Rehum

Biblical Account

Rehum appears in Ezra 4:8-23. The New Korean Revised Version calls him "Rehum the governor," using a Korean term for an official who governs a province. The underlying title is generally understood to refer to a high-ranking administrative official, and translations render it in slightly different ways.

While the Jews who had returned from exile were rebuilding Jerusalem, Rehum and Shimshai the scribe sent a letter of accusation to Artaxerxes, king of Persia. Their associates from the various peoples who had been resettled in Samaria and the surrounding regions added their names to the letter (Ezra 4:9-10). The main points of the letter were as follows (Ezra 4:12-16):

• Jerusalem had long been a rebellious city.
• If its walls were completed, the Jews would no longer pay tribute and taxes.
• This could be confirmed by searching the royal records.

The king had the records searched and replied that the work was to stop until further orders were given (Ezra 4:17-22). As soon as the decree was read before Rehum and Shimshai, they went up to Jerusalem and made the work cease by force (Ezra 4:23).

Other Individuals with the Same Name

• One of the leaders who returned with Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:2). In the parallel list in Nehemiah 7:7, the name appears as "Nehum."
• A Levite, the son of Bani, who helped repair the wall (Nehemiah 3:17)
• A leader of the people who set his seal to the covenant (Nehemiah 10:25)
• One of the priests who returned with Zerubbabel (Nehemiah 12:3)

Significance within the Bible

The account of Rehum is one of several instances of opposition collected in Ezra 4. The chapter shows that the rebuilding efforts of the returned community repeatedly met with interference from surrounding powers. Beginning at Ezra 4:8, the text is written in Aramaic rather than Hebrew, and Rehum's letter and the king's reply form the opening of this Aramaic section. Rehum is not mentioned in the New Testament.

Interpretation and Debates

• Chronological arrangement: Ezra 4 begins with the obstruction of the temple work in the time of Cyrus, then records events from the reigns of Ahasuerus (4:6) and Artaxerxes (4:7-23), before returning to the reign of King Darius in 4:24. For this reason, many commentators read the Rehum section as a passage arranged by theme rather than chronology.
• Nature of the halted work: The common interpretation holds that what Rehum stopped was not work on the temple but on the city and its walls. Scholars differ, however, in explaining how this relates to the halting of the temple work in 4:24.
• Relationship to Nehemiah: Some identify the Artaxerxes of this passage as Artaxerxes I and suggest that the wall-building halted because of Rehum may form the background to the report of the broken-down walls that Nehemiah received (Nehemiah 1:3). This is a conjecture, not something the text states directly.

In the Korean Church

Rehum is rarely the central figure of sermons or Sunday school lessons. He is usually mentioned in passing, as an example of an adversary who obstructed God's work, in discussions of the rebuilding of the temple and the construction of the walls.