They said to me, "The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire."Nehemiah receives a report about those who were left behind in Jerusalem after Babylon conquered it almost a century ago (if I remember the dates right). These would have been the least important of the people, the ones no one cared whether they lived or died. So right from the start, they're probably not going to be doing well. Ezra would have led the exiles back by now, but not that many came, and the land may not have recovered enough to really sustain them. So they're in dire straits.
Then there's the condition of the city, on top of this. First, the defensive wall has been broken down. This means the place is wide open to pillagers, armies, and anyone else who wants to come in and do anything. A city without a wall has only its fighting men to defend it, and they probably aren't much more than a picket force. They have no chance of stopping anyone from doing whatever they want. Also, the gates are burned, so even if the wall was up, there would be no way to seal the entrance. Again, the same problem of no real defense. This is a city that is ripe for the picking of whoever wants to come in. So if another war were to start between Persia and anyone in Africa, Jerusalem is going to be sacked again, and probably outright destroyed.
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