Chapter 16
Nehemiah, having received permission and letters from the king, came to Jerusalem to build the city; from this year are calculated the seventy weeks of years which the angel foretold to Daniel, and they reach to the time of the Lord's passion. (II Esdras II.)
[Nehemiah 2:1] -- Now it happened in the month of Nisan, etc. Nisan is the first month of the year according to the Hebrews, in which they always used to celebrate Passover, which we call April. Therefore, what was said above, that he mourned, fasted, and prayed for many days, it is evident indeed that for four continuous months, namely the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth, he devoted himself to this most sacred dedication, awaiting the opportune time in which he could express his desire to the king. And indeed, he was the chief cupbearer, he used to hand the cup to the king, performing the duty of joy outwardly, but inwardly he was weighed down with severe sadness, because he remembered the holy city as destroyed and the people of God given over to reproach and contempt by the enemies of God. Hence, with those like him, he declares speaking in the Psalm: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion" (Psalm 136).
[Nehemiah 2:2] -- And the king said to me: "Why is your face sad?" etc. Just as we have clearly recognized, with Isaiah teaching, that Cyrus, the first king of the Persians, holds the figure of the Lord and Savior because he released the people of God from captivity and commanded the temple to be rebuilt; likewise, we can rightly understand his successor in the same empire, Artaxerxes, who commanded with the same devotion that the city of Jerusalem be rebuilt, as a type of the Lord. The Lord constructs for himself a city from living stones, that is, one church from all the elect, through the office of preachers. Therefore Artaxerxes is well interpreted as testing the light with silence. For the Lord is the light of life, who tests the hearts of His faithful with silence, sometimes enlightening them with the sweetness of heavenly grace, sometimes obscuring them with the hardships of the present life, so that, educated by temporal adversities, they may more fervently desire eternal goods. This year is memorable, in which it was permitted to build Jerusalem, and it is already prefigured in the mystic writings of the prophet Daniel, with the angel saying to him that seventy weeks have been shortened over his people and over his holy city. And shortly after: From the going forth of the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. And shortly after: He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in the middle of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease. These weeks, therefore, begin from the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, when he gave permission for the rebuilding of Jerusalem; at which time, as Julius Africanus writes, the years of the Persian reign were one hundred and fifteen, and the same number of years remained incomplete until Alexander the Great, when he killed Darius; but it was the one hundred and eighty-fifth year of the captivity of Jerusalem; and they reach up to the times of the Lord's passion, by which the end was put to legal sacrifices and offerings. Indeed, each of these weeks has seven years, that is, four hundred and ninety years according to the lunar course; only in such a way that each one, in a new and unusual manner, has no more than twelve lunar months. Hence, the angel carefully says that seventy weeks are not counted but shortened over his people, which are solar years 475. Concerning this entire prophecy, I have taken care to discuss it as fully as I could in the book of Times.
[Nehemiah 2:10] -- And Sanballat the Horonite, etc., heard. And the heretics are grieved, and all the enemies of the Church are saddened whenever they see any elected persons working for the sake of the Catholic faith or for the correction of customs, by which the walls of the Church are to be renewed. Indeed, the diversity of souls and matters is to be noted, for it was said above that those who remained from captivity in Judea were in great affliction and reproach; but also Nehemiah led a long fast with weeping and prayers because the walls of Jerusalem were broken down, and its gates were burned with fire. And now, on the contrary, the enemies of that same holy city are in great affliction and are grieved because its buildings are to be restored, and at the same time, the citizens understand that they are to be lifted from the insults of their enemies. From this, it is to be gathered that even in this life, the sentence of the Lord can be fulfilled; He who said: Amen, amen, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy (John 16). For as the world that rejoiced is weeping, the sorrow of the righteous will be turned into joy when the holy affairs of the Church are seen to grow, and those who had strayed by sinning are recognized to return to it by repenting.