Unsung Heroines-They Helped Rebuild Jerusalem’s Wall

Introduction: The Book of Nehemiah is almost like a report or memoir of what Nehemiah did, and why. He led the effort to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, as these walls were in sad shape. Chapter 3 of his book lists a number of people and groups who did work on these walls. The word “repaired” is found often in that chapter.

Among these (mostly) men were a group of unsung heroines, mentioned only in one verse.

Text: Nehemiah 3:12, KJV: 12 And next unto him repaired Shallum the son of Halohesh, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem, he and his daughters.

Thoughts: These women were the daughters of Shallum the son of Halohesh. He was the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem. Nehemiah himself was the king’s designated supervisor (not sure if there is an exact or better concept) but Jerusalem was divided into two sections. Several commentators believe this represented Judah’s and Benjamin’s respective territories inside the city’s walls.

But the fact was the walls were in bad shape. Nehemiah had inspected the walls, by night, shortly before this, and later encouraged the people “we can do this!” Chapter 3 lists several people and groups, and where they repaired the walls.

Who would have thought a group of women would join in this effort? Shallum was not the only man in Israel to have only daughters (Zelophehad of Manasseh was another, see Numbers 27:1-11) and seldom were women involved in, basically, construction work. Women did quite a bit of contributions to prepare the Tabernacle materials per Exodus 35:25-26, but it is not recorded that women did much to actually build or construct the tent itself.

But now, these women, daughters of Shallum, are involved in the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls. We know nothing about their names, ages, or even how many daughters were involved in this project. We don’t know what happened to them after the wall was completed. We can be sure that they did their part to keep Jerusalem safe. It’s likely these girls had grown up during the Captivity and had known how important it was for a city to be secure.

You may feel like you’re only adding a brick to a wall or only working on a small portion of God’s plan for your life. Don’t feel left out. Someday all will be finished, all will be fulfilled, and the Lord will reward you for all you did for Him. These daughters added something that it seemed no one else could do, or wanted to do, but they did it. May their tribe increase!

Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV).