Neh.
1:1 begins the record: "In the month Chisleu, in the _twentieth year_."
Neh. 2:1 continues: "It came to pass in the month Nisan, in the
_twentieth year_ of Artaxerxes." Thus it is plain that in the monthly
calendar of the king's actual reign the month Chisleu came first in
order, and then Nisan. Chisleu was the ninth month of the Jewish sacred
year, roughly, December. Nisan is the first month, April. And these
months, December, April,--in that order,--came in the first year of the
king, of course, the same as in his twentieth year. And in the same year
also came the fifth month, August; for Ezra 7:7-9 shows that the first
and fifth months--in that order--also fell in the same year of his
reign. Then we know of a certainty that his reign began somewhere
between August and December, that is, in the autumn. The first year of
Artaxerxes was from the latter part of 464 B.C. to the latter part of
463, and the seventh year, as readily counted off, would be from near
the end of 458 to near the end of 457. Under the commission to Ezra, the
people began to go up to Jerusalem in the spring of that year, 457 B.
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