the law in future (Neh. 8–10) as well as various lists of residents of Jerusalem, priests, Levites and others in Neh. 11:3–12:26. With this outline sketch in mind, we are in a position to begin to ask how we are to make sense of this varied material. We shall need, for instance, to take account of the fact that two of the chief characters (Ezra and Nehemiah) each apparently tell part of their tale in their own words, while of the remainder some is in Hebrew and some in Aramaic, a language closely