This book closes the history of the Old Testament. Malachi the prophet
was contemporary with Nehemiah.
- NEHILOTH only in the title of Psalm 5. It is probably derived from a
root meaning “to bore,” “perforate,” and hence denotes perforated wind
instruments of all kinds. The psalm may be thus regarded as addressed to
the conductor of the temple choir which played on flutes and such-like
instruments. - NEHUSHTA copper, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem, and the wife
of Jehoiakin (2 Kings 24:8), king of Judah. - NEHUSHTAN of copper; a brazen thing a name of contempt given to the
serpent Moses had made in the wilderness (Numbers 21:8), and which
Hezekiah destroyed because the children of Israel began to regard it as an
idol and “burn incense to it.” The lapse of nearly one thousand years had
invested the “brazen serpent” with a mysterious sanctity; and in order to
deliver the people from their infatuation, and impress them with the idea
of its worthlessness, Hezekiah called it, in contempt, “Nehushtan,” a
brazen thing, a mere piece of brass (2 Kings 18:4). - NEIEL dwelling-place of God, a town in the territory of Asher, near its
southern border (Joshua 19:27). It has been identified with the ruin Y’anin,
near the outlet of the Wady esh Sha-ghur, less than 2 miles north of Kabul,
and 16 miles east of Caesarea. - NEKEB cavern, a town on the boundary of Naphtali (Joshua 19:33). It
has with probability, been identified with Seiyadeh, nearly 2 miles east of
Bessum, a ruin half way between Tiberias and Mount Tabor. - NEMUEL day of God. (1.) One of Simeon’s five sons (1 Chronicles 4:24),
called also Jemuel (Genesis 46:10). (2.) A Reubenite, a son of Eliab, and
brother of Dathan and Abiram (Numbers 26:9). - NEPHILIM (Genesis 6:4; Numbers 13:33, R.V.), giants, the Hebrew word
left untranslated by the Revisers, the name of one of the Canaanitish
tribes. The Revisers have, however, translated the Hebrew gibborim, in
Genesis 6:4, “mighty men.” - NEPHTOAH opened, a fountain and a stream issuing from it on the
border between Judah and Benjamin (Joshua 15:8, 9; 18:15). It has been
identified with ‘Ain Lifta, a spring about 2 1/2 miles north-west of