(i) The Book of Nehemiah introduces us straight away to Nehemiah himself, who will dominate it to a much greater extent than Ezra did in the preceding book. He is introduced to us as “cupbearer to the king” (v. 11), and therefore at Susa, where the king, presumably, was in residence at the time. (We have seen that the Persian kings resided at different seasons in Babylon, Ecbatana and Susa in a kind of “circuit”.) As cupbearer he occupied a position of immense influence within the Empire because