמְיָ֗ה Nehemiah

    So in the days of Zerubbabel and Nehemiah, all Israel contributed the daily portions for the singers and gatekeepers. They also set aside daily portions for the Levites, and the Levites set aside daily portions for the descendants of Aaron.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.