Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Nehemiah 10:1
Now those that sealed [were], Nehemiah, the Tirshatha, the son of Hachaliah, and Zidkijah,
Neh 10:1-29. The List of ‘those that sealed’: Neh 10:30-39 Special Obligations of the Covenant
1. those that sealed ] Literally ‘at the sealings,’ the plur. of the word used in Neh 9:38. As in Jer 32:14, the singular and plural are used apparently of the same documents.
Some commentators are inclined to follow the LXX. , as if the words could be rendered ‘among those that sealed or subscribed:’ so apparently the Vulg. ‘signatores.’ But the Hebrew word does not mean the man who affixes his seal, but the thing or document to which it is affixed. Others explain the plur. as indicating the numerous ‘lists’ prepared for signature, as if the different obligations would require different lists. This explanation cannot be pressed. It is sufficient to bear in mind that ‘the sealings’ were very probably ‘parchments’ or ‘tablets,’ and that several would be required for the signature of so large a number.
Nehemiah, the Tirshatha ] Cf. Neh 7:65, Neh 8:9. Nehemiah’s name comes first as that of the governor.
Hachaliah ] R.V. Hacaliah.
Zidkijah ] R.V. Zedekiah. Who this Zedekiah is who receives this honourable place next to the governor we are not told. As his name precedes the priests, we must suppose that he is either an official under the Persian rule ranking next to Nehemiah, or one of royal line (e.g. of the house of Zerubbabel).
The conjecture that he is the same as Zadok ‘the scribe’ in Neh 13:13, and that, having drawn up the document of the Covenant, he therefore signed next after Nehemiah, rests partly on the assumption that ‘Zadok’ and ‘Zedekiah’ are interchangeable names, and partly on the fact that in Ezr 4:8-9; Ezr 4:17 a scribe’s signature follows that of the chief officer. But the identification is not very probable.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The Zidkijah of this passage is probably the same as Zadok Neh 13:13. Zadok is expressly called the scribe, and it was probably as the scribe who drew up the document that Zidkijah signed it immediately after Nehemiah.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Neh 10:1-39
Now those that sealed were, Nehemiah.
Covenanting with God –
I. The parties entering the covenant.
1. Nehemiah the governor. This is true greatness in the sight of God, to be foremost in consecration to the service of religion, and to stand among His people in trying times.
2. The priests. It is remarkable that the name of Eliashib, the high-priest does not appear in this list. It is honourable to the rest of the priests that notwithstanding this defection of their chief, so many of them set their hands to this holy bond.
3. The Levites. We observe among them almost all the names of those who took part in the previous solemnities of this memorable day. It is well, when those who are eminent in devotion are also eminent for devotedness. It sometimes happens that those who are gifted in prayer are not distinguished for holy practice.
4. The chiefs of the nation. This fidelity to the cause of truth adds a lustre to all earthly glory, and sets an ornament of grace on the noblest brow.
5. The rest of the people. It is a blessed thing when whole families thus unite together in the faith of Christ and the life of religion.
II. The engagements of the covenant.
1. Sins to be renounced. It is vain to make loud profession of spiritual experience, and of devotion to the Saviour, unless besetting sins are abandoned and a new course of obedience begun.
2. Duties to be performed.
(1) To give to God.
(2) To work for God (verse 34).
All vow to work for God, each in his own place, according to the Divine will, at the appointed times, and unwearied in well-doing. Henry Martyn wrote: With resignation and peace, I can look forward to a life of labour and seclusion from earthly comforts, while Jesus stands near changing me into His holy image. How happy and honoured am I in being suffered to be a missionary. And Levi Parsons testified: I can subscribe with my hand to be for ever the Lords, to be sent anywhere, to do anything, to endure any hardship, live and die a missionary.
(3) To wait on God.
III. The inferences deducible from the covenant.
1. We here see the propriety of religious covenanting.
2. The obligation in covenanting established. When you devote yourself to the Lord in covenant, to obey the precepts of His Word, your essential obligation is not strengthened or altered; it is merely recognised by you, and promised to be fulfilled.
3. The benefits from covenanting illustrated. (W. Ritchie.)
Covenant comfort
Christmas Evans, after being sorely tried, was led to enter afresh into personal, covenant,, with God; and such was the joy in God which followed, that he said of it, After forming this covenant I felt great calmness and peace. I had the feelings of a poor man who has just come under the protection of the Royal Family, and has obtained a pension for life, the dreadful tear of poverty and want having left his house for ever. I felt the safety and shelter which the little chickens feel under the wings of the hen. (The Thinker.)
A national covenant
On February 25, 1688, a memorable scene was witnessed in the churchyard of Greyfriars, Edinburgh. The National Covenant to maintain Presbyterianism, and to resist contrary errors, having been numerously signed within the church, the parchment was subsequently placed upon the flat tombstone, still extant, of Boswell of Auchinleck, where many others, to show their determination to die rather than yield, signed it with blood from their arms. History testifies that numbers of them endured much suffering rather than violate their pledge. If frail men will so keep their promise, much more must the Omnipotent (God honour His covenant. (The Thinker.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER X
The names of those who sealed the covenant, 1-27.
All solemnly promise not to have affinity with the people of
the land, 28-30;
to observe the Sabbaths, 31;
to provide for the sanctuary according to the law, 32-36;
and to pay the regular tithes for the support of the priests,
Levites, and other officers of the temple, 37-39.
NOTES ON CHAP. X
Verse 1. Now those that sealed] Four classes here seal. Nehemiah first, as their governor. And after him, secondly, The priests, Ne 10:2-8. Thirdly, The Levites, Ne 10:9-13. Fourthly, The chiefs of the people, Ne 10:14-27.
It is strange that, among all these, we hear nothing of Ezra, nor of the high priest Eliashib. Nor are any of the prophets mentioned, though there must have been some of them at Jerusalem at this time.
The whole of this chapter, the two first verses excepted, is wanting in the Arabic; the word Pashur of the third verse is retained; and the rest of the chapter is summed up in these words, and the rest of their assembly.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Those that sealed, both in their own names, and in the name of all the rest. It may seem strange that Ezra doth not appear among them. But that might be because he was prevented, either by death, or by some sickness, or other extraordinary impediment, for which we have this presumption, that whereas Ezra appears, and preacheth, and prayeth with Jeshua and Bani, &c., before the feast of tabernacles, Neh 8:4, &c., we have no mention of him Ne 9, but the whole work of that solemn fast day was managed by them alone, without any mention of Ezra, whose name would not have been omitted, if he had been then present. It is true, we meet with Ezra after this, at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, Neh 12:36, and therefore he was then freed from this impediment, whatsoever it was; but thence it appears that he was not dead. Nehemiah, the Tirshatha: this is added to distinguish him from others of that name, whereof we have one, Neh 3:16.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Nehemiah, the TirshathaHisname was placed first in the roll on account of his high officialrank, as deputy of the Persian monarch. All classes were included inthe subscription; but the people were represented by their elders (Ne10:14), as it would have been impossible for every one in thecountry to have been admitted to the sealing.
Ne10:28. THE RESTOF THE PEOPLE BOUNDTHEMSELVES TO OBSERVEIT.
Those who were not present at thesealing ratified the covenant by giving their assent, either in wordsor by lifting up their hands, and bound themselves, by a solemn oath,to walk in God’s law, imprecating a curse upon themselves in theevent of their violating it.
Ne10:29-39. POINTS OF THECOVENANT.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Now those that sealed were,…. That sealed the covenant, made Ne 9:38.
Nehemiah the Tirshatha, the son of Hachaliah; the governor of the Jews:
and Zidkijah; who seems also to have been a prince, since, without, it could not be said it was sealed by their princes, Ne 9:38 though some think both these were priests, and then the princes must be supposed to be among the chief of the people, Ne 10:14, from hence to the end of the twenty seventh their names follow; the names of the priests,
Ne 10:2, who were in all twenty one; no mention is made either of Eliashib the high priest, nor of Ezra the priest and scribe; some think the former had not behaved well in his office, and that the latter was either sick, or returned to Babylon, or however hindered by some providence or another, since we hear of him both a little before and after, Ne 8:2 then the names of the Levites, Ne 10:9, in all seventeen, most of which we have met with in this book before; next follow the names of the chief of the people, Ne 10:14, their number in all forty four; and their names may be observed in the list of those that came out of Babylon with Zerubbabel; the whole number of those that sealed, princes, priests, Levites, and chief of the people, were eighty four.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(10:2)
A covenant made (vv. 1-32), and an engagement entered into, to furnish what was needed for the maintenance of the temple, its services, and ministers (Neh 10:33-39). – Vv. 1-28. For the purpose of giving a lasting influence to this day of prayer and fasting, the assembled people, after the confession of sin (given in Neh 9), entered into a written agreement, by which they bound themselves by an oath to separate from the heathen, and to keep the commandments and ordinances of God, – a document being prepared for this purpose, and sealed by the heads of their different houses.
And because of all this we make and write a sure covenant; and our princes, Levites, and priests sign the sealed (document). does not mean post omne hoc , after all that we have done this day (Schmid, Bertheau, and others); still less, in omni hoc malo, quod nobis obtigerat (Rashi, Aben Ezra), but upon all this, i.e., upon the foundation of the preceding act of prayer and penitence, we made , i.e., a settlement, a sure agreement (the word recurs Neh 11:23); hence is used as with , Neh 9:8. may again be taken as the object of , we write it; be understood as “our princes sealed.” is the sealed document; comp. Jer 22:11, Jer 22:14. means literally, Upon the sealed document were our princes, etc.; that is, our princes sealed or signed it. Signing was effected by making an impression with a seal bearing a name; hence originated the idiom , “he who was upon the sealed document,” meaning he who had signed the document by sealing it. By this derived signification is the plural (Neh 10:2), “they who were upon the document,” explained: they who had signed or sealed the document.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Sealing of the Covenant. | B. C. 444. |
1 Now those that sealed were, Nehemiah, the Tirshatha, the son of Hachaliah, and Zidkijah, 2 Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, 3 Pashur, Amariah, Malchijah, 4 Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, 5 Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, 6 Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, 7 Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, 8 Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah: these were the priests. 9 And the Levites: both Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel; 10 And their brethren, Shebaniah, Hodijah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, 11 Micha, Rehob, Hashabiah, 12 Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, 13 Hodijah, Bani, Beninu. 14 The chief of the people; Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zatthu, Bani, 15 Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, 16 Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, 17 Ater, Hizkijah, Azzur, 18 Hodijah, Hashum, Bezai, 19 Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, 20 Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, 21 Meshezabeel, Zadok, Jaddua, 22 Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, 23 Hoshea, Hananiah, Hashub, 24 Hallohesh, Pileha, Shobek, 25 Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, 26 And Ahijah, Hanan, Anan, 27 Malluch, Harim, Baanah. 28 And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge, and having understanding; 29 They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes; 30 And that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons: 31 And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day: and that we would leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt.
When Israel was first brought into covenant with God it was done by sacrifice and the sprinkling of blood, Exod. xxiv. But here it was done by the more natural and common way of sealing and subscribing the written articles of the covenant, which bound them to no more than was already their duty. Now here we have,
I. The names of those public persons who, as the representatives and heads of the congregation, set their hands and seals to this covenant, because it would have been an endless piece of work for every particular person to do it; and, if these leading men did their part in pursuance of this covenant, their example would have a good influence upon all the people. Now observe, 1. Nehemiah, who was the governor, signed first, to show his forwardness in this work and to set others a good example, v. 1. Those that are above others in dignity and power should go before them in the way of God. 2. Next to him subscribed twenty-two priests, among whom I wonder we do not find Ezra, who was an active man in the solemnity (ch. viii. 2) which was but the first day of the same month, and therefore we cannot think he was absent; but he, having before done his part as a scribe, now left it to others to do theirs. 3. Next to the priests, seventeen Levites subscribed this covenant, among whom we find all or most of those who were the mouth of the congregation in prayer, Neh 9:4; Neh 9:5. This showed that they themselves were affected with what they had said, and would not bind those burdens on others which they themselves declined to touch. Those that lead in prayer should lead in every other good work. 4. Next to the Levites, forty-four of the chief of the people gave it under their hands for themselves and all the rest, chiefly those whom they had influence upon, that they would keep God’s commandments. Their names are left upon record here, to their honour, as men that were forward and active in reviving and endeavouring to perpetuate religion in their country. The memory of such shall be blessed. It is observable that most of those who were mentioned, ch. vii. 8, c., as heads of houses or clans, are here mentioned among the first of the chief of the people that subscribed, whoever was the present head bearing the name of him that was head when they came out of Babylon, and these were fittest to subscribe for all those of their father’s house. Here are Parosh, Pahathmoab, Elam, Zatthu, Bani (<i>v. 14), Azgad, Bebai, Bigvai, Adin, Ater, Hashum, Bezai, Hariph, Anathoth, and some others in the following verses, that are all found in that catalogue. Those that have interest must use it for God.
II. The concurrence of the rest of the people with them, and the rest of the priests and Levites, who signified their consent to what their chiefs did. With them joined, 1. Their wives and children; for they had transgressed, and they must reform. Every one that had knowledge and understanding must covenant with God. As soon as young people grow up to be capable of distinguishing between good and evil, and of acting intelligently, they ought to make it their own act and deed to join themselves to the Lord. 2. The proselytes of other nations, all that had separated themselves from the people of the lands, their gods and their worship, unto the law of God, and the observance of that law. See what conversion it; it is separating ourselves from the course and custom of this world, and devoting ourselves to the conduce of the word of God. And, as there is one law, so there is one covenant, one baptism, for the stranger and for him that is born in the land. Observe how the concurrence of the people is expressed, v. 29. (1.) They clave to their brethren one and all. Here those whom the court blessed the country blessed too! The commonalty agreed with their nobles in this good work. Great men never look so great as when they encourage religion, and are examples of it; and they would by that, as much as any thing, secure an interest in the most valuable of their inferiors. Let but the nobles cordially espouse religious causes, and perhaps they will find people cleave to them therein closer than they can imagine. Observe, Their nobles are called their brethren; for, in the things of God, rich and poor, high and low, meet together. (2.) They entered into a curse and an oath. As the nobles confirmed the covenant with their hands and seals, so the people with a curse and an oath, solemnly appealing to God concerning their sincerity, and imprecating his just revenge if they dealt deceitfully. Every oath has in it a conditional curse upon the soul, which makes it a strong bond upon the soul; for our own tongues, if false and lying tongues, will fall, and fall heavily, upon ourselves.
III. The general purport of this covenant. They laid upon themselves no other burden than this necessary thing, which they were already obliged to by all other engagements of duty, interest, and gratitude–to walk in God’s law, and to do all his commandments, v. 29. Thus David swore that he would keep God’s righteous judgments, Ps. cxix. 106. Our own covenant binds us to this, if not more strongly, yet more sensibly, than we were before bound, and therefore we must not think it needless thus to bind ourselves. Observe, When we bind ourselves to do the commandments of God we bind ourselves to do all his commandments, and therein to have an eye to him as the Lord and our Lord.
IV. Some of the particular articles of this covenant, such as were adapted to their present temptations. 1. That they would not intermarry with the heathen, v. 30. Many of them had been guilty of this, Ezra ix. 1. In our covenants with God we should engage particularly against those sins that we have been most frequently overtaken in and damaged by. Those that resolve to keep the commandments of God must say to evil doers, Depart, Ps. cxix. 115. 2. That they would keep no markets on the sabbath day, or any other day of which the law had said, You shall do no work therein. They would not only not sell goods themselves for gain on that day, but they would not encourage the heathen to sell on that day by buying of them, no not victuals, under pretence of necessity; but would buy in their provisions for their families the day before, v. 31. Note, Those that covenant to keep all God’s commandments must particularly covenant to keep sabbaths well; for the profanation of them is an inlet to other instances of profaneness. The sabbath is a market day for our souls, but not for our bodies. 3. That they would not be severe in exacting their debts, but would observe the seventh year as a year of release, according to the law, v. 31. In this matter they had been faulty (ch. v.), and here therefore they promise to reform. This was the acceptable fast, to undo the heavy burden, and to let the oppressed go free, Isa. lviii. 6. It was in the close of the day of expiation that the jubilee trumpet sounded. It was for the neglect of observing the seventh year as a year of rest for the land that God had made it enjoy its sabbaths seventy years (Lev. xxvi. 35), and therefore they covenanted to observe that law. Those are stubborn children indeed that will not amend the fault for which they have been particularly corrected.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Nehemiah – Chapter 10
“A Sure Covenant,” 9:36; Verses 1-27
The last verse of chapter 9 introduces the subject of chapter 10. As the prayer of the Levites concluded it proposed a covenant to be attested by the leading men, Levites, and priests of Judah, by which they would agree to abide by the law of God with reference to His worship. By a “sure covenant” is meant an agreement, or document, sealed by the affixing of the names of these leading persons entering into it
The covenant signers begin .with the name of Nehemiah, the Trshatha, or governor. Then follow in order the priests, the Levites, and the “chief of the people.” Of the priests there are named twenty-two; of the Levites, seventeen; of the leaders, forty-four. Most of these are not mentioned elsewhere in the Scriptures, although the Levitical teachers introduced in chapter 9 are among those listed here. Notably absent from those named is Ezra the scribe, for no known reason. Perhaps his piety and dedication to the Lord was so outstanding it seemed superfluous to have his name appended to the covenant.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THE DIFFICULTIES OF REBUILDING
The opening chapter acquaints us with Nehemiahs very soul. The heart of the man is here exposed and the reader is permitted his deepest thought. He inquires after the remnant left in Jerusalem and learns that they are in great affliction and reproach, the walls of the city broken down, the gates burned, and he not only sits him down to weep, but mourns for days and fasts and prays before the God of Heaven, and his prayer as reported in chapter 1, Neh 1:5-11, is a model of intercession, while chapters 2 to 7 record the result of that petition before God.
These seven chapters suggest three things:
First, the strain of prayer and the exercise of patience. Chapters 1 and 2,
The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,
That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.
And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of Heaven,
And said, I beseech Thee, O Lord God of Heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love Him and observe His commandments:
Let Thine ear now be attentive, and Thine eyes open, that Thou mayest hear the prayer of Thy servant, which I pray before Thee now, day and night, for the Children of Israel Thy servants, and confess the sins of the Children of Israel, which we have sinned against Thee: both I and my fathers house have sinned.
We have dealt very corruptly against Thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which Thou commandedst Thy servant Moses.
Remember, I beseech Thee, the word that Thou commandedst Thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:
But if ye turn unto Me, and keep My commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the Heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set My name there.
Now these are Thy servants and Thy people, whom Thou hast redeemed by Thy great power, and by Thy strong hand.
O Lord, I beseech Thee, let now Thine ear be attentive to the prayer of Thy servant, and to the prayer of Thy servants, who desire to fear Thy Name: and prosper, I pray Thee, Thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the kings cupbearer (Neh 1:1-11).
Neh 2:1-20.
And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.
Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid,
And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers sepulchres, lieth waste and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?
Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of Heaven.
And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers sepulchres, that I may build it.
And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.
Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah;
And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the kings forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the kings letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.
When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the Children of Israel.
So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.
And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon.
And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire.
Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the kings pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass.
Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned.
And the rulers knew not whither I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work.
Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.
Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the kings words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.
But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said. What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king?
Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of Heaven, He will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem (Neh 2:1-20).
I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of Heaven (Neh 1:4). There are people who make easy work of prayer. They either repeat what their mothers taught them in infancy, Now I lay me down to sleep, or else they think over what they would like to have and lightly tell God about it at night or in the morning; or else they remember the famous story of the saint who was heard to say, Well, Lord, Pm glad we are on the same good terms! Good-night! and the whole exercise is finished. Or perhaps, as possibly the greater multitude, forget to pray before retiring, awake in the night and remember it, and while formulating the phrases, fall to sleep again.
There are people who never pray without agonizing. They hold a conviction that any appeal addressed to God must be voiced in sobs if heard in Heaven, and they take on prayer tones and assume sorrow, contrition, agony of soul, and such are wont to think that no one prays who does not cry aloud; but while such patented prayers produce strange and almost revolting feelings on the part of the discerning, it remains a fairly well established fact that true praying is no easy or lackadaisical task.
The prayer of Jacob at Peniel was no slight mental exercise. It consisted not in framing a few petitions. It is described in the Book as a wrestling with God all the night through, a clinging that would not let Him go without a blessing. Abraham in praying for Sodom, continued his petition; advanced his requests and did not let God go until the best possible proffer was secured. Moses in agony for Israel reached the point where he begged that if God would not bless them, He should blot his name out of the Book of remembrance. In Gethsemane, Jesus remained on knees and wrestled with the Father and not only cried in agony, If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me, but sweat great drops of blood.
Prayer is no mere passing of time in talk; prayer is no mere opportunity of literary expression or homiletical arrangement; prayer, at its best, is an agony; prayer, at its best, utterly exhausts; prayer consumes!
Christ, Himself, in teaching us how to pray, employed the illustration of the importunate widow who would not be turned aside but, prostrate before the unjust judge, kept her petitions going until he was wearied with her. Many times I have heard Dwight L: Moody pray and the memory of it will never pass from my mind. I am perfectly confident that a five-minute prayer passing Moodys lips exhausted him more than five hours of hard physical labor would have done; more than the hour sermon that followed, for while Moody assumed no agonizing tones, prayer with him was indeed a soul exercise. He went trembling into the presence of God, as Esther approached the king. He ordered his cause before Him as one who felt that the highest human interests and holiest were at stake. He came not back until he was conscious that he had been heard and his hearts request was fully before God.
Listen to the language of Nehemiahs prayer; I beseech Thee, O Lord God of Heaven * * Let Thine ear now be attentive and Thine eyes open. I pray before Thee now, day and night (Neh 1:3; Neh 1:6). Hear his confession of sin, Both I and my fathers house have sinned, Remember, I beseech Thee, and again, O Lord, I beseech Thee, let now Thine ear be attentive to the prayer of Thy servant. Grant him mercy in the sight of this man, for he was the kings cupbearer.
But if prayer is exhausting, to wait for the answer is equally if not more so; for the man who truly prays is impatient. He yearns; he longs! Nehemiahs prayer seems to have been made in the month Chisleu, or December, and he waited until Nisan or April, before he had a chance with the king. Four months is a long time to wait when every moment is freighted with anxiety. The reports that had come to him of the condition of his loved city and its sacred temple, and of these blood relatives to whom he was bound as only a Jew is bound to his own, made every day of waiting seem like an eternity.
John Knox was heard, in a secret place behind the hedge-row, to pray, O God, give me Scotland or I die. Three times the passer-by heard this petition, wrung from his soul, and yet even Knoxs agony never exceeded that of Nehemiahthe waiting, weeping man!
Think what it would mean to you if the temple that we are now demolishing at Tenth Street had been in such state for years, and the place to which we were once wont to go and gladly worship God, and in which we once waited with such delightful songs and profitable exercise of soul, was never to rise again, and we knew that only God could call back its towers and make possible the completion of its auditorium and breathe His own Spirit, like a soul, into the same!
Joseph Parker said, Can we hear of sacred places burning without a single tear? Could we hear of St. Pauls cathedral being burned down without feeling we had sustained an irreparable loss, and if anything happened to that grand old Abbey at Westminster, we should feel as if a sacred place was gone, a sanctuary indeed, and as if it were every Englishmans duty to help put it up again.
When the cathedral at Rheims was destroyed, the entire Christian world revolted and grieved, and justly so; but that was a matter of pride rather than of passion. We may be moved with the report that the mansion on the boulevard has burned, but the souls deeps are smitten when one stands before the smoldering ashes of his own home, the place where he has thought and wrought, hoped and helped, planned and prayed. In a great sense, such a place is an essential part of life itself, and to smite it is to smite the soul of man.
To wait for the new building to come, to abide patiently until the walls rise again, and to look unto God who alone can bring order out of chaos, victory out of defeat, restoration out of despair; that is the strain for which few men are sufficient, but under which Nehemiah stood steadfastly.
But the whole of exhausting is not in waiting. Nehemiah proved sufficient for a second thing, namely, the exhausting stimulus of seeing plans perfected.
There are people who imagine that all weariness is over when once a work is well begun, clearly under way, with every prospect of completion. On the contrary, the opposite is true. That is when and where the truest exhaustion takes place. Its exhilaration we grant; its stimulus is often mistaken for strength; but it is none the less consuming.
Some years ago Mrs. Riley and myself sat down to think through plans for a home. Weeks we spent upon those plans, and they were weeks of pleasure. Anticipation played conspicuous part and the enthusiasm of new thought for this convenience and that cheered and encouraged, but when the building time came, the constant watch and care-taking concern was exhausting.
The members of the building committee of the First Baptist Church would bear kindred testimony. I doubt if any building the city of Minneapolis holds, had more time expended in thinking through plans than the two buildings upon the plans of which we have been engaged for years. They have been drawn three times, and the utmost endeavor was put into every detail, and yet the actual construction itself, while stimulating, has proven also exhausting. It may be difficult for racers to wait the word Go, and it is; and when once the race is commenced, the very stimulus of prospective victory leads one to forget self and muscles are not conscious of the strain, but with joy yield themselves to their task. The goal, however, never fails to find an exhausted runner.
But the greatest difficulty of this rebuilding is found in a third circumstance, namely, the increasing load of every conceivable opposition.
This opposition took varied forms; in fact, almost every form possible to Satanic suggestion.
Its first form was scorn. Sanballat and Tobiah laughed, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? wilt they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?
Then, with a great guffaw they continued, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall (Neh 4:2-3).
What so hard to endure as scorn; what so difficult to bear as a laugh? It stings like a hornet! It is one of the things against which it is hard to go. The Professor who teaches evolution also teaches his students that ridicule is an insult to science. They know its power and they also know that that subject deserves it; and on that account they wince at the very suggestion. But, on any subject, ridicule is hard to bear. However the true builder, a leader like Nehemiah and his co-laborers go on joining wall to wall and will not be laughed out of court on a great and needful enterprise.
Seeing this, Sanballat and Tobiah changed voices, and, joining with Arabians, Ammonites and Ashdodites, they were very wroth, and conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder if (Neh 4:7-8). The man who makes fun of you, when he finds his laughter ineffective, and your success assured, comes to hate, and if possible, to hurt. Human nature does not change through the coming and going of the centuries. All our enemies are of a kind; mockery at first, murder afterward. But, Gods man can commonly meet the true adversaries, Satans servants.
A far more difficult opposition is that recorded in the fifth chapter, the opposition of ones own. The Jews now join their complaints with the others, and the great cry of the people and their wives against their brethren was this:
We, our sons, and our daughters, are many: therefore we take up corn for them, that we may eat, and live.
Some also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth.
There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the kings tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards.
Yet now our flesh is the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought unto bondage already: neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and vineyards (Neh 5:2-5).
For the moment they forgot that no man among them had sacrificed as Nehemiah had sacrificed, and, in reckoning their losses, they overlooked the circumstance that he had shaken his lap out, leaving himself nothing. That was a harder opposition than was created by Sanballat and Tobiah.
The disappointment of Christs life was not in the fact that He faced the Cross; He came to do that. It was not in the cruelty of the nails that crushed His tender flesh; from all eternity that had been anticipated! But, His agony was in the lifting up a heel against Him by one out of the little circle, dear to Him. Never was sarcasm reduced to such keen edge and more deeply felt than in the Garden of Gethsemane when Christ, looking into the face of Judas, said, FRIEND, wherefore art thou come?
FRIENDwhat that must have meant to Judas! If he knew the Scriptures, like a flash, Psa 41:9 filled his thought. My own familiar FRIEND, in whom I trusted, which did eat of My bread, hath lifted up his heel against Me (Psa 41:9).
And yet again how he would recall the words of the great Zechariah (Zec 13:6), And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in Thine hands? Then He shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of My FRIENDS.
Blessed is the man, the members of whose house join with him in his enterprises; and cursed indeed is he who endures their opposition.
But Satan has other methods of opposition than scorn, warfare and domestic rebellion. In the sixth chapter Sanballat tried to effect a companionship and consequent compromise with Nehemiah. Four times over he sends requesting that they meet together for a conference and adjust their differences. The recent Convention of Baptists is now heralded as a triumph of brotherly love. The whole session has gone by and only a single protest characterized it, and only one man voiced that complaint and the newspapers have been filled with jubilation of the reports of peace. The fundamentalists have subsided and the path of the future is smooth! Such is the glared acclaim; and that in the face of the fact that in the last twelve months the most flagrant denials of the faith that ever passed the lips of Baptist men, or dribbled from the pens of Baptist writers, have gone brazenly into print. The peace that comes by a compromise of principle, a conference that results to the satisfaction of Gods enemies, a conference that follows a fellowship of Satanic plans; these are, after all, the most effective hindrances to the truth of God. And it is written to the eternal credit of Nehemiah that he fell into no such trap, but declined the conference, resented the approach, rejoicing that he had escaped the pit digged for him, and recorded the fact that the wall was finished on the twentieth and fifth day of the month, being completed in fifty-two days.
And this same man who had led in the building now organized to hold what he had gained, and the result was a revival.
Mark
THE STABLE FEATURES OF THIS REVIVAL
It commenced in a careful canvass of returned captives. The seventh chapter of the Book of Nehemiah would amaze the modernist, should he read the same. That individual imagines that the social surveys of the last few years constitute a twentieth century novelty, but here three thousand years ago Nehemiah orders a census taken with a view to knowing the strength of Israel and sounding out his possible resources, the fuller carrying out of which has seldom been equalled and never surpassed. The report rendered by the commissioned workers was perfect. He took count of the last man and of his possessions, and when it was finished, Nehemiah knew how many people he had upon whom he could dependforty-two thousand three hundred sixty, besides seven thousand three hundred thirty-seven servants and two hundred forty-five singing men and singing women.
There is a suggestion there for modernists; better count rather than estimate! My candid judgment is that the one sin that characterizes more ministers than any other is estimating versus counting. I went into a church where the preacher had claimed a congregation of forty-four hundred, and counted exactly twenty-two hundred seats, including the choir gallery; and in another church largely over-estimated, reporting six thousand, and counted exactly thirty-two hundred including the choir. Better count than estimate. One might greatly reduce his crowd but would increase his reputation for veracity and increase his self-respect. The man who goes to battle had best not count on soldiers he does not have, and the church of God is militant and cannot win its victories with congregations that are estimated, but never existed.
The relation, however, to such a careful reckoning of ones resources to a revival is intimate and logical. I am inclined to think that of the years of my pastorate in this church, no single meeting held in it has accomplished more for it than the two years campaign that commenced with a most careful canvass of the membership. A canvass itself suffices to bring a conviction of responsibility to the individual, and to waken interest in the task to be undertaken by the entire people. Nehemiah knew the principles of a revival thirty centuries ago as well as the evangelist knows them today.
The second feature of this revival is significant in the last degree: The Word of God was produced and read to all the people.
It was no brief reading; it went on for hours, from morning until midday, .before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the Book of the Law (Neh 8:3).
There will never be a revival of religion without a revival of Bible reading. We are publishing more Bibles than ever before in human history, but the individual is not reading the Bible as much as his father did, and the whole church of God feels the relapse. When the Christian takes his Book in hand and abides with it by the hour, when the family begins the day by reading a chapter from the Book, when the, preacher turns from textual sermons and revives expository preaching, when the Sunday School ceases from lesson helps and pores over the text itself, the revival will be well on the way.
There never will be strength in the church until we feed on the Bread from Heaven and on the meat of Gods Word; until we hold the milk bottle of that same Word to the lips of babes. If we would have a revival we must bring the Bible from its shelf of neglect; if we would have a revival we must exalt it against the charges of infidelity; if we would have a revival we must rescue the people themselves from indifference to this Book. We are novel readers now; we are readers of the daily newspapers; some few of the more industrious, are magazine readers; a smaller company still, are book-readers, but the Church of God waits Bible reading; and if the day of Bible study should suddenly break in upon usand there are some signs of it then as sure as day follows night, an unspeakable blessing immeasurable in extent, infinitely desirable in character, will fall on the sons of man.
But note again, Repentance, fasting, and a fresh covenant follows (Neh 8:9 to Neh 12:39). Impenitent people will never become Bible students. The gormandizing crowd will never give itself to Gods Word; the pleasure-seeking will never enter into covenant with the Lord.
However, if, in the wisdom of His grace, the present Bible movement voices itself in the fundamentals association, and the thousands of Bible conferences that have been held, in the Bible Unions of China and England, and America, shall result in earnest and sincere and increasing study of the Scriptures, we may well expect repentance to follow. Men will break with sin and will no longer make a god of their bellies, but will fast; and out of this conviction self-control will come and a fresh covenant, made in sincerity, and destined to be kept in the power of the Holy Spirit.
So much for the stable features of revival, let us conclude our Book study with
THE STUBBORN FACTS OF RE-OCCUPATION
These are recorded in chapters 11 to 13, and the first one that we face is this: The Jerusalem dwellers were recorded as especially favored. The rulers of the people dwelt at Jerusalem: the rest of the people also cast lots, to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem the holy city (Neh 11:1).
It is a significant suggestion: Jerusalem, the city of the king; Jerusalem, the captial city of the land; Jerusalem, the subject of every Jews love, and the choice of every Jews living.
It does make a difference where one lives. A Minneapolis minister, returning from the Orient, a few years since, in an address before the Baptist ministers, said, I spent some days in Jerusalem; it is a bum town!
But only the readers of the Old Testament know what the ancient Jerusalem was and what it meant to every living Jew. It was more than the capitol; it was more than the city of the king: it was more than beautiful; it was, to them, Divine! They believed that God Himself was there; and in a sense they were correct, for He had made every pledge of His Presence in the Temple, and He performed His promise. Ones life, in no small measure, is the result of ones location.
I think I may be pardoned in passing, if I pay tribute to this city. I declare it my conviction that life has meant more to me, that the burdens have pressed less heavily upon my shoulders, that the joy of living has itself been increased, and that I hold a confidence against decrepitude and old age that would be impossible, if I lived in a city less charming than this beautiful metropolis. Life is profoundly affected by location. In the northern woods of Minnesota I stumbled suddenly and unexpectedly upon a small house. I was hungry and supposed myself beyond the pale of civilization. Going in I was met at the door by a charming looking woman to whom I said, I am hungry and have a party of four friends with me; would it be possible for you to give us a dinner? She graciously answered, It would be a delight to give you a dinner; bring your friends in. When the dinner was over and I tried to pay her, she declined to receive anything, and it was only by leaving the money on the table that I could force it upon her. She said, I have not seen a living face, except that of my little son, for three months; you cannot imagine the pleasure this dinner has been to me, for it has meant companionship. I asked, Will you tell me why you live here away from all civilization and friends?
Yes, sir, I live here with pleasure and with joy. In Southern Illinois I dragged a miserable existence; in these north woods my health is recovered and living is a joy.
Who will say that location has nothing to do with living. Jerusalem! Ah, that was the city coveted by every Jew, and the tenth man permitted to dwell there dwelt not only nigh to the Temple but nigh to God; and whatever else may be said of the Jew, it was the acme of his existence that he believed God and sought to live near God.
You will find again that in this city special provision was made for the priests and Levites. God never forgets those He calls to be His special servants !
There are special promises made to all Gods people! In fact, Dean Frost, our former great-souled co-laborer, used to say that there were thousands of promises in the Bible, and that with a solitary exception, they were all made to Gods own, and that exception was salvation proffered to the sinner. But while all Gods people are the subject of promises, the servant whose entire time is devoted to Gods work is the subject of His special promise, and the object of His constant care. The Levite was never forgotten; the priest was never overlooked. By law the provisions made for them both were adequate.
I meet a good many ministers who tell me they feel it incumbent upon them to look out for themselves, and judging by their conduct, they are keen on the job. They hunt for positions; they seek compensation; they corral opportunities. It all raises a serious question, whether one has much to do with the subject of caring for himself if he be the true servant of God, or whether it is sufficient for him to devote himself to that service and leave the whole question of his care to Him who careth and never faileth.
Finally, by the Law of the Lord certain were excluded from the city. Chapter 13.
Mark who they were: Ammonites and Moabites were not to come into the congregation of God forever, and note the reason, They met not the Children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them that he should curse them (Neh 13:2).
It is a grievous thing to refuse help to Gods people in the hour of their need. It is more grievous, a thousand-fold, than the average man imagines. It is not a rejection of the people onlyit is a rejection of Him. The twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew is a further presentation of this subject. The great day of Judgment has come; men are separated to the right and to the left, after the manner of sheep and goats, and the King is saying to them on His right hand,
Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
For I was an hungred, and ye gave Me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me in:
Naked, and ye clothed Me: I was sick, and ye visited Me: I was in prison, and ye came unto Me.
Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungred, and fed Thee? or thirsty, and gave Thee drink?
When saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? or naked, and clothed Thee?
Or when saw we Thee sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.
Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
For I was an hungred, and ye gave Me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink:
I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in: naked, and ye clothed Me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited Me not.
Then shall they also answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto Thee?
Then shall He answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me.
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal (Mat 25:34-46).
And yet this is not the only sin that excludes. After all, it is not sin that does exclude, save the sin of having rejected Jesus. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him (Joh 3:36).
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
EXPLANATORY NOTES.] Neh. 10:1-27.] First came the name of the governor, the Tirshatha; next Zidkijah, perhaps the secretary to the governor. Then follow twenty-one names of priests, seventeen Levites, and forty-four of the chief of the people.
Neh. 10:28. The rest of the people] Represented by the heads of the nations who had sealed the covenant. These sealed; those swore. All they that had separated themselves] The descendants of those Israelites who had been left in the land, and who now joined the new community.Keil.
Neh. 10:30-31.] Besides the general obligation to observe all the commandments, judgments, and statutes of God, two points, then frequently transgressed, are specially mentioned. In Neh. 10:30, that we would not give our daughters to the people of the lands, nor take their daughters for our sons. In Neh. 10:31, that if the people of the land brought wares or any victuals on the Sabbath day to sell, we would not buy it of them on the Sabbath, or on a holy day; and would let the seventh year lie, and the loan of every hand. To the sanctification of the Sabbath pertained the celebration of the Sabbatical year in which the land was to lie untilled and unsown (Exo. 23:10).Keil.
Neh. 10:32-39.] Having agreed to keep the law they then resolved to maintain the Temple service.
Neh. 10:32. The third part of a shekel] The law required half a shekel; perhaps reduced to one-third in consequence of the peoples poverty. Ver.
Neh. 10:34. We cast the lots for the wood offering] The carrying of the wood had formerly been the work of the Nethinims. But few of them having returned, the duty was assigned as stated in the text. The practice afterwards rose into great importance, and Josephus speaks of the Xylophoria, or certain stated and solemn times, at which the people brought up wood to the Temple.Jamieson.
Neh. 10:38. The priest shall be with the Levites when they take tithes] A prudential arrangement. The presence of a dignified priest would prevent the people deceiving the Levites, or the Levites defrauding the priests.Jamieson. The tithe of the tithes] The Levites, having received a tenth of all land produce, were required to give a tenth of this to the priests. The Levites were charged with the additional obligation to carry the tithes when received, and deposit them in the Temple stores, for the use of the priests.Jamieson.
Neh. 10:39. We will not forsake the house] The people swore to maintain, the priests and Levites to serve, the Temple.
HOMILETICAL CONTENTS OF CHAPTER 10
Neh. 10:28-31. Unworldliness.
Neh. 10:29. Moses.
Neh. 10:32-39. Voluntary Taxation.
Neh. 10:39. Zeal for the Sanctuary.
Neh. 10:39. Zeal for Gods House expressed in a holy resolution not to forsake it.
UNWORLDLINESS
Neh. 10:28-31. And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge, and having understanding; they clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in Gods law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes; and that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons: and if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day: and that we would leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt.
THEY did not pray to be taken out of the world; they did resolve to keep themselves from its evil. Is that biblical unworldliness? St. James says, The friendship of the world is enmity with God; whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Does the Apostle stand alone in this? Is he carried away by the vehemence of his feelings as public speakers sometimes are? He was pre-eminently a calm man. He weighed his words. The men of his age styled him the just. He was a man of weight. And the key-note of his epistle is struck in the sermon on the mount. Let us listen to the teaching of Jesus, so tranquil in its tone: No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works. Unfortunately use has dulled the edge of these beautiful words. Could we listen to them as they deserve to be heard they would sound strangely. They distinguish between things that differthe world and God. They separate the worshippers of the world from the worshippers of God. They tell of a reciprocal influence. If we turn from Christ to Paul the strain is the same. Be not conformed to this world, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. The time is short: it remaineth, that they that weep be as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away. Take one more stepfrom Paul to John. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world is not of the Father, but is of the world.
I. What is the forbidden world?
1. Not the material world. Every creature of God is good. The world is Gods: he made it; he gloried in it; he upholds it. It is a mark of Gods likeness to enjoy this beautiful world. In the world God is mirrored. When night draws its curtain and hangs up its silvery lamps,
All things are calm, and fair, and passive. Earth
Looks as if lulled upon an angels lap
Into a breathless dewy sleep: so still
That we can only say of things, they be!
It is said that the first Napoleon was once on the deck of a vessel surveying such a scene when he overheard two of his officers in discussion, and one denying the existence of God. Going towards them he said, Gentlemen, I heard one of you say there is no God; then pray tell me who made all this? pointing as he spoke to the beads of light strung oer nights dark brow. Think you God has forbidden us to love this beautiful world? Why has he hidden it from us? Why has he made science, art, health, life itself, dependent on the study of it? Is it not that he would have us cultivate its friendship and worm out its secret? and whether we gaze with awe on the worlds upon worlds circling in distant space, or the worlds within worlds in each the minutest creation of God, rise from our daily contemplation, as he rose on the first day of its existence, with the words upon our lipsIt is very good; He hath done all things well.
2. Not the men who are in the world. If the world is dear to God because he made it and sustains it, how much more man, whom he has redeemed with his Sons most precious blood? We have been on the Mount with Christ. Let us revisit it. He shall teach us our relations to the world of men. Ye are the salt of the earth. Ye are the light of the world. Did Christ scorn men? He scorned, hated, recoiled from, denounced sin; but the sinner he sought, soothed, taught, won, and rejoiced over. Christ had human affections. Broad enough to embrace a world was the love of Christ, and yet he needed human love. And in selected homes and from selected hearts he got what he wanted. God has not outlawed our affections. They will outlast death. Love is of God. Love is eternal. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a lair: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.
3. But the spirit of the world. Our Lord styled it the evil.; St. John phrases it, the lust of the world. The maxims, the tone, the tendency of a life that shuts out God, ignores death, buries the thought of another life, the godlessness of the worldthis is forbidden. The Worlds Final Court of Appeal is Opinion; the Christians is Gods Word. The one anxiously asks, What will society say? The other fearlessly asks, What has God said? Will it be discovered? will shame follow? that is one way of meeting a temptation. Is it right? that is the other, the more excellent, way.
II. Importance of a correct answer to the question, What is the forbidden world? A mistake here is fatal.
1. Some have looked upon this world as accursed. They have betaken themselves to monasteries and sisterhoods, oblivious of the fact that
The trivial round, the common task,
Would furnish all we ought to ask:
Room to deny ourselves; a road
To bring us daily nearer God.
2. Some have supposed the evil to be in our business. Here temptation arises; but the place where the fire breaks out is not the cause of the fire. To be unworldly does not mean to be out of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. St. Paul did not give up tent-making, nor St. Peter relinquish fishing, when they became apostles. They taught their converts to abide in their callings. Business is not outside religion; it must be religiously attended to. The shop should be as sacred as a sanctuary. Work done with right motives and aims is a ceaseless litany. Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
Illustrations:Let us use worldly things as wise pilgrims do their staves and other necessaries convenient for their journey. So long as they help us forward in our way, let us make use of them, and accordingly esteem them. But if they become troublesome hindrances and cumbersome burdens, let us leave them behind us or cast them away.Downame.
All the water is waste that runs beside the mill; so all thy thoughts and words are waste which are not to the glory of God. A bee will not sit on a flower where no honey can be sucked; neither should the Christian engage in anything but for his souls good and Gods honour.Gurnall.
Christianity allows us to use the world, provided we do not abuse it. It docs not spread before us a delicious banquet, and then come with a Touch not, taste not, handle not.Porteous.
A Christian is like Jacobs ladder: while his body, that lower part, stands on the ground, the top, his higher and better part, is in heaven. He that hath the living waters of Jesus flowing in his heart, is mad if he stoop to the puddles of vanity, or seek content in the world. Yea, such a one will scarce descend to lawful pleasures, but for Gods allowance and natures necessity; and then but as the eagle, who lives aloft, and stoops not but for her prey.Adams.
MOSES
Neh. 10:29. Moses, the servant of God
Three periods of forty years:agreeing with his life in Egypt, Arabia, and the wilderness of the wandering.
I. Birth and education. Tyranny and cowardice twin-sisters. Pharaoh enslaved the people. Unrighteous power is uncertain power. Pharaoh knew this. Dreading the increasing numbers of the children of Israel, he issued an edict that all the male children should be strangled at birth. Fearing political intrigue, he placed over them Egyptian task-masters. Anxious to crush their spirits, he increased their burdens. Then Moses was born. Jewish proverb says, When the tale of bricks is doubled then comes Moses. Mans extremity is Gods opportunity. The story of the childs salvation. His mother his educator. Mothers influence. Augustine and Monica. The mother of the Wesleys. Cowpers poem on seeing his mothers picture. Boyhood of Moses not detailed. Nor childhood of Jesus. Two anecdotes in Stephens speech. Flight now necessary.
II. Moses kept the flock in the desert near Horeb. Desert voicessolitude and thought. Burning busha lesson to the eye; My people are in the fire; they shall not be burned. Voicea command and a commission. Reluctance. Moses and Aaron. Our dependence upon each other. Goes to Pharaoh.
III. His work. Eighty years of preparation. How God can wait! Our impatience if harvest ripens slowly. Moses became deliverer. Difficulties from Pharaoh; from peoples accustom edness to bondage. Human sagacity and Divine help. The order of their march he indicated, but Hobab a guide. With the sagacity of a leader Moses united the courage of a warrior. He was the patriarch and judge. Difficulties he surmounted, and doubts he resolved. How he bore with them the history tells. His speech sometimes song. The poet of the nation. Passage of the Red Sea (Psalms 90). Farewell (Deuteronomy 32, 33). The scenes of this history have passed into proverbs. Our conceptions of the journey of a human soul from this land of exile to its home with God are borrowed from this narrative. Horeb, Sinai, and Nebo speak a language understood by thousands. The Red Sea, the city of palm trees, and the cleft rock have suggested thoughts of God which have inspired untold myriads in their pilgrimage. Such a history can never again be written. A man of like passions. Penalty of passion. He was to see, but not to enter the land. Forty years he had toiled to bring them there, and now he must die outside. How many coveted objects get just within our reach, and then are removed as by invisible hands. A few lines sum up a human life. Moses, the servant of the Lord. Few words, but 120 years in themthe victories and defeats, fears and hopes, temptations and resistances, dangers and deliverances of a lifetime. Moses died: God buried him. The people wept: Joshua arose. Moses died, but his work remainedremains. His life is ours to study. His laws are at the base of English and American jurisprudence; and he is with those who have gotten the victory, who stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God; and sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.
Illustrations:The life of Moses is probably the most complete of any mans, either in the Old Testament or the Newa great, noble, growing life to the very end, and most clearly and graphically depicted in the word of God. But not a single ray of light falls upon his death, and no man attends his funeral. We only know that it was well cared for; the Lord buried him.Ker.
Moses, pre-eminently one of the greatest men of all time. Coming from the lowest ranks of life,born a slave under the iron tyranny of an Eastern despot,he rose to become the emancipator of his people from that bondage, and the founder of a nation that held the light of heaven through the darkness of ages; and which, of all nations, has had the mightiest influence in advancing the true progress of the world.E. L. Hull.
VOLUNTARY TAXATION
Neh. 10:32-39. We made ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God, &c.
The old law required the offerings; but it had been long unread. In the enthusiasm of the Reformation under Nehemiah they accepted the neglected law, and adapted it to their new conditions. Not to enter upon the thorny path of endowed or voluntary religion, nor to inquire whether tithes are coeval with the first man, and binding upon the present age, let us maintain
I. That a Church supposes an edifice. No particular sort of building, style of architecture, or ceremony of preparation is essential. An upper room in Jerusalem, the abode of the eleven, is the first-mentioned place of Christian consolation. The place of pentecostal concourse is not exactly mentioned, but is called a house. Afterwards the Christians met in the temple, probably for public worship; and celebrated the eucharist or broke the bread in the house. Perhaps it was in the same place in which the eleven abode that the pentecostal assemblage was held, that the eucharistic bread was broken, that the deacons were installed, and that the apostolic council was held, and which was shaken in answer to prayer.Manly. God may be worshipped in any house. Experience has taught the convenience and value of a house of God. The edifice must be built and maintained.
II. That a Church requires a minister. All elders are worthy of honour, the elders that rule well of double honour, the elders that labour in the word and doctrine of special honour. The honour consists of either obedience, or maintenance, or of both together. The labourer is worthy of his reward. No man can rightly labour in the word and doctrine without diligent and habitual biblical study; no man can conduct such study without the renunciation of secular pursuits; no man can abandon such pursuits without an adequate and guaranteed salary from the Church in which he teaches and for which he labours; and accordingly it is a wise arrangement, an equitable exchange, a Divine direction, that the bishops or ministers of the churches should be adequately sustained and paid. An unpaid ministry must always be an occasional and defective ministry; and a Church that relies on it will droop and decline. It is simple justice; and it is Gods law that he who is taught in the word should communicate to him that teacheth in all good things.Manly. The ministry must be sustained.
III. That a Church is a brotherhood. The rich and poor meet together. The poor ye have always with you. In a Church sense, if any provide not for his own house he hath denied the faith. All ye are brethren.
IV. That a Church is a missionary organization. It has duties both at home and abroad. The word of God must be translated, the masses evangelized, society leavened. This is the only needs-be for a Church. It gets to give; exists for what it does. A praying Church must also be a working Church. A working Church must of necessity be a generous Church. Jesus stood over against the treasury and saw the rich men casting in their gifts. And he saw also a certain widow casting in the two mites. If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. God loveth the cheerful giver.
Illustration:Men may say they prefer to give their missionary money nearer home, where they see what becomes of it. But remember that it is by setting up standards and beacons, getting hold of a few here and there and Christianizing them, even when results look small, that a great testimony to Christ is finally given. Make the gospel witness to all nations, before the end comes. The apostles travelled and sailed, casting their bread upon the waters, not too anxious to count up visible results. The great commission was, Go, preach the gospel to all nations. There is no knowing where the fruit will spring.Bishop Huntington.
ZEAL FOR THE SANCTUARY
Neh. 10:39. We will not forsake the house of our God
Israel ordained the guardians of Gods spiritual worship, and the repositories of his lively oracles. So long as they kept oracles undefiled and maintained worship undebased God was with them; when they profaned or abandoned the place where his honour dweltdefiling his worship with superstition and idolatryhe turned to be their adversary. He gave up their city to destruction, and their beautiful house, where their fathers had praised him, to utter desolation. They were carried away captive into Babylon. After seventy years of tribulation, God hearkened to their cries. He caused Cyrus to issue a decree of return. Multitudes hastened back. Having rebuilt the temple they kept a solemn festival. They made confessions, and renewed their covenant with God. They bound themselves to restore the tithes and sacrifices which the law ordained. Though impoverished and oppressed they undertook to give such things as were needful for the full service of the temple. The whole assembly, in unison with their governor, protested with one mind and one mouth, WE WILL NOT FORSAKE THE HOUSE OF OUR GOD.
Why you should say of the habitation of Gods house, we will not forsake it?
1. God has clearly ordained public worship. He made man to be socialsocial in virtue of his sorrows, his joys, his wants, his affections, his relationships. But if he formed men to be social in things natural, he no less formed them to be social in things spiritual. The isolation of selfishness is of sin; the union of love is of God. But union is cherished by communion, and communion strengthened by united worship. The faithful ought therefore to assemble themselves together in their Masters name. Accordingly, fellowship in worship may be traced from the earliest period. It seems not improbable that, as our great poet has represented, even in paradise the primitive pair had some chosen bower whither they resorted to offer up their stated homage to their Maker. But be that as it may, no sooner do we find men calling upon the Lord after the fall, than we find them calling upon him in fellowship. Where the patriarch pitched his tent, there he built his altar. As soon as ever God had singled out a people for himself, he bade them raise a tabernacle of witness and of worship, giving the minutest instructions for its construction, its furniture, and its ordinances. He added this memorable promise, which remains in all its force, Wherever I record my name I will come to thee and bless thee. And gloriously did he record his namefirst in the tabernacle, and afterwards more gloriously still in the temple. He dwelt between the cherubim, over the mercy-seat, and poured his blessing on all who truly sought him there. Jesus honoured the temple. He loved to resort to his Fathers house. He was very jealous of its desecration; the zeal of it ate him up. There he was wont to teach; there he wrought mighty miracles. His disciples met for worship, sometimes in the synagogue, sometimes in the upper chamber, sometimes at the river-side: and no sooner did opportunity serve than they set apart holy places for the ordinances and worship of God. The faithful in every ago have desired to dwell in the house of the Lord. If, therefore, any man have the mind of the Spirit; if he love the Saviour and those whom the Saviour loveshe cannot but say of the solemn assembly, I will not forsake the house of my God.
2. The special manifestations of the Divine presence, vouchsafed in the congregations of the saints, ought to endear to us such privileged scenes. Never has the promise failed, Where two or three are met together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. His chosen have sought and seen his power and glory in the sanctuary. The history of the Church in all ages is rich in the illustration of this fact. The patriarchal altar was many a time illumined from on high. The cloud of glory often rested on the tabernacle of witness. The mystic splendour which shone between the wings of the cherubim, reflecting a radiance on the mercy-seatthat symbol of the propitiation of Jesustestified that God dwelt with man on the earth,that his dwelling-place was in Zion. There, by voices and by visions, by Urim and Thummim, and by secret communications of his grace, he revealed himself to his people. And nowwhat though the temple with its magnificent ceremonial and impressive ordinances has passed awaywhat though no visible Shekinah irradiates the simple house of prayerhave we no signs, no tokens left? Have we not the substance instead of the shadow? the spirit in lieu of the letter? If the carnal worshipper sees lessdoes not the spiritual worshipper see moreabundant glory? If the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. Are there not still memorials of a present Lord amongst usmemorials sublimely simple, exquisitely expressive?his blessed gospelhis living sacramentsthe preaching of his word? Neither are there lacking demonstrations of his power and love. True it is that they who come not in faith find him not here; but those who come believingly hear a voice the unbelieving do not hearfeel a presence the unbelieving do not feelenjoy a blessing the unbelieving cannot receive. If, then, God manifests himself surpassingly in the sanctuary; if he has never failed to bestow his special favour towards the social services of his children, it follows that they who love the Lord and love to meet him cannot but say, We will not forsake the house of our God.
3. As the sanctuary has been the place of the Lords rest, so has it been the scene where he has imparted the richest gifts to his worshippers. On the day of Pentecost, it was when they were all with one accord in one place, that suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as a of rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them: and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Examine the history of the Church ever since, and you will find that of the multitudes of the believing, the largest proportion have been born for eternity in the house of God. If not begotten in the sanctuary, the saints have at least been nursed and nourished there. Many a time has the devout worshipper entered the sanctuary in darkness, and left it full of light; entered sorely beset with temptations, returned from it with the snare of the fowler broken; come perplexed, departed assured; come burdened, gone back enlarged; come prostrate, gone back exalted; come mourning, returned rejoicing; come cold, gone back enkindled; come secularized, gone back spiritualized; come weary, gone back revived; come earthly-minded, gone back heavenly-minded.
4. The servant of God will love the courts of the Lord and not forsake them, because in them he tastes most of heaven below. You cannot form a better conception of heaven than by fixing on the happiest Sabbath, and the happiest hour of worship on the happiest Sabbath, you ever enjoyed in the assembly of the saints. Then and there, withdrawn from the worlds vanities and disquietudes; then and there, abstracted from things seen and temporal, and absorbed in things unseen and eternal; then and there, when all was tranquillity without, and all was calm within; then and there, faith almost turned into sight and hope into fruitionall earthly distinctions forgotten, the poor and the rich blended in fellowship and love, the whole assembly worshipping in unison, like many instruments all true to one key-note; then and there, you had a miniature of heaven, you reached the very vestibule of that temple not made with hands, where congregations never break up, and Sabbaths never end. He then who loves not such scenes on earthhow could he love the heavenly habitation of holiness? He who has no taste for the communion and the songs of the saints below, how would he weary of the ceaseless thanksgiving and the eternal communion of the glorified in immortality! Of all men, the busy, harassed, weary mercantile manforced to plunge daily into the dust and din of the worlds martis the very man who most requires the refreshment and savour of the sanctuary. A Sunday passed in worship has an influence on the days of toil. Many are witnesses that, when on the evening of the stated service which forms the half-way well in the week, they have gone up to the house of the Lord, rich has been the return of blessing and comfort. These services interrupt the current of earthly care, and suspend for a little the play of the overwrought machinery of the mind. Alas! with what punctuality do many frequent the counting-house who are seldom seen in the solemn assembly! What numbers who never think of contenting themselves with a single visit to the warehouse on the Monday, yet content themselves with a solitary attendance at church on the Sunday. What numbers are all alive and alert in the exchange, who are sluggish and uninterested in waiting on Godas though the toys and shadows of time and earth surpassed in magnitude and moment the illimitable realities of immortality.Canon Stowell, abridged.
ZEAL FOR GODS HOUSE, EXPRESSED IN A HOLY RESOLUTION NOT TO FORSAKE IT
Neh. 10:39. And we will not forsake the house of our God
INTRODUCTION. Consider these words as they relate to the Jews at that time. The house of God was once the tabernacle, after that the temple. Tabernacle was forsaken: temple destroyed: worshippers carried away into captivity.
I. A resolution well becoming Christians themselves. We will not forsake the house of our God. The same zeal and affection which this people expressed to the temple, should be manifested by us to the Church and ordinances of Christ. The material temple was the centre of their unity. Under the gospel there is no such house, unto which all are obliged to repair, and any parts of divine worship are confined. Our house not a material building of wood and stones, of silver and gold, and cedar work; but a mystical building, a spiritual house, whose maker is the living God, and whose materials are living stones: whose house are we. By this house I mean the Church of God, as it is composed of the faithful in all ages and places of the world; comprehending his worship and ordinances, with all the concerns of his kingdom, and interests among men. This is that house which we should resolve never to forsake. There is doubtless much more intended than is expressed in such forms of speech, and in its full extent this resolution comprehends the three following particulars:
1. That we will never cast off the profession of our faith, nor make a defection from the truths and ways of the gospel, for any cause nor upon any account whatsoever. Its so rare a thing for a nation to change their gods (though really no gods) that the prophet challenges his people to produce a single instance of its being ever doneHath a nation changed their gods? But to the everlasting reproach of Israel, they had changed their glory for that which did not profit. They that were the only people under heaven who had no cause to change their God, were of all others the people that had done it. Now its this defection from the true God and his worship which this people covenanted against.
2. That we will not neglect the ordinances of Divine worship, nor be wanting in our attendance on them whenever we are called, and have an opportunity of appearing before God in his house. Thus much is contained in this resolution of these devout and reforming Jews. And the same should be our resolution with respect to the house and worship of God under the gospel; we certainly are under no less obligations to frequent Christian assemblies and keep up public worship than they were; we stand in as much need of these helps and advantages as they did. Jesus Christ, as lord of his own house, has appointed divers ordinances to be observed. There must be an assembly of people meeting together for the public administration of these holy ordinances. There must be some proper and convenient places appointed and agreed upon for such religious assemblies where they can be had. Some have learned to condemn all assemblies but their own, and every way of worship but what agrees with theirs. I shall leave it to every mans conscience where (according to the best light he can get) he thinks himself obliged ordinarily to worship God. There are particular times and seasons for the holding these religious assemblies. Reason tells us, if God is to be worshipped there must be a set time for it. Which day of the week is designed, and ought to be observed, for this stated worship is not agreed among all those that yet are heartily affected to the worship of God itself. Seventh day? First day? There are certain persons, whose work and duty it is to go before others in these holy administrations. Who they are that have this authority I list not now to contend. Some have the charity as well as modesty to nullify all administrations besides their own.
3. That we will promote as far as in us lies the interests of religion, and spread the kingdom of Christ in the world. Its not the good of this or that particular Church and society only, but the whole interest of Christ as opposed to the devils kingdom in the world, whose welfare and prosperity we are bound to seek.
II. It is not only lawful, but may be useful and expedient, for Christians in societies to engage themselves to God, and the duties they owe to him and one another. This people agreed together as one man, and bound themselves by a solemn covenant, which was written and subscribed, sealed and sworn to, that they would never forsake the house of the Lord their God. What I would gather from this instance is, that as this people did, Christians may voluntarily agree together, and engage themselves in particular societies to carry on a work for God in such a way as is warranted by his word, and judged by themselves most likely to promote some valuable end. I shall,
III. Offer reasons both for making this resolution and obliging ourselves to make it good.
1. Because it is Gods house. Everything that is his should be sacred and dear to us. It is his house we are to frequent; they are his ordinances on which we attend. His word is preached and heard. His interest we oblige ourselves to support. They carry his image and superscription; this gives them their worth and value.
(1) To forsake Gods house would be to forsake our own mercies, and deprive ourselves of the most valuable blessing in the whole world. In Gods house we are sure to meet with the truest pleasure and satisfaction. They that come crowding to Gods house, shall be sent away rejoicing to their own, with the greatest benefit and advantage. Here we may hope to have our doubts resolved, our darkness scattered, and temptations most effectually vanquished. With that which will prove the firmest and most effectual support to us under all the troubles of life and at the near approach of death.
(2) To leave this house is to forsake the place which God himself hath chosen, and where he delights to dwell. He loveth the gates of Zion. Is it not good for us to be near to God? Has he said, Here will I dwell?and should not we for that reason say, Here will we dwell?
(3) To forsake this house is to forsake God himself. We cannot quit the inheritance of the Lord but in effect we go and serve other gods. To what houses will they resort that have once forsaken Gods house? With what company will they associate, and in what assemblies may we expect to find those that have renounced the communion of saints?
2. Because our particular good is lodged in the public interest. In seeking this we seek ourselves. At the same time that we discharge our duty we consult our interests. No service performed to Christ shall lose its reward. No man shall kindle a fire on Gods altar, or shut a door in his house, for nought. It is then likely to go well with our own houses when due care is taken that it may go well with Gods house.
3. This is the noblest way of imitating the great God himself, and conforming to the example of our blessed Saviour. Thou art good, O Lord, and thou doest good. To be like God is our truest glory, and should be our highest ambition. Herein also we imitate the shining example of Jesus Christ. The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. His anger at the profanation of the temple rose up to an holy indignation.
4. This makes men real blessings to the world. However they may be esteemed by others, they really are the strength and security of a nation; the stay and support of the public interest: they bear up the pillars of the earth, and keep it from being quite dissolved. For their sakes God sometimes preserves others from those judgments which their crying sins would otherwise pull down upon their guilty heads. Sodom had been preserved for the sake of ten righteous persons, could so many have been found in the place.
5. This will be our rejoicing and comfort another day. Having made this resolution we must oblige ourselves to make it good. Because of the deceitfulness and inconstancy of our hearts. Such engagements will help to fix us more firmly in the interests of religion, and make us more successful in resisting all temptations to apostasy. Hereby we are rendered more capable of serving the interests of religion. A force when united becomes the stronger. The joint concurrence of many give a great advantage to a design, and a better prospect of success.Matthew Clarke 1715; abridged.
ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 10
TITHES
Without inquiring into the reason for which the number ten has been so frequently preferred as a number of selection in the cases of tribute offerings, both sacred and secular, voluntary and compulsory, we may remark that numerous instances of its use are found both in profane and also in Biblical history, prior to, or independently of, the appointment of the Levitical tithes under the law. In Biblical history the two prominent instances are
1. Abram presenting the tenth of all his property, according to the Syrian and Arabic versions of Hebrews 7, but as the passages themselves appear to show, of the spoils of his victory, to Melchizedek (Gen. 14:20; Heb. 7:2; Heb. 7:6).
2. Jacob, after his vision at Luz, devoting a tenth of all his property to God in caso he should return home in safety (Gen. 28:22). These instances bear witness to the antiquity of tithes, in some shape or other, previous to the Mosaic tithe system. But numerous instances are to be found of the practice of heathen nations, Greeks, Romans, Carthaginians, Arabians, of applying tenths derived from property in general, from spoil, from confiscated goods, or from commercial profits, to sacred, and quasi-sacred, and also to fiscal, purposes, viz. as consecrated to a deity, presented as a reward to a successful general, set apart as a tribute to a sovereign, or as a permanent source of revenue.
The first enactment of the law in respect of tithes is the declaration that the tenth of all produce, as well as of flocks and cattle, belongs to Jehovah, and must be offered to him.
2. That the tithe was to be paid in kind, or, if redeemed, with an addition of one-fifth to its value (Lev. 27:30-33). This tenth is ordered to be assigned to the Levites, as the reward of their service, and it is ordered further, that they are themselves to dedicate to the Lord a tenth of these receipts, which is to be devoted to the maintenance of the high priest (Num. 18:21-28).
This legislation is modified or extended in the Book of Deuteronomy, i.e. from thirty-eight to forty years later. Commands are given to the people
1. To bring their tithes, together with their votive and other offerings and first-fruits, to the chosen centre of worship, the metropolis, there to be eaten in festive celebration, in company with their children, their servants, and the Levites (Deu. 12:5-18).
2. After warnings against idolatrous, or virtually idolatrous, practices, and the definition of clean as distinguished from unclean animals, among which latter class the swine is of obvious importance in reference to the subject of tithes, the legislator proceeds to direct that all the produce of the soil shall be tithed every year (Neh. 10:17 seems to show that corn, wine, and oil, alone are intended), and that these tithes, with the firstlings of the flock and herd, are to be eaten in the metropolis.
3. But in case of distance, permission is given to convert the produce into money, which is to be taken to the appointed place, and there laid out in the purchase of food for a festal celebration, in which the Levite is, by special command, to be included (Deu. 14:22-27).
4. Then follows the direction, that at the end of three years, i.e. in the course of the third and sixth years of the Sabbatical period, all the tithe of that year is to be gathered and laid up within the gates, i.e. probably in some central place in each district, not at the metropolis; and that a festival is to be held, in which the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, together with the Levite, are to partake.
5. Lastly, it is ordered that after taking the tithe in each third year, which is the year of tithing, an exculpatory declaration is to be made by every Israelite that he has done his best to fulfil the Divine command (Deu. 26:12-14). From all this we gather
1. That one-tenth of the whole produce of the soil was to be assigned for the maintenance of the Levites.
2. That out of this the Levites were to dedicate a tenth to God, for the use of the high priest.
3. That a tithe, in all probability a second tithe, was to be applied to festival purposes.
4. That in every third year, either this festival tithe or a third tenth was to be eaten in company with the poor and the Levites.
Ewald thinks that under the kings the ecclesiastical tithe system reverted to what he supposes to have been its original free-will character. It is plain that during that period the tithe system partook of the general neglect into which the observance of the law declined, and that Hezekiah, among his other reforms, took effectual means to revive its use (2Ch. 31:5; 2Ch. 31:12; 2Ch. 31:19). Similar measures were taken after the Captivity by Nehemiah (Neh. 12:44), and in both these cases special officers were appointed to take charge of the stores and store-houses for the purpose. The practice of tithing especially for relief of the poor appears to have subsisted even in Israel, for the prophet Amos speaks of it, though in an ironical tone, as existing in his day (Amo. 4:4). But as any degeneracy in the national faith would be likely to have an effect on the tithe-system, we find complaint of neglect in this respect made by the prophet Malachi (Neh. 3:8; Neh. 3:10.) Yet, notwithstanding partial evasion or omission, the system itself was continued to a late period in Jewish history, and was even carried to excess by those who, like the Pharisees, affected peculiar exactness in observance of the law (Heb. 7:5; Heb. 7:8; Mat. 23:23; Luk. 18:12). Among details relating to the tithe payments mentioned by Rabbinical writers may be noticed:
(1) That in reference to the permission given in case of distance (Deu. 14:24), Jews dwelling in Babylonia, Ammon, Moab, and Egypt, were considered as subject to the law of tithe in kind.
(2) In tithing sheep the custom was to enclose them in a pen, and as the sheep went out at the opening, every tenth animal was marked with a rod dipped in vermilion. This was the passing under the rod. The law ordered that no inquiry should be made whether the animal were good or bad, and that if the owner changed it, both the original and the changeling were to be regarded as devoted (Lev. 27:32-33; Jer. 33:13).
(3) Cattle were tithed in and after August, corn in and after September, fruits of trees in and after January.
(4) Corners were exempt from tithe.
(5) The general rule was, that all edible articles not purchased were titheable, but that products not specified in Deu. 14:23 were regarded as doubtful. Tithe of them was not forbidden, but was not required.Rev. H. W. Phillot, M.A., in Smiths Bible Dictionary.
SENTENCES FROM OLD WRITERS
Now those that sealed were, Nehemiah the Tirshatha.He is first mentioned, not as a priest, but as a provost; and one that held it an honour to be first in so good a matter. The life of the prince is the load-star of the people, upon which most men fix their eyes and shape their courses. Great men draw many by their examples; they are as looking-glasses by which others dress themselves. And hence Nehemiahs forwardness here to seal first. Those that are above others in dignity and power should go before them in the way of God. The priests.They that lead in prayers should lead in every other good work. The chief of the people.Great men never look so great as when they encourage religion. They that have interest must use it for God. All they that had separated themselves.In St. Pauls sense come out from among them; from such stand off; stand up from the dead; save yourselves from this untoward generation; shun their sins, lest ye share in their plagues. These holy separates, or proselytes, sealed the covenant, and became free denizens of the commonwealth of Israel. Entered into a curse.The more to confirm the oath, and to keep their deceitful hearts close to God. If he that firmly purposeth often faileth, what shall he do that seldom purposeth any thing, or with little resolvedness? To walk in Gods law.To walk accurately and exactly by line and by rule in all the commandments so far as God should assist them. The bowls of the candlestick have no oil but what droppeth from the olive branches. Condition with the Lord for his strength and grace. That they would, not intermarry.In our covenants with God we should engage particularly against those sins that we have been most frequently overtaken in and damaged by. They that resolve to keep the commandments of God must say to evil doers, Depart. By the rib, as by a ladder, Satan oft climbs to the heart and corrupts it. Every man when he marrieth, brings either a good or an evil spirit into his house, and so make it either a heaven or a hell. If the people of the land bring ware on the Sabbath day, &c.The Sabbath is a market day for our souls. And the exaction of every debt we would leave.Those are stubborn children indeed that will not mend the fault which they have been particularly corrected for. Also we made ordinances for us.Having covenanted against the sins they had been guilty of, they proceed in obliging themselves to revive and observe the duties they had neglected. We must not only cease to do evil, but learn to do well. The temple service.Let not any people expect the blessing of God unless they make conscience of observing his ordinances. The third part of a shekel.Thankfulness is measured, both by God and good men, not by the weight, but by the will, of the retributor. God doth highly accept the small offerings of his weak servants when he seeth them to proceed from great love. The wood offering.They provided the fire and the wood as well as the lambs for a burnt-offering. The first-fruits.God required to be honoured with the firstlings of all; to show how he sets by our young services. To bring to the house of our God unto the priests.No man might offer his own sacrifice, though it were never so good, but present it to the priest, who was to offer as well the poor mans lamb as the rich mans ox.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
TEXT AND VERSE-BY-VERSE COMMENT
C. The people make vows of faithfulness.
1. A list is given of the signatures on the document.
TEXT, Neh. 10:1-27
1
Now on the sealed document were the names of: Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah, and Zedekiah,
2
Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah,
3
Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah,
4
Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch,
5
Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah,
6
Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch,
7
Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin,
8
Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah. These were the priests.
9
And the Levites: Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel;
10
also their brothers Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan,
11
Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah,
12
Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah,
13
Hodiah, Bani, Beninu.
14
The leaders of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani,
15
Bunni, Azgad, Bebai,
16
Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin,
17
Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur,
18
Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,
19
Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai,
20
Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir,
21
Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua,
22
Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah,
23
Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub,
24
Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek,
25
Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah,
26
Ahiah, Hanan, Anan,
27
Malluch, Harim, Baanah.
COMMENT
Neh. 10:1 begins the document. Two methods of sealing official papers are known from this period: (1) the imprint of the thumbnail,[74] or (2) the impression of the persons private seal on a ball of moist clay, which is then attached by a string to the document.[75] The signatures in the case before us were voluntary. The first and most prominent name on the list was that of Nehemiah. His title, governor, used here and in Neh. 8:9, is in the official Persian form; one translation of it is His Severity. The title used in Neh. 5:14 and Neh. 12:26 differs from this, being Hebrew in form. Nehemiah apparently used the Persian title only for more official or solemn occasions.
[74] Cambridge Bible, op. cit., p. 267.
[75] Ellicott, op. cit., p. 500.
Zedekiah may be another spelling of Zadok (shortened by dropping the name of Jehovah at the end: cf. Nehemiah and Nahum), who may have been Nehemiahs secretary (scribe, Neh. 13:13). Thus we would have the heads of state making the document official.
Neh. 10:2-8 are the names of the priests who signed, being next in status to Nehemiah, Persias representative. If Ezra is in the list at all, the most likely place is under Seraiah: that is, the names appear to be names of families instead of individuals; several are repeated in this way in Neh. 12:12-15, and Ezra was a descendant of Seraiah (Ezr. 7:1).
By giving only their family names they may be saying that the priests office and ancestry is more important than his individual identity: compare this with the present usage of the title Archbishop of Canterbury.
Levites are named in Neh. 10:9-13; six of the seventeen names we remember from those who manned the speakers platform in Neh. 9:4-5; three others may have been there if we allow for variations in spelling. These also may have been names of families, though this is not certain. Part of the problem is that more than one generation used the same names.
Neh. 10:14-27, the remainder of the list, contain the names of the leaders of the people; we have gotten used to this classification of priests, Levites, and leaders of the people by now. Sixteen of these names are also in Ezra 2; it is supposed, then, that some are names of ancient families and others of individuals of newer families.
WORD STUDIES
DOCUMENT: see AMEN, in the Word Studies for chapter 8. SABBATH (Neh. 10:31): the basic idea is to cease, interrupt, stop; thus the manna ceased (the verb form of this word): Jos. 5:12. If work stops, there is rest (Exo. 23:12).
The word applied to the seventh day (Exo. 20:11); to the seventh years, when no crops were to be sown (Lev. 25:2); to the first and last day of the festivals that lasted for a week, regardless of the day of the week (Lev. 23:39); to the Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:32) or Feast of Trumpets (Lev. 23:24); or in the plural as a synonym for weeks (Lev. 23:15) or for seven-year periods (Lev. 25:8).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Zidkijah.Probably, Zadok the scribe (Neh. 13:13), Nehemiahs secretary. (Comp. Ezr. 4:8.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Now those that sealed were, Nehemiah Literally, And upon the sealed instruments were Nehemiah, etc. It was important that the heads of houses or families, and chief representatives of the nation, should sign the document. First came the name of the governor, the Tirshatha. See note on Ezr 2:63. Next is the name Zidkijah, perhaps the secretary to the governor, (compare Ezr 4:9; Ezr 4:17,) or else some other high official. Then follow (Neh 10:2-8) twenty-one names of priests, seventeen Levites, (Neh 10:9-13,) and forty-four of the chief of the people, (Neh 10:14-27.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Names Of The Leaders Of Families Who Sealed The Sure Agreement ( Neh 10:1 a-27 ).
Neh 10:1
‘Now those who sealed were:’
Literally ‘on the seal were –.’ The names are now given of the family heads who sealed the agreement. As we would expect the name of the Governor came first.
Neh 10:1 b
The Governor ( Neh 10:1 Neh 10:1
‘ Nehemiah the governor (tirshatha), the son of Hacaliah,’
Nehemiah is named as the Tirshatha, a Persian title used of him elsewhere in this book (Neh 8:9). It is used, probably of Sheshbazzar, in Neh 7:65; Neh 7:70 and in Ezr 2:63. Unusually for the list, where patronyms are not given, his father’s name is given, but that was probably because he used the name with pride, and saw it as a matter of honour. It is the name by which he was identified when the book was introduced. It denoted his high status (Neh 1:1).
Neh 10:1
‘And Zidkijah.’ This may have been the name of Nehemiah’s Scribe, or of his Deputy Governor. Compare Ezr 4:17; Ezr 4:23; Ezr 6:13 where the chancellor’s scribe is referred to along with the chancellor. Alternately he could be the first of the priestly families, but this would go contrary to the parallel lists.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Reading And Explaining To The People Of The Law Of Moses And A Review Of Their Past History, Leads To Them Establishing A Renewal Of Their Covenant With God ( Neh 8:1 to Neh 10:39 ).
Regardless of sources of which we cannot be sure, there can be no doubt that this whole section emphasises covenant renewal. The wall being built, this led on to a special renewing of the covenant.
It commences with the reading aloud and explaining of the Law, which has a deep effect on the people and results in a new obedience to the Law (chapter 8).
This is followed by a review of Israel’s past history before God, as they pray to Him acknowledging His covenant faithfulness (chapter 9).
We then have the signing of a covenant by the leaders of the people, which is explained in detailed terms chapter 10, and is based on the teaching of the Law, as the people through their leaders solemnly confirm the covenant.
All these were an essential part of covenant renewal, emphasising that the people knew exactly the grounds on which they were responding to the covenant. It was on the basis of God’s renewed Law; it was based on prayerful consideration of what God had done for them throughout history in faithfulness to His covenant; and it made demands on them in accordance with that Law.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Neh 10:33 For the shewbread, and for the continual meat offering, and for the continual burnt offering, of the sabbaths, of the new moons, for the set feasts, and for the holy things, and for the sin offerings to make an atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.
Neh 10:33
Gal 4:10, “Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.”
Col 2:16, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Signers of the Covenant
v. 1. Now, those that sealed were v. 2. Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, v. 3. Pashur, Amariah, Malchijah, v. 4. Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, v. 6. Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, v. 6. v. 7. Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, v. 8. v. 9. And the Levites: both Jeshua, the son of Azaniah, Binnui, of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel, v. 10. and their brethren: Shebaniah, Hodijah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hauan, v. 11. Micha, Rehob, Hashabiah, v. 12. Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, v. 13. Hodijah, Rant, Beninu. v. 14. The chief of the people, the elders who represented the entire nation: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zatthu, Bani, v. 15. Bunni, Azgad, Rebai, v. 16. Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, v. 17. Ater, Hizkijah, Azzur, v. 18. Hodijah, Hashum, Bezai, v. 19. Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, v. 20. Magpiash, Meshullam, Hesir, v. 21. Meshesabeel, Zadok, Jaddua, v. 22. Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, v. 23. Hoshea, Hananiah, Hashub, v. 24. Hallohesh, Pileha, Shobek, v. 25. Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, v. 26. and Ahijah, Hanan, Anan, v. 27. Malluch, Harim, Baanah,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
THE NAMES OF THOSE WHO SEALED, AND THE TERMS OF THE COVENANT (Neh 10:1-39.). The covenant which the Levites had recommended, probably at the suggestion of Nehemiah and Ezra, whose hand may perhaps be traced in the long address of the preceding chapter (verses 6-38), was at once accepted by the heads of the nation in Church and State, and was “sealed to” by Nehemiah, by his secretary, by the heads of the priestly and Levitical families, each sealing for his house, by the heads of various lay families or communities, and by a certain number of individual laymen, sealing (as it would seem) for themselves only. The rest of the people, those who did not actually seal, still “clave to their brethren,” i.e. agreed with them, and accepted the obligations of the covenant as fully as if they had put their seals to it. There was no opposition, no dissentient voice, no party even which stood sullenly aloof. That sort of enthusiasm had come upon the nation which carries everything before it, and causes a whole multitude to become “as one man” for good or for evil. This time it was for good. The people bound themselves, first of all, in general terms, to keep the whole law, “to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord their Lord, and his judgments and his statutes” (verse 29); after which they went on to particularise certain special points of the law, recently infringed upon, which they bound themselves to observe in future. These were chiefly the following:
1. The prohibition of intermarriage with the neighbouring idolatrous nations (verse 30);
2. The command to hallow the sabbath;
3. The law concerning the sabbatical year (verse 31);
4. The law of firstfruits (verses 35-37);
5. The obligation to pay tithes to the sacerdotal order (verses 37, 38).
Finally, they undertook certain new obligations, not expressly contained in the law, but perhaps regarded as flowing from it by way of natural consequence, or else as desirable modes of carrying out its provisions.
These were three in number, viz.
1. The entire abolition of the custom which had grown up of lending money to their brethren upon pledge (see Neh 5:3-13);
2. The support of the temple service by an annual tax upon each adult male, which was fixed for the present at the rate of one-third part of a shekel (verse. 32); and,
3. The supply of the wood requisite for keeping the fire alight upon the great altar, and for consuming the various offerings (verse 34).
It is-remarkable that these two latter regulations became permanent national institutions, maintaining themselves into Roman times, when we find them still continuing (see Mat 17:24; Joseph; ‘Bell. Jud.,’ Mat 2:17, 6).
Neh 10:1
Nehemiah, as Tirshatha, or civil ruler, naturally appended his seal first of all. He was followed by Zidkijah, or Zadok, probably his secretary (Neh 13:13).
Neh 10:2-8
The heads of the priestly houses attached their seals next; and among these the high-priestly house of Seraiah had, very properly, the precedence. The other names of this list recur for the most part in Neh 12:1-6, where they designate “priests” (i.e. priestly houses) “which went up with Zerubbabel.” Eliashib, the high priest of the time, probably appended the seal of the house of Seraiah.
Neh 10:9-13
Jeshua, Binnui, and Kadmiel represent the three chief families of returned Levites (see Ezr 2:40; Ezr 3:9; Neh 7:43, Neh 7:44; Neh 9:4, Neh 9:5, etc.). Binnui, it may be remarked, has now supplanted Kadmiel, and stepped into the second place. Of the remaining names, those of Hashabiah and Sherebiah designate families which returned with Ezra (Ezr 8:18, Ezr 8:19). The remaining names are probably also those of families.
Neh 10:14-27
The chief of the people. Down to Magpiash the names correspond to those of lay families which returned with Zerubbabel (Ezr 2:3-30; Neh 7:8-33), the first eighteen being personal, and the last three names of localities. Nebai is the same as “Nebo” (Neh 7:33), and Magpiash the same as Magbish (Ezr 2:30). From Meshullam to Baanah (Neh 10:20-27) the names seem to be again personal; but they are new, and therefore probably those of individuals who were not authorised to represent either clans or localities. In Neh 10:17, the two names Ater and Hizkijah should be united by a hyphen, since it is clear that they represent the single family, Ater of Hezekiah, mentioned in Ezra it. 16 and Neh 7:21. “Hizkijah”and “Hezekiah” are in the original identical.
Neh 10:28
The rest of the people. i.e. those who had not appended their seals, whether others had sealed for them or no. The writer makes no exception, and thereby indicates a very general, if not a universal, concurrence on the part of the nation. His enumeration of classes is the same as Ezra’s (Ezr 2:70). All they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God. Such proselytes from the heathen as had joined themselves to the Jewish people since their return from the captivity (comp. Ezr 6:21). Every one having knowledge, and having understanding. All who were of age to understand the nature of the covenant and what was meant by sealing to itnot a specially “intelligent” or “learned” class, as Ewald supposes.
Neh 10:29
They clave to their brethren, their nobles. They gave their support and adherence to their more distinguished brethren who had attached their seals to the document, approving what they had done, and ratifying it. Entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law. Something of this kind seems to have occurred in the wilderness, when God’s law was first given to his people (Deu 29:12); and therefore, when renewals of the covenant were made, and the people were required to ratify the act, it was natural to recur to the old sanction, An oath was probably taken of the people in the time of Josiah (2Ki 23:3), when they are said to have “stood to the covenant.” Moses the servant of God. The epithet “servant of God,” or “servant of the Lord,” attaches to Moses in a peculiar way. God called him (Num 12:7) “my servant Moses, who is faithful in all my house;” and henceforward “servant of God” was his epitheton usitatum (see Jos 1:1; Jos 8:31, Jos 8:33; 1Ch 6:49; 2Ch 24:9; Dan 9:11; Heb 3:5; Rev 15:3). St. Paul contrasts “Moses, the servant” with “Christ, the Son” (Heb 3:1-6).
Neh 10:30
That we would not give our daughters, etc. On the recurrence of the mixed marriages so soon after the reformation of Ezra, see the comment on Neh 13:23.
Neh 10:31
If the people of the land bring ware on the sabbath. If the heathen of this region will insist on bringing their wares into our cities and offering them for immediate sale on the sabbath, we Jews bind ourselves not to deal with them on that day. Subsequently, Nehemiah carried out more stringent regulations (Neh 13:15-22). Or on the holy day. Rather, “or on a holy day.” The people bind themselves to abstain from trade not only on the sabbath, but on any holy day. That we would leave the seventh year. By “leaving the seventh year,” leaving the lands untilled every seventh or sabbatical year is meant. This precept of the law had been frequently neglected during the times of the monarchy, and its neglect was one of the sins which the captivity was expressly intended to punish (2Ch 36:21). It now appears that after the return the precept had been again disobeyed. The exaction of every debt. Literally, “the pledge of every hand.” Compare Neh 5:2-13, and note that, notwithstanding Nehemiah’s curse and the people’s assent to it (verse 13), the practice of lending upon pledge had recommenced.
Neh 10:32
To charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel. Hitherto the Jews had had no impost analogous to our “church-rate.” The “half-shekel of the sanctuary,” as it is called, being only payable on the rare, and forbidden, occasion of a census of the whole people (Exo 30:13-16), could not possibly have served for the ordinary support of the temple service; but it was calculated to suggest to thoughtful minds the need of some regular fund, and the persons on whom the obligation lay to provide it. While the Jews were an independent nation, with their own kings and their own revenue, no difficulty had been felt in keeping up the service, since the kings easily provided for it; but in the existing condition of affairs the case was different. .A “governor” was not like a king; he was responsible; he was removable; he was bound to remit the great bulk of the taxes to the court. Under these circumstances, and probably in connection with an immediate need, the idea arose of a special (voluntary) tax, to be paid annually by all adult males, for the support of the service, the continual provision of the morning and evening sacrifice, the incense, the shew-bread, the red heifers, the scape-goat, the numerous victims, and the numerous meat and drink offerings required on various occasions, and especially at each of the great festivals. It was felt that the provision in the law ruled two things
1. The uniformity of the tax; and,
2. The sphere of its incidencethat it should be paid by all adult males.
With regard to its proper amount, that had to be fixed by a consideration of existing needs in comparison with existing means. The third part of a shekel was determined on, as sufficient at the time; but it was not long ere for the third part the half-shekel was substituted, a return being thus made to the standard fixed by the law, and an ample provision made for the maintenance of the established rites in full completeness and efficiency (comp. Mat 17:24-27).
Neh 10:33
For the shew-bread. See Le 24:5-8. Small as the cost of the shew-bread was, consisting, as it did, of no more than twelve cakes of fine flour weekly, it is yet placed first on account of its importance, being the bread of God’s presence, the type of the sacramental bread of the new covenant. The continual meat offering is that offering of flour mingled with fine olive oil which God had required to be offered twice a day, at morning and at evening, in conjunction with the two lambs, which constituted the continual burnt offering (Num 28:5). Of the sabbaths. i.e. “for the offering of the sabbath days,” which consisted of two lambs with appropriate meat and drink offerings, in addition to the offering of every day (Num 28:9, Num 28:10). Of the new moons. Two bullocks, one ram, seven lambs, with appropriate meat and drink offerings (ibid. Neh 10:11-14). For the set feasts. The passover, the feast of Pentecost, the feast of trumpets, and the feast of tabernacles. The offerings required at each are given with great exactness in Num 28:1-31, and Num 29:1-40. The holy things. “Wave–offerings” and “peace-offerings” (Le Num 23:10, Num 23:17, Num 23:19) are probably intended. They were “holy to the Lord for the priest” (ibid. Num 29:20). The sin offerings are those commanded in Num 28:15, Num 28:22, Num 28:30; Num 29:5, Num 29:11, Num 29:16, Num 29:19, etc. And for all the work of the house. The internal “work” of cleansing and keeping in proper order the apparatus of worship is probably intended, not external repairs.
Neh 10:34
We cast the lots for the wood offering. The “wood offering” is now first heard of. Fuel had probably been more plentiful in the times of the monarchy than it had now become, and the temple treasury had been rich enough to provide what was needed in order to keep the altar fire perpetually burning (Le Neh 6:13). But times had changed. The hill-country of Judaea had gradually been stripped of its forests. The temple was, comparatively speaking, poor, and some permanent arrangement for the supply of the required fuel had become necessary. It would seem, from the present passage, that the arrangement actually made was one by which different families or districts undertook the duty of furnishing the wood in turn, and lots were cast to determine the order in which they should discharge the office. According to Josephus (‘Bell. Jud.,’ it. 17, 6), the wood needed for a year was brought in on a particular daythe fourteenth day of the fifth monthwhich was kept as a festival, and known as the “Xylophoria.” At times appointed year by year. It may be gathered from this that, originally, no single day was selected for bringing in all the wood; much less one and the same day appointed for every year. The original system was variable and elastic; but in course of time a rigid uniformity was introduced and established. As it is written in the law. See Le Neh 6:12.
Neh 10:35
And to bring the first-fruits unto the house of the Lord. The idea of offering “first-fruits” may be ascribed to natural piety. They were well known to the Greeks and Romans (, primitiae). But in the Mosaic law they were commanded (Exo 22:29; Exo 23:19; Lev 23:10, Lev 23:17, etc.), and thenceforth became a matter of religious obligation. The present passage furnishes, however, distinct evidence that the obligation had now for some time been disregarded. The first-fruits of all fruit. First-fruits were required not merely of wheat and other grain, bat also expressly of wine and oil, the produce of the vine and olive, and by implication of all other fruit trees (see Num 18:12; Deu 18:4, etc.).
Neh 10:36
The first-born of our sons and of our cattle, as it is written in the law. See Exo 22:29; Exo 34:19. The firstborn children were to be “redeemed.”
Neh 10:37
The first-fruits of our dough. See Num 15:18-21. And our offerings. Literally, “our heave offerings” (Num 15:20; Le Num 23:11, Num 23:17). To the chambers of the house. The store-chambers attached to the temple-building (see Neh 13:4, Neh 13:5). The tithes of our ground. As with the law of first-fruits, so with that of tithes (which was more burthensome), there had grown up a practice of neglecting it on the part of many, if not of all. The natural result would be the non-attendance of Levites at Jerusalem, and so a falling-off in the solemnity and grandeur of the temple-worship (comp. Neh 13:10). It was now covenanted afresh on the part of the people that they would resume the legal practice, at any rate to the extent of paying what has been called “the first tithe,” or that due to the Levites for their sustentation. In all the cities of our tillage. The Levitical tithe was not taken to Jerusalem. but stored up in some neighbouring, generally Levitical, city.
Neh 10:38
The priest shall be with the Levites when the Levites take tithe. Some representative (or representatives) of the priestly order was to be present whenever the Levites received their tithes, to take note of the quantity, and prevent the Levites from depriving the priests of their due sharethe tithe of the tithe. This tenth, being thus ascertained, was to be conveyed to Jerusalem at the expense of the Levites, and deposited in its appropriate store-chamber.
Neh 10:39
The children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the offering. The priests were not to be troubled with the conveyance of any of the offerings. The first-fruits and other oblations of the people were to be brought to the temple by the people themselves; .and the “tithe of the tithe,’ which was the priests’ due, by the Levites. Thus the priests would not be drawn away from their duty of ministering in the temple by secular employments and matters of mere worldly business. We will not forsake, or neglect, the house of our God. We will not suffer, that is, any interruption of the continual service of the temple, we will not be parties to any neglect or slovenliness in the conduct of it. So far as we are concerned, everything shall be done to enable the priests and Levites to remain constantly at Jerusalem in full numbers, and to devote themselves wholly to their sacred duties in God’s house. With this emphatic declaration of their intentions the people concluded the engagements by which they voluntarily bound themselves.
HOMILETICS
Neh 10:1-39
A solemn covenant.
The public confession and recital of God’s dealings with Israel, recorded in the previous chapter, concluded with a declaration of the making of “a sure covenant,” written and sealed. This chapter contains a particular account of the transaction.
I. WHY THE COVENANT WAS MADE.
1. For the reasons contained in the previous confession. “Because of all this” (Neh 9:38).
(1) The covenant of God with their fathers, and his faithfulness to it. They had been chosen as his people, and now felt they ought to act accordingly. They held the land again by virtue of his covenant and promises, and would forfeit it by unfaithfulness.
(2) The manifold goodness of God to them as a nation throughout their history. “The goodness of God leadeth to repentance,” and they felt its influence for this end, as they recalled the displays of it to their fathers and themselves.
(3) The long succession of their national departures from God. Showing how prone they were to evil; how much they needed every safeguard against it.
(4) The successive punishments inflicted upon them. Impressing them with the evil of sin, and the necessity of godliness and righteousness to their happiness.
2. In the hope that so solemn an engagement would greatly aid in insuring their future obedience. Feeling that all that had been said consisted of so many reasons for conformity to the Divine law, they are concerned to adopt what- ever means were likely to secure it. To this end they unite in a solemn public vow, written and sealed, by which they engage, not only to God, but to each other, to obey the Divine laws and maintain the Divine worship. And doubtless such a transaction was adapted to strengthen their good resolutions, and promote the fulfilment of them.
II. BY WHOM IT WAS .MADE, AND IN WHAT MANNER. By all the assemblypriests, Levites, etc; and the whole body of the people, men and women, and their sons and daughters who were of understanding. Included amongst them were “they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, partly, perhaps, proselytes from the heathen, but including probably the descendants of Israelites who had been left in the land by the Assyrians and Chaldaeans, and had become much mixed up with the heathen (see Ezr 6:21).
1. The chiefs of the people affixed their seals to the document (Neh 10:1-27). At their head was Nehemiah himself, as governor; then follow the heads of the priestly and Levitical houses, and after them the chiefs of the laity.
2. The rest of the people signified their solemn assent by an oath with a curse.
III. THE PROMISES OF WHICH IT CONSISTED.
1. A general comprehensive promise of obedience to all the law of God (verse 29).
2. Certain special promises.
(1) Not to intermarry with the heathen (verse 30). A matter about which both Ezra and Nehemiah were very much concerned (see Ezr 9:10; Neh 13:23-30). Laxity in this respect threatened to destroy the distinctiveness of Israel in respect both to race and religion.
(2) To observe strictly the sabbath and other holy days, and the sabbatical year, including the remission of debts (verse 31; see Deu 15:2).
(3) To contribute to the support of the temple, its ministers and services (verses 32-39). The promised contributions included an annual money payment of one-third of a shekel each towards the expense of the ordinary services; the bringing up in turn to the temple of the wood required for the altar fire; the offering of the first-fruits of all produce, the firstlings of cattle, and the first-born children (i.e. the redemption money for them); and the payment of tithes to the Levites, who on their part would pay “the tithe of the tithes” unto the priests.
(4) Not to forsake the temple. They would continue to support it, and attend its services at the appointed times.
Reflections:
1. The review of the past is adapted to impress on our hearts the duty and wisdom of serving God.
2. In the service of God, the observance of the sabbath and the maintenance of public worship are of the greatest importance. As Divine ordinances, and for the well-being of individuals and families, the Church and the State.
3. All should unite in supporting the worship of God. By contributions, attendance, and endeavors to induce others to attend.
4. Solemn definite engagements are aids to the cultivation and practice of religion. The impressions and purposes of times of peculiar religious feeling may thus become of permanent value. Obligations thus recognised and adopted are more likely to be called to mind in times of temptation. The Christian settles it thus with himself that he is the Lord’s, and must not, wilt not, depart from him; must and will serve him in all things. In such a definite settlement are peace and safety. Hence the worth of those ordinances by which a profession of piety is made, and from time to time renewed. To these some have added forms of “covenanting” more resembling that recorded in this chapter. They have put hand and seal to a written document. Dr. Doddridge did this, and in his ‘Rise and Progress’ recommends the practice and supplies forms for the purpose. The Scottish Covenants present probably the most memorable instances of documents of this kind publicly agreed to, signed by thousands of all classes, and exercising a great and lasting influence on the course of affairs. A definite promise is specially appropriate and useful in respect to outward practices, such as the devoting of a certain proportion of income to religion and charity. The demands for money for the ordinary purposes of life are so numerous and urgent, that the claims of God’s cause and of the poor are likely to be very insufficiently met, unless some specific portion be distinctly devoted to them. When this is done, the other branches of expenditure adjust themselves to the income as thus diminished. Care, however, needs to be taken lest vows are made which cannot be kept, and so become a snare and burden to the conscience. They should for the most part be simply promises to do what, apart from them, is incumbent upon us, or to avoid what, apart from them, is wrong, or commonly, if not uniformly, leads us into wrong-doing.
5. It is pleasing when all classes of society unite in solemn acts of dedication of themselves and their property to God, and in arrangements for the maintenance of religion amongst them.
6. General religious excitement and professions are, however, often deceptive. The solemn covenant recorded in this chapter was soon violated (see Neh 13:10-29).
Neh 10:32
Divine service.
“The service of the house of our God.” Difference between this in the temple at Jerusalem and in Christian sanctuaries. Superiority of the latter. In remarking upon it, while chiefly thinking of the part taken by ministers, we have in view also the “service of song,” and all else that is needful for suitably conducting the worship of God. Note, then, that the service of God’s house
I. IS PECULIARLY SACRED. It has immediately to do with God, and Christ, and the souls of men. Should, therefore, be attended to with reverence, devoutness, purity of motive. Frivolity, selfishness, covetousness, and worldly ambition, wrong everywhere, are flagrantly wrong here. Every part of the service should have a distinctively religious aim, and should be done in a religious spirit.
II. SHOULD BE CONDUCTED ACCORDING TO DIVINE DIRECTIONS. Not only to act in opposition to these, but to go beyond them into “will-worship,” is impious and perilous.
III. SHOULD ENGAGE THE BEST ENERGIES OF THE BEST MEN. Requires, doubtless, first good men, but furnishes scope for the talents of the ablest; and all engaged in it should do their best. To leave this work to the feeble, or do it in a perfunctory or slovenly manner, is disgraceful and sinful.
IV. Is ENCOURAGED BY SPECIAL DIVINE PROMISES. The preaching of the gospel, united prayer, united praise, the celebration of the sacraments, all are thus encouraged.
V. Is FRUITFUL OF BLESSING. To those active in it, to those uniting, to society, etc. Of blessing in this life and for ever.
VI. SHOULD BE GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY ALL. In many, the sense of obligation to render such support is of the feeblest.
Neh 10:39
Cleaving to the house of God.
“We will not forsake the house of our God.” Introduce, by reference to the context
I. THE PLACE. “The house of our God.” The temple thus designated in a sense quite peculiar. In a deeper sense, however, the Christian Church is God’s house, and each member of it (1Co 3:16; 1Co 6:19; Eph 2:21, Eph 2:22; 1Ti 4:15). In a lower sense, the name may be given to buildings set apart for Christian worship. In the Old Testament seems to be used of synagogues (Ecc 5:1). Such buildings may be called houses of God because
1. Devoted specially to him. There is a sense in which all buildings should be devoted to God (motto over the Royal Exchange); but the meeting-houses of the Church are peculiarly consecrated to him, his worship; the publication of his great name, his laws, invitations, promises, threatenings; endeavours to promote his kingdom. Yet places of worship are not always devoted to God, and never perfectly.
2. Blessed and honoured by him. By his presence, and gracious operations, in the enlightenment, conversion, sanctification, consoling, strengthening, etc. of the worshippers. God’s works in the sanctuary are amongst his greatest and bestbetter than the turning of the material chaos into .
II. THE RESOLVE RESPECTING IT. “We will not forsake,” etc. (see also Neh 13:10, Neh 13:11). The declaration means more than it expresses. It is equivalent to saying, “We will interest ourselves in it, support it, promote its prosperity.”
1. By our gifts. The main point here. See preceding verses.
2. By attendance on its services.
Temptations in the present day to a total or partial neglect of public worship, or a wandering which is almost as injurious. Temptations from unbelief, worldliness, perpetual or occasional want of interest in the services, poverty, even sorrow.
3. By effort and prayer for its prosperity.
III. REASONS FOR MAKING IT OUR OWN.
1. Because it is God’s house”the house of our God.”
2. Because of the pleasure to be there enjoyed.
3. Because of the profit to be there gained.
4. Because of attachment to the people who meet there.
5. Because of the good of others which is there promoted. The highest welfare of individuals and of society is bound up with the maintenance of public Christian worship and instruction.
6. Because of what has been already expended upon it. Love, zeal, contributions, work. They who have done most for their place of worship will be most attached to it. Let the young make and keep this resolution. Especially let those who have left home and the minister and friends of their early life be careful not to forsake the house of God. They will thus be preserved from temptation, secure new friendships helpful to their character and happiness, and, if sincere in their worship, the guidance and blessing of God, and eternal salvation.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Neh 10:1-39
Entering into covenant.
Nehemiah and Ezra, and those who acted with them, showed true insight into character when they provided
I. THAT STRONG RELIGIOUS FEELING SHOULD TAKE DEFINITE FORM. “Because of all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests, set their seal unto it” (Neh 9:38). And Nehemiah and Zidkijah (Zadok), and many others, priests, Levites, and heads of families, formally signed and sealed a solemn covenant, pledging themselves and the people generally to a purer and more loyal service of the Lord. Feeling was running strong m Jerusalem. Many things concurred to call it forth. At the great gathering which followed the feast of tabernacles it rose to its height; the multitude had to be calmed by the leaders (Neh 8:9); then followed a day of fasting and confession; when all the people drew very near to God in humiliation. In what should it all end? Should it pass off in emotion, in religious excitement? That would have been a serious mistake. Nehemiah wisely provided that they should formally and solemnly pledge themselves to the purer and worthier service of Jehovah, turning from evils which had grown up, and returning to duties which had been neglected. He was well sustained by all in this movement, and we have a long list of the influential men who added their seals to his, committing themselves and all whom they represented to a renewed and revived national holiness. Let strong feeling in
(1) the individual, in
(2) the Church, in
(3) the society or community pass soon into some definite shape; let it take tangible form; let it come to some deliberate resolution that can be formulated and written down, or it may pass away, leaving nothing but spiritual lassitude and demoralisation behind. We learn further
II. THAT A RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT SHOULD BE HEADED BY A FEW, BUT SHOULD HAVE THE ACTIVE PARTICIPATION OF ALL (verses 1-29). “Those that sealed” were less than a hundred (verses 1-27); these were leading men, “nobles,” few enough for their names to be attached to the roll and to be entered in our sacred Scriptures, there enjoying an honourable immortality which many that have taken great pains to secure, it will assuredly miss; but “the rest of the people,” including “porters, stagers, Nethinims, “their wives, their sons, and their daughters” (verse 28), all these “clave to their brethren, the nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath” (verse 29). They publicly and audibly swore to “walk in God’s law,” thus sustaining all that the leaders initiated. All movements of revival, and indeed of any religious action or undertaking, must be orderly; there must be leaders who will give direction and counsel; also general followers who will give practical and cordial concurrence. God would not have an ill-regulated service, in which is confusion and haphazard, nor yet does he desire a mere representative service, in which a few act for the many without their sympathy. All must join
(1) the humblest classesporters, Nethinims, etc.;
(2) the weaker sexthe wives, the women;
(3) the young”the sons and daughters,” “every one that has understanding (verse 28); for the service of God should be intelligent as well as general and orderly. We must serve him “with the understanding” (1Co 14:15).
III. THAT THE “VOWS OF GOD” SHOULD BE NOT ONLY GENERAL, BUT PARTICULAR. These Jews vowed “to walk in God’s law,.; to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God, and his judgments and his statutes” (verse 29); but they were not content with such a general covenant: they undertook to refrain from particular evilsfrom forbidden marriage alliances (verse 30), sabbath breaking, usury (verse 31); and also to discharge particular obligationsthey charged themselves with
(1) payment of money for the temple service (verses 32, 33), with
(2) provision of wood for the fire that never went out (verse 34),
(3) with rendering the first-fruits and tithes according to the law (verses 35-39).
There are times of revival and reconsecration in the lives of men and the history of Churches. These are irregular, coming in the grace of God we know not when or whence. “The wind bloweth where it listeth,” etc. (Joh 3:8). And regular: anniversaries, festivals, etc.times when we are moved to consecrate or reconsecrate ourselves to the service of the Saviour. These should be used for a solemn and thorough devotedness of ourselves and our possessions; and they should comprise the deliberate separation of ourselves from worldly entanglements (verse 30), from neglect of ordinances (verse 31), from injustice and hardness, from all pressure of legal right which is indistinguishable from unchristian severity (verse 31), and the deliberate resolution to worship the Lord and dedicate a good share of our material resources to his service and the glory of his name.C.
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD
Neh 10:1-39
Solemn engagement to maintain the house of God.
I. ALL SHOULD PLEDGE THEMSELVES “not to forsake the house of our God.” Those who are first in position, influence, capability should be leaders in caring, for God’s house. Distinction of rank is lost in the unity of dedication. The service of God will call to itself all the variety of human faculty. Where there is the heart “to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God,” there will be found an office or a post for each one, from the nobles to the children.
II. THE BOND WHICH BINDS US TO THE HOUSE OF GOD AND HIS SERVICE should be regarded as THE MOST SOLEMN AND IRREVOCABLE.
1. We should be ready to give our name and take upon us the vow of a public profession. The Jew placed himself under the oath and curse. We are in a dispensation of liberty, but our liberty is not license. The bond of love is the strongest of all bonds. We are made free by the Son of God; but our freedom is the surrender of our all to him, that we may take his yoke upon us, and bear his burden.
2. We shall separate ourselves from the world that we may be faithful to God. We cannot serve God and mammon. We must be free from entanglements, that we may be good soldiers of Jesus Christ, enduring hardness.
3. Our consecration to God will include the consecration of our substance. With ungrudging liberality we shall fill the “treasure house of our God,” that there may be no lack in his service, that every department of Divine worship may be praise to his name. While the proportion of contributions was a matter of written prescription under the law, for the guidance of the people in their lower stage of enlightenment, let us take care that with our higher privilege, and our larger knowledge, and our more spiritual principles, we do not fall below their standard. Our hearts should not require any formal rule; but it is well to systematise our giving for our own sake, for human nature requires every possible assistance, and habit holds up principle and fortifies feeling. The effect of a universal recognition of duty in giving to God’s house would be immeasurable. Any true revival of religion will certainly be known by this test. The larger hearts will secure a larger blessing in the future.R.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Neh 10:1. Those that sealed were, Nehemiah, &c. It appears from this, that the government of the Jews was an aristocracy, or a government in which the nobles were the rulers. This mode of administration continued till the time of the Asmodean princes; and thence, by a natural transition, passed into an absolute monarchy, or rather a tyranny.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Neh 10:1-39
1Now those that sealed [and on the sealed documents] were Nehemiah, the Tirshatha, the son of Hachaliah, and Zidkijah [i.e., Zedekiah] 2Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah , 3, 4, 5 Pashur, Amariah, Malchijah, Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, Harim, 6Meremoth, Obadiah, Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, 7Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, 8Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah: these were the priests. 9And the Levites: both Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel; 10and their brethren, Shebaniah, Hodijah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, 11Micha, Rehob, Hashabiah, 12, 13, 14Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, Hodijah, Bani, Beninu. The chief of th 15, 16people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zatthu, Bani, Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, Adonijah, 17, 18Bigvai, Adin, Ater, Hizkijah [i.e., Hezekiah], Azzur, Hodijah, Hashum, 19, 20, 21Bezai, Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, Meshezabeel, 22, 23, 24Zadok, Jaddua, Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, Hoshea, Hananiah, Hashub, Hallohesh, 25Pileha, Shobek, Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, 26and Ahijah, Hanan, Anan, 27Malluch, Harim, Baanah.
28And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinim, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters every one having knowledge and having understanding; 29they clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse and into an oath, to walk in Gods law, which was given by [the hand of] Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes; 30And that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters 31for our sons: And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the Sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the Sabbath or on the holy day: and that we would leave [i.e., leave the land to lie untilled] the seventh 32year and the exaction [loan] of every debt [hand]. Also [And] we made ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God; 33for the shewbread [the bread of arrangement], and for the continual meat-offering, and for the continual burnt-offering of the Sabbaths, of the new moons, for the set feasts, and for the holy things, and for the sin-offerings, to make an atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God. 34And we cast the lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood-offering, to bring it into the house of our God, after the houses of our fathers, at times appointed year by year, to burn upon the altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in the law: 35And to bring the first-fruits of our ground, and the first-fruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, unto the house of the Lord: 36also the firstborn of our sons, and of our cattle, as it is written in the law, and the firstlings of our herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of our God, unto the priests that 37minister in the house of our God: and that we should bring the first-fruits [beginning] of our dough [groats], and [of] our offerings [oblations], and [of] the fruit of all manner of trees, of [new] wine and of oil, unto the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground unto the Levites, that the same Levites might have the tithes [perhaps, and they the Levites pay tithes] in all the cities of our tillage [service]. 38And the priest the son of Aaron shall be with the Levites, when the Levites take [perhaps, pay] tithes: and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes [tithe] unto the house of our God, to the chambers, into 39[belonging unto] the treasure house. For the children [sons] of Israel and the children [sons] of Levi shall bring the offering [oblation] of the corn, of the new wine, and [of] the oil, unto the chambers, where are the vessels of the sanctuary, and the priests that minister, and the porters, and the singers: and we will not forsake the house of our God.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
1 Neh 10:31. [or ] . The ellipsis is to be filled from Exo 23:11. , where the pronoun refers to of the preceding verse.
2 Neh 10:37. here and in Neh 10:38. (Piel part. and Hiph. inf. of ), if we follow the analogy of Deu 14:22; Deu 26:12, must refer to the paying and not to the receiving tithes.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The Covenant
Neh 10:1-8. Because of these twenty-three names fifteen are supposed to be found in the list (Neh 12:1-7) of the priests who came with Zerubbabel in the preceding century, it is held by many that this list contains only family names, and that these families were represented by descendants in the signing, Ezra, for example, signing for his ancestor Seraiah. But as we find Nehemiah in the list, and also the very Levites (Neh 10:9-13), who individually stood upon the stairs on the 24th of Tisri (Neh 9:4-5), it is better to suppose that the similarity of the names is accidental, and that family names only occur in the list of the people, Neh 10:14-27, if even there. The only alternative is harsh in two features: first, that the Levites on the stairs should be called, in a plain historical statement, by their family names; and secondly, that family names and personal names should be so strangely mixed. Moreover, it is to be noted that the family names of chap. 7 and of Ezra 2. are not all repeated here. We have abundant evidence of the very common use of the same names among the Israelites, and a theory, which that fact will explain, seems the easier one here.
Neh 10:9-27. See above note.
Neh 10:28. The rest of the people,i.e., besides the chiefs given in Neh 10:14-27. The word rest (Heb. shear) seems to carry its force to the other classes enumerated, to wit, the rest of the priests, etc.; that is, besides those enumerated. Every one having knowledge and having understanding.This evidently qualifies the general phrase before it. Not all the rest, but those who had knowledge and understanding, joined their brethren in the reform.
Neh 10:29. Clave to their brethren, their nobles.That is, to their brethren, the chiefs above mentioned. Commandments,etc.See on Neh 9:13-14.
Neh 10:31. We would leave the seventh year and the exaction of every debt.The verb natash (leave) here seems to have a pregnant meaning. We would leave fallow the land each seventh year (comp. Exo 23:11), and remit at that time (lit.) the debt of every hand. See Deu 15:2.
Neh 10:32. The third part of a shekel.This tax, thus first laid, became afterward a half shekel. (See Mat 17:24, where the Greek is didrachma,i.e., a half shekel.) The half shekel tax of Exo 30:13 is another matter, not an annual tax, but ransom money to be taken at a census as a mark of the Lords ownership.
Neh 10:33. The shew-bread.Heb. lehem hammaareketh (bread of arrangement). The older phrase is lehem happanim (bread of the face). The continual meat-offering.Heb. minhath hattamidh.The continual burnt-offering.Heb. olath hattamidh. So the shew-bread is called lehem hattamidh (Num 4:7). So called as oft-recurring in distinction from the occasional offerings. Here, as we see, the offerings are those of each day, of the sabbaths, and of the new moons.The set feasts are mentioned separately with lamedh (for).
Neh 10:34. For the wood-offering.Heb. kurban haetzim. The feast of the wood-offering (Josephus, B. J., II. 17, 6) on the 14th of Ab arose from this institution of Nehemiah. It was the day when those assigned to the duty brought in the wood for the altar. (See Lev 6:12)
Neh 10:35. The first fruits of all fruits of all trees.See Lev 19:24 and comp. Deu 26:2.
Neh 10:36. The first born of our sons.That is, by bringing redemption-money, as ordered in Num 18:15-16. Cattle.Heb. behemoth. Here unclean beasts, as contrasted with the herds and flocks below. These were also redeemed. (See Num. l. c.)
Neh 10:37. First fruits of our dough (groats or ground meal).See Num 15:20. Offeringsi.e., all special offerings. Chambers.Heb. lishcoth. The cells or chambers in the courts of the temple. Might have the tithes.Many read might pay tithes, anticipating the statement of the next verse. Tillage.There may be a reasonable doubt whether anodhah ever means tillage, unless, as in 1Ch 27:26, it is qualified by another noun. It may mean here service in the relation of servants to God, as elsewhere. To suppose that the cities of work or service must mean the country towns, is scarcely credible.
Neh 10:38. To the chambers, Into the treasure house.Rather, to the chambers of the treasure house, one of the buildings in the temple area. The tithe of the tithes belonged to the priests (Num 18:26-28), the children of Aaron.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL
1. The natural leaders of a people are largely responsible for the peoples conduct. The priests, Levites, and chiefs, the nobles of the nation readily find a following. Nehemiah, as Tirshatha, puts his own name first to the solemn reform-document, and then he causes the nobles to set their names to the instrument. A reform begun the other way in the lower circles of society is apt to degenerate into the excesses of revolution. The healing Salt should be thrown in at the sources of the streams, if the waters are to be cured.
2. The points specially indicated, wherein the reform was most pressing, are (1) marriage alliances, (2) Sabbath-observance, (3) usury, (4) temple-taxes of the third part of a shekel, of first-fruits and of tithes. On these points we may believe the people had been especially remiss. They were the points where their covetousness would operate to undermine their piety, and thus the integrity of the commonwealth. Was not that, which has become a distinctive trait of the Israelitish race, already in Nehemiahs time beginning to develop itself?
3. When a people grow remiss in the support of religious privileges, the foundations of society are shaken: The moral tone of any people can only be cultivated and sustained by systematized methods, for natural depravity must take advantage of the lack of discipline, and prove too strong for morality. Religion, in any true and high sense, is an exotic, and must be tenderly cared for in this sin-grown earth. The zeal of Nehemiah and other reformers for the thorough establishment of religious rites is a wise example to all who come after them. Where the state cannot enforce such a result, public opinion can be made.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Neh 10:1. To what the consideration of the Lords faithfulness to the covenant leads us: 1) To penitence and conversion which shows itself through obedience. 2) To faithparticularly in the fact that the Lord always keeps His covenant with us, and that it is only necessary that we on our part should confirm and maintain it. 3) To hope that the Lord will set us free, and evermore aid us to the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Neh 10:31-32. The principal duties of the congregation and its members: 1) To keep themselves unspotted, and particularly separated from the world. 2) To practice communion with the Lord, and especially in the way that is beneficial to us in this mortal state. Bede: Porro sabbatismus orationum ac devotionis nostr, in qua vacamus a temporalibus agendis, ut ternitatis gaudia dulcius gustare mereamur, recte diei septimo adsignatur quia futur quietem vit ac beat laudationis imitatur: sed diem sabbathi alienigen qurunt profanare, cum terrcn cogitationes in tempore nostr orationis importune nos conturbant, et memoria sive delectatione temporalium rerum ab amore intimo nituntur extrahere.Imponunt asinis vinum, uvas et ficus et omne onus, et inferunt in Hierusalem, cum oblectamentis carnalibus stultos animi nostri motus onerantes, per hc et hujus modi tentamenta quietem nostri cordis deo debitam violare conantur. Comp. Neh 13:15.
Neh 10:33-39. The tasks to which each member of the congregation must submit himself. 1) The offerings which must be made directly to the Lord for the erection of His buildings, expenses of the service, etc. 2) The doing that which assists the servants of the Lord. Starke: My God! I remember that I too made a covenant with Thee at my baptism. I beseech thee seal the same also in me, and give me in my heart the pledge, the Holy Spirit (2Co 1:21-22; 2Co 5:5). We must not only ourselves have a Christian zeal for true religion, but also incite others to it, and admonish them (Heb 10:24; Psa 49:2). Marriages with the godless are displeasing to God, and dangerous (1Ti 2:14). Nothing must be so near to us that it withdraws us from the service of God.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This chapter records the names of them that subscribed to the covenant. And here also are the outlines of the covenant itself.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
(1) Now those that sealed were, Nehemiah, the Tirshatha, the son of Hachaliah, and Zidkijah, (2) Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, (3) Pashur, Amariah, Malchijah, (4) Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, (5) Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, (6) Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, (7) Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, (8) Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah: these were the priests. (9) And the Levites: both Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel; (10) And their brethren, Shebaniah, Hodijah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, (11) Micha, Rehob, Hashabiah, (12) Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, (13) Hodijah, Bani, Beninu. (14) The chief of the people; Parosh, Pahathmoab, Elam, Zatthu, Bani, (15) Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, (16) Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, (17) Ater, Hizkijah, Azzur, (18) Hodijah, Hashum, Bezai, (19) Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, (20) Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, (21) Meshezabeel, Zadok, Jaddua, (22) Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, (23) Hoshea, Hananiah, Hashub, (24) Hallohesh, Pileha, Shobek, (25) Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, (26) And Ahijah, Hanan, Anan, (27) Malluch, Harim, Baanah. (28) And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, everyone having knowledge, and having understanding;
I did not think it necessary to interrupt the progress of the reading in going over the catalogue of those that signed the covenant. It was not done by all the people, but by the elders and leading men, beginning with the Tirshatha, that is the governor; then followed the priests; next to them the Levites; and then the chief of the people; making in all eighty-four persons, including Nehemiah the governor. And we are told that the rest of the people joined in the covenant, both men and their wives, their sons and their daughters; all, as many as were arrived to years of discretion and knowledge. Was not this a type of the gospel church, concerning which the Lord promised in the last days to pour out of his Spirit, that our young men should prophecy, and our old men see visions, and upon the Lord’s servants and handmaidens that grace should be given? What a precious thing it is to behold and trace the uniformity between the Jewish and the gospel church; and to discover that the covenant is one and the same, being founded in the everlasting love of Jehovah, and summed up and finished in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Neh 10
[In Neh 10:1-28 are contained the names of them that sealed the covenant. ]
28. And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinims, and all they that have separated themselves [see ch. Neh 9:2 ] from the people of the lands unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge, and having understanding;
29. They clave to their brethren, their nobles [ i.e., to their (more) distinguished brethren, those who had set their seals to the covenant], and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes;
30. And that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons:
31. And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day [comp. ch. Neh 13:16 , where this desecration of the sabbath is shown to have commonly taken place] to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day: and that we would leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt [ i.e. “Let the land rest in the sabbatical year,” as commanded in Exo 23:11 ; Lev 25:4 ].
32. Also we made ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God. [ The Speaker’s Commentary says: This appears to have been the first occasion in which an annual payment towards the maintenance of the Temple service and fabric was established. The half-shekel of the law ( Exo 30:13 ) was paid only at the time of a census (which rarely took place), and was thus not a recurring tax. In after times the annual payment was raised from the third of a shekel to half a shekel (see Mat 17:24 )].
33. For the shewbread, and for the continual meat offering, and for the continual burnt offering, of the sabbaths, of the new moons, for the set feasts, and for the holy things, and for the sin offerings to make an atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.
34. And we cast the lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, after the houses of our fathers, at times appointed year by year, to burn upon the altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in the law [the allusion is probably to Lev 6:12 ];
35. And to bring the firstfruits of our ground, and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, unto the house of the Lord:
36. Also the firstborn of our sons [ i.e. the redemption money for them ( Num 18:15-16 )], and of our cattle [ i.e. of our unclean beasts. These also were to be redeemed ( Num 18:15 ). The firstlings of the clean beasts were to be sacrificed ( ib. 17)], as it is written in the law, and the firstlings of our herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of our God, unto the priests that minister in the house of our God:
37. And that we should bring the firstfruits of our dough [see Num 15:20 ], and our offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and of oil, unto the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground unto the Levites, that the same Levites might have the tithes in all the cities of our tillage.
38. And the priest the son of Aaron shall be with the Levites, when the Levites take tithes: and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes [which was the priests’ due (see Num 18:26-28 )] unto the house of our God, to the chambers, into the treasure house.
39. For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the offering of the corn, of the new wine, and the oil, unto the chambers, where are the vessels of the sanctuary, and the priests that minister, and the porters, and the singers: and we will not forsake the house of our God [both the pledge and the violation of it in the sequel are explained by chap. Num 13:11-14 ].
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XXIV
THE READING OF THE LAW AND RESETTLEMENT OF THE CITIES
Nehemiah 8-13
In Neh 8 we have Ezra coming on the scene again. The date of this appearance is 444 B.C., and we have not heard from him since 456 B.C. He had dropped out of this history for about twelve years. He must have been called away just after his work in 456 B.C. and after a space of about twelve years returned to Jerusalem. The occasion that called him forth then was the reading of the Law.
We come now to look at the work of Ezra, with Nehemiah sustaining him in his work of reform. The great task of Ezra was the bringing of the law of Moses to Jerusalem and the adoption of that as the law of the land for the people. By this law of Moses is doubtless meant the Pentateuch. Ezra had not produced this book of the law thus far. The time had not been ripe for the reading of the Law and its explanation to the people. But the city was now fortified and organization perfected. Then Ezra went forth and produced this book of the Law. We are told in Neh 8 that the people asked him to bring forth the book of the Law and read it.
Now we have a remarkable scene. It is unprecedented in history. One of the greatest revivals in the world now opened. He proceeded to organize the people. He had Levites and other officers to help him. A great assembly of all the people was convened. A pulpit had been built and Ezra took his place before all the people. He opened the book which was simply a roll. It was the law of Moses, that is, the laws of the Pentateuch. The great meeting went on. The Law was read by Ezra, and it was explained by the Levites.
The effect of the reading upon the people was that they began to weep. Why should they weep? Perhaps the reading was the setting forth of those awful chapters in Deuteronomy where the awful curses upon those who violated this Law were set forth. With their remembrance of what God had already done to them because they had violated this Law, and their remembrance of the sins they had committed, was enough to bring tears. Now Ezra tells them that they are not to weep; that this is a holy day, holy unto the Lord; so they should rejoice and not weep; that it was the joy of fellowship with God that was their strength.
Then follows the story of how they built booths and kept the feast. This was according to the law of Moses that had been read. They lived in these booths during the time of the feast, which was called the Feast of Tabernacles.
As soon as the feast was over the people again assembled. Six hours were spent in this meeting. Three hours in the reading of the Law, and three hours in the confessions of their sins and praying. This is a wonderful revival of religion. Neh 9 deals with confession and prayer. It is the recounting of a series of acts in the drama of redemption. There are three scenes in every act: God’s goodness in caring for his people, the people sinning and turning away from God, and God’s forgiveness and offer of restoration. The people at last read the lessons of their history and learn them well. Neh 9:37 speaks about their present condition: “It yields much increase to the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins; they have power over our bodies and over our cattle, and we are in great distress.” As an effect of this repentance (Neh 9:8 ) they made a covenant and wrote it, and the princes, the Levites and the priests set seal unto it.
Neh 10:1-27 give a list of those that sealed the covenant. These were the leading men of the nation. The rest of Neh 10 tells how they attempted to keep that covenant, how they gave the payment of the tithe regularly, and observed the sabbath. All this was in perfect keeping with the law of Moses. Thus Moses’ law was established in Jerusalem, and Judaism starts off on its great career.
They followed this with two ordinances: (1) They set aside one-third of a shekel for the Temple tax, and provided for the wood to be used in the sacrifice; (2) they instituted measures to increase the population. They wanted more men in the city. Many came to live in Jerusalem. In that way they increased the population considerably. The priests lived there, but not many of the people. We have this statement: “In Jerusalem dwelt certain of the children of Judah and Benjamin.” Of the priests, some of them lived in the city; the majority of them lived in the country villages outside of the city. A large majority of the common people also lived in the cities around Jerusalem.
Now the problem we have to deal with regarding the cities is not how to increase the population, but how to decrease it. People are rushing to the cities and crowding them. The measure that did most to bring the people to Jerusalem was the draft of one out of each ten who volunteered, and these were compelled to come and live in Jerusalem.
Then followed the account of the dedication of the walls. Now the manner of procedure was about this: They gathered together all the Levites, and brought them to Jerusalem. They came together at a certain signal, and the people, all of them that would come, were divided into two companies, Nehemiah at the head of one of the companies himself, and Ezra at the head of the other company. They marched upon the walls. The walls of the city were broad, and there was plenty of room for them to march upon them. They marched thus about the walls, one company one way and the other company the other way. They went on around until they met. This was a joyous occasion, a glorious day. Jerusalem had now been inaugurated as a fortified city, the city of Jehovah, the holy city of Jerusalem.
With that great dedication the first great work of Nehemiah was completed, but he attended to a few other matters, such as the appointment of Temple officers, treasurers, singers, chief singers as in the time of David, the separation of the foreign element, Ammonites and Moabites, from the congregation, and then he returned to Persia by authority of Artaxerxes and remained about one year, after which he returned to Jerusalem and found certain things in bad condition. The people had backslidden. He found that Eliashib the priest had prepared for Tobiah a great chamber in the Temple, where the treasures were kept. Nehemiah finds that he is allied with Tobiah, and casts him out with all the stuff of Tobiah, and cleanses the Temple.
Next, he orders that their portion be given to the Levites. They had failed to bring in all the tithes and the Levites were actually suffering. Nehemiah contends with the rulers saying, “Why is the house of God forsaken?”
Then he enforces the sabbath laws. People were working on the sabbath day. They were bringing in their produce on that day to have it ready for the market the next morning. Nehemiah prohibits that. They came up to the outside of the city walls on the sabbath day and waited there to enter bright and early on the morrow. Nehemiah found this out and put a stop to this also. Next he compels the Jews to put away their foreign wives. Ezra had dealt with that thing before. He went about weeping and bewailing the sins of the people in this matter. Now when Nehemiah came he did not cover himself with his mantle and weep. He cursed them and plucked off their hair and beard, and made them swear that they would not do this thing. He had back of him the authority of the great king. He also chased away the son-in-law of Sanballat. Here was a priest who had married the daughter of his enemy. When Nehemiah found that out he chased him away. We do not know how fast he ran, but he lost no time in escaping. The last item of Nehemiah’s reform is the cleansing of the priesthood, and thus he closes his book: “Remember me, O my God, for good.” He offered what he had done to the Lord and petitioned his kindly regard.
The book of Malachi has its setting right in these last verses of Nehemiah, and reflects the conditions herein set forth in a most emphatic condemnation of these evils.
QUESTIONS
1. How may we account for Ezra not appearing in the history before Neh 8 , and what occasion brought him forth before the people here?
2. Where did the people assemble on this occasion?
3. Who constituted this marvelous assembly?
4. How long did this continue and what was the method?
5. How did the people show their reverence for the Word of God?
6, What was the effect upon the people of the hearing of the Law, why did Ezra suppress their emotions and what did he recommend?
7. What great feast was here reset and how was it celebrated?
8. Describe the fast kept by the Jews, and the prayer which followed.
9. Recite the history from the creation to Abraham as recorded here.
10. Recite their history from Egypt to the establishment in the land as given here.
11. What was their history in the period of the judges according to Nehemiah?
12. What acknowledgment do they make here relative to Jehovah’s dealings with them?
13. Describe the covenant which followed.
14. What the ordinances made here also?
15. What methods did they adopt in populating Jerusalem and the cities round about?
16. Describe the dedication of the walls of Jerusalem.
17. What officers were appointed on this day of the dedication of the wall?
18. What law was discovered concerning the Ammonite and Moabite and what was the result?
19. What was the proof of Nehemiah’s leave of absence from Jerusalem and how long was he away?
20. Upon his return what evils did he find and how did he correct them?
21. What prophet comes in this period and what was his special message?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Neh 10:1 Now those that sealed [were], Nehemiah, the Tirshatha, the son of Hachaliah, and Zidkijah,
Ver. 1. Now those that sealed were, Nehemiah, the Tirshatha ] He is first mentioned, not as a priest, but as a provost; and one that held it an honour to be first in so good a matter; as Caesar never said to his soldiers, Ite, but Venite, Go, but, Come along, I will lead you; and as Abimelech said, What ye have seen me do, make haste and do accordingly. So should all superiors say to their inferiors. Vita principis censura est, imo cynosura, The life of the prince is the loede star of the people, upon which most men fix their eyes and shape their courses. Magnates sunt Magnetes, Great men draw many by their examples, they are as looking glasses by which others dress themselves. And hence Nehemiah’s forwardness here to seal first. There follow in their order priests, Levites, princes, and people, solemnly sealing a sure covenant. God had caused them to pass under the rod, and now he is bringing them into the bond of the covenant, that he may purge out the rebels from amongst them, Eze 20:37-38 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Nehemiah Chapter 10
They further joined together and sealed the covenant before the Lord after their Jewish manner, in Neh 10 . We have the rulers also, in Neh 11 ; and then we have an account of the priests and Levites that went up with Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, in Neh 12 . On all these details I forbear to enter tonight. It would occupy me longer than would be reasonable; but I may observe that the last chapter gives us a final view of the work of Nehemiah.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Neh 10:1-27
1Now on the sealed document were the names of: Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah, and Zedekiah,
2Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah,
3Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah,
4Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch,
5Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah,
6Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch,
7Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin,
8Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah. These were the priests.
9And the Levites: Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel;
10also their brothers Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan,
11Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah,
12Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah,
13Hodiah, Bani, Beninu.
14The leaders of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani,
15Bunni, Azgad, Bebai,
16Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin,
17Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur,
18Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,
19Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai,
20Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir,
21Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua,
22Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah,
23Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub,
24Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek,
25Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah,
26Ahiah, Hanan, Anan,
27Malluch, Harim, Baanah.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
those that sealed. These are stated by the Talmudical writings, and the unanimous voice of tradition, to have formed “The Great Synagogue”. It consisted at first of 120 members, but was afterward reduced to seventy. It represented the five divisions of the nation:
(1) the chiefs of the priests;
(2) the chief Levites;
(3) the chiefs of the people;
(4) the representatives of the cities;
(5) the doctors of the law. Its work was (by solemn oath):
(1) not to intermarry with the heathen;
(2) to keep the sabbath;
(3) to keep the sabbatical year;
(4) to pay annually [a portion?] of a shekel to the temple;
(5) to supply wood for the altar;
(6) to pay the priestly dues;
(7) to collect and preserve the canonical scriptures.
The Great Synagogue lasted 110 years: from Nehemiah to Simon the Just, when, having completed its work, it became known as the Sanhedrim of the NT., the supreme council of the Jewish nation; which rejected the kingdom, and crucified the King (Messiah).
Tirshatha. See note on Ezr 2:63.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 10
Now these words were sealed and these people signed the covenant, starting with Nehemiah, the governor. And it gives the names of the leaders who signed the covenant.
And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge, and having understanding; they clave to their brethren, their nobles, and they entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes ( Neh 10:28-29 );
So this is the covenant they made. And they by a curse, you know, “Cursed be the man that fails to do it and all.” And they said, “Yes, we’ll do it.” When they bound their hearts together and in determination, “We’re going to serve God. We’re going to follow Him. We’re going to keep His commandments that we’ve read in His law.”
We will not give our daughters to the people of the land, nor will we take their daughters for our sons: and if the people of the land bring any of their merchandise or food on the sabbath day to sell it to us, we will not buy it from them on the sabbath day, or on the holy days: that we would leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt ( Neh 10:30-31 ).
So they’ll keep the Sabbath-year law in that they will forgive every debt in the seventh year as was commanded in the law of Moses. And also that they’ll allow the land to just not be planted or cultivated in the seventh year. Give the land its rest. Actually, you remember they were seventy years in captivity in Babylon that the land might have its rest, for they have been in the land for 490 years and they did not keep the seventh day or the seventh-year Sabbath for the land. So God said, “I’m going to give the land the Sabbath that you didn’t give it. I’ll keep you out of it for seventy years so that the land will have its seventy Sabbaths that it’s missed.” Now they said, “We’ll keep it.” And the exaction of every debt.
We also made ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God ( Neh 10:32 );
So we’ll all give this money that the house of God might be maintained, that they might have the showbread, the meal offerings, continual burnt offerings, and all of the Sabbath offerings, new moons, and set feasts, and so forth. And so we’ll all… we all covenant we’re going to support the house of God and the worship in the house of God.
And we will bring the firstfruits of our ground, and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, to the house of the LORD: also the firstborn of our sons, our cattle, as it is written in the law, and the firstlings of our herds, the flocks, to bring to the house of God, and the priests that minister in the house of our God: and that we should bring the firstfruits of our dough ( Neh 10:35-37 ),
And no, that’s not your money, but your bread dough that they made.
and the offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and of oil, unto the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground unto the Levites, that the Levites might have the tithes in all the cities of our tillage. And the priest the son of Aaron shall be with the Levites, when the Levites take tithes: and the Levites shall bring up the tithes ( Neh 10:37-38 ).
“And so we’ll just commit. Lord, we’re going to follow You. We’re going to keep Your law. We’re going to keep all your commandments and statutes. We’re not going to… we’re going to keep the Sabbath day law. We’re not going to buy on the Sabbath day. We’re going to keep the seventh year. We’re going to start keeping up the house of God and the worship and so forth.” It was the heart of the people to covenant, “Lord, we’re going to be Your people again. We’re going to serve You.’ “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Neh 10:1-27
Introduction
THOSE WHO SEALED THE COVENANT; TERMS OF THE COVENANT
This writer finds it impossible to believe the flat declaration of Bowman that, “Neh 10:1-27 are interpolated,” there being no historical evidence whatever of such a thing. The critical scholars seek to connect those verses with the Book of Ezra, but that notion is refuted absolutely by the fact that, of the families who returned (in the Book of Ezra), only fourteen of them are found in the list here of those who sealed the covenant; therefore these twenty seven verses belong exactly where they are in the Book of Nehemiah. We have already noted the defense of Y. Kaufmann who maintained that this chapter is a unit with Nehemiah 8 and Nehemiah 9, and that it belongs exactly where it is.
The last verse of Nehemiah 9 states that, “Our princes, our Levites, and our priests seal unto it” (Neh 9:38); and some scholars state that the list of these appears in reverse order, but the principle difference is that in Nehemiah 10 (1) the princes are first (Nehemiah the governor), (2) then the priests, and (3) then the Levites. Thus, the principal difference is the reversal of the position of the priests and Levites, which is explained by the fact that in Nehemiah 9 the Levites are clearly the religious leaders of the confession and prayer, whereas in Nehemiah 10, where the sealing of the document takes place, the priests, who ranked higher than the Levites, naturally had preference in the order of their signing.
The actual signing of the covenant was apparently made by various groups, heads of houses, and officials, including some individuals, who affixed their seal instead of writing a signature. “The large number of such seals uncovered in recent excavations in Palestine shows that there is nothing improbable about this.”
We have noted already the reluctance of the priesthood, and even the treachery of some of them; but it is not surprising that they, seeing the popularity of the covenant, and following the lead of the governor Nehemiah, readily affixed their seals to it.
Neh 10:1-27
THE NAMES OF THOSE WHO SEALED
“Now those that sealed were Nehemiah, the governor, the son of Hacaliah, and Zedekiah, Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah, Hattasuh, Shebaniah, Malluch, Harim, Maremoth, Obadiah, Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah: these were the priests. And the Levites: namely, Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the son of Henadad, Kadmiel; and their brethren, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, Micah, Rehob, Hashabiah, Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Bani, Beninu. The chiefs of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani, Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur, Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai, Hariph, Anathoth, Nobai, Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua, Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub, Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek, Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, and Ahiah, Hanan, Anan, Malluch, Harim, Baanah.”
“Zedekiah” (Neh 10:1). The identity of this person is not known. Some have supposed him to have been the same as Zadok (but Zadok is found in Neh 10:21); others have imagined that he must have been the governor’s secretary, which is as good a guess as any.
For all who wonder where the name of Ezra may be in this list, Cook’s opinion offers the solution that, “The seal of the high-priestly house of Seraiah was probably appended, either by Ezra personally, or by Eliashib, both of whom were members of that house.”
E.M. Zerr:
Neh 10:1-8. These men sealed or endorsed the covenant referred to in the preceding chapter. They were all of priestly families except Nehemiah the tirshatha or governor. It would seem very appropriate for him to give his name at the head of the list, being the governor appointed over the province and on behalf of the Jews. There are 3 names in the list that are fa miliar to Bible students, Jeremiah, Obadiah and Daniel. The similarity is only a coincidence and should not confuse the reader. It was not uncommon in those times for more than one man to have the same name.
Neh 10:9-27. And the Levites is the beginning of this list. All priests were Levites, but not all Levites were priests; none but the descendants of Aaron. So there was nothing farfetched in making two separate rolls of the names standing good for the covenant.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Following their humiliation, the people entered into a new covenant with God. This covenant was sealed representatively by the priests (3-8), Levites (9-13), rulers (14-27). To its terms all the people agreed (28).
These terms were then set forth in general phrases, and in particular application. Generally the people promised “to walk in God’s law . . . to observe and do a11 the commandments.” Particularly the covenant referred to matters in which undoubtedly the people had been in danger of failure, namely, intermarriage with the heathen, neglect of the Sabbath, of Temple maintenance and arrangement, and offering of first fruits and tithes. In the light of the Law, as it was expounded on the day of convocation, and in the power of the approach to God on the day of humiliation, the people entered into covenant on the day of dedication.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Chapter 10
The New Start
It is both true and false (according to the thought one has in mind) that God never restores a failed testimony. If by this expression, frequently heard at the present time, it be meant that failure having once blighted a movement that originally was of God, it will never again reach its pristine glory, the statement is undoubtedly true. But if it be meant that, ruin having come in, God will not answer the cry of repentance with revival and restoration though His face is earnestly sought, it is utterly false. It is to be feared that it is spiritual lethargy and an unwillingness to bestir oneself and seriously face existing conditions, which are the real causes why many once gathered to the name of Jesus now go on in isolation, blaming the divisions and lack of spirituality evidenced by others as the reason for their having left the path of subjection to Gods revealed will as to the corporate testimony of His people.
To such, what we have just been considering ought to speak loudly. Things had got indeed very low among the remnant. Their actual condition had become most dishonoring to God. Nevertheless their position was a right one, and nothing could be gained by forsaking it. The important thing was to remain where they were, and seek to put away all that hindered their enjoyment of the Lords favor, that thus their state individually and corporately might be approved of Him.
So we have seen them turning unitedly to the Word, earnestly inquiring as to what God had said, and when they found it written, acting upon it, though it meant, as in many instances it did, bitter sorrow and painful humiliation.
Having pledged themselves (in accord with the spirit of the legal dispensation) to put away all strangers and to walk obediently before God, they drew up a written declaration, signing and sealing it, from Nehemiah the Governor down to the lowest in rank of the common people, all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge, and having understanding (vers. 1-28).
It was a serious, solemn and definite thing they had undertaken, and it would require purpose of heart to carry it out. They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in Gods law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of Jehovah our Lord, and His judgments and His statutes; and that we would not give our daughters unto the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons: and if the peoples of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the Sabbath, or on the holy day: and that we would leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt (vers. 29-31).
Notice carefully what it was they had covenanted to do-
First: To walk in Gods law; or, in other words, to be subject to the Holy Scriptures. Second (and of course all that followed was involved in the first): To maintain separation from the peoples of the land that there be no unequal yoke. Third: To honor God by a careful observance of the Sabbath day, not permitting greed or lust for strangers dainties to lead them to violate its sacredness. Fourth: To let the land lie fallow every seventh year, for disobedience to which command they had of old been carried to Babylon, while for seventy years the land kept Sabbath. Fifth: To deal graciously with each other as brethren, leaving the exaction of every debt, not acting in the spirit of the usurer.
Are there not weighty lessons for us in these pledges? I mean for those who have sought to give Christ His place as Head, and to act on the truth of the oneness of the body of Christ, but who have so miserably failed to keep the Spirits unity in the bond of peace. Wherein have we missed our way? Has it not been in what is here set forth in Old Testament language? Must we not confess that we have not been obedient to the word of our God? We prided ourselves on having taken a right position-directed thereto by the Word-but we have not been careful to be individually subject to that Word. Is it not a fact that to many the voice of the assembly has been louder than the voice of God in Holy Scripture? Is it not a fact that the traditions of the elders have, in critical times, been more relied on than Thussaith the Lord? Is it not time then that, as individuals and as gathered companies of saints, we go back to the simplicity of early days, and seek to be guided henceforth alone by the word of the Lord which abideth forever?
And, have we not, likewise, greatly missed the truth of separation? Have we not often been quite satisfied in that we were separated ecclesiastically from the world-church, while socially and in our business relations we were linked up with the world to an even greater extent than many not outwardly separated as we? Has not the spirit of the world come into our homes and assemblies? Is it not manifest in the books we enjoy, the clothing we wear, the company we frequent, the language we use? What is mere ecclesiastical separation if we are otherwise so much linked with the world?
And is it not true that, when we have been somewhat aroused as to this, we have enjoined strictest separation from saints often more godly than ourselves, instead of from the spirit of the present age of evil? Has it not often happened that saints of God have been passed by or coldly greeted because of some difference in judgment as to a disciplinary question difficult to determine righteously, while utter worldlings have been given every evidence of affection? These are serious questions, that had better be faced now than at the judgment-seat of Christ.
We know that, as we are not under law but under grace, the Sabbath of a past dispensation is now for us fulfilled in Christ, but are we then giving Christ His place, and not permitting our greed for gain or our lust after earths pleasant things to break in upon that Sabbath-rest we should ever enjoy in Him? Can our business affairs always bear the test of His eyes that are as a flame of fire? Have we one weight for testing sacred things and another for what we call secular affairs? May there not be cause for exercise as to these matters; and may it not be that right here is one reason for our leanness?
And what of the seventh year? It was this leaving the seventh year that really showed that Israel were a people confiding in the living God. To live by faith is often spoken of as though it were the calling or prerogative of those separated to the ministry of the Word. But are not all believers called to live by faith-to hold things here with a loose grasp, but lay hold on eternal life as the one thing needful? And have we been largely forgetting this, and contenting ourselves with gathering on divine ground, scripturally breaking bread, maintaining the testimony, and all the rest of what is merely outward and ecclesiastical, while losing our grip on eternal realities and living as though this world were by far the more important of the two? Is it any wonder then that when matters arise among us calling for the exercise of spiritual discernment and godly judgment we are found wanting, and what should be for the unifying of the saints becomes the means of their scattering?
And this brings us to the fifth pledge: What about the exaction of every debt? Have we not been hard and exacting and over-much righteous with one another, alienating those we ought to have drawn with cords of love, and demanding of each other what subjects of grace should be ashamed to press? Surely, as before intimated, it is high time to leave off this usury.
The end of the dispensation is fast approaching. The Judge is standing at the door. The Lord is looking on, close at hand. The word of God is being given up and its truth denied on every hand. It is high time that those who love that Word cease their exactions one of another, and all alike judging everything that has hindered fellowship, put away for ever the evil things that have wrought such havoc, and so stand shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart, and hand in hand for God and His truth in the little time that remains ere the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him.
On the rest of the chapter I have few remarks to offer. Judging the evil, the remnant sought, so far as they might, to put things in order in regard to providing for and maintaining the service of the house of God, giving of their first-fruits and tithes that there might be abundance to carry on the ministry and to support the ministers. Depend upon it, if the Lords people get right individually, that which is corporate will flourish, and there will be abundant provision for maintaining a visible testimony. Lack of spirituality closes up hearts and purses. Godliness opens both. The poverty of the people was no barrier when their consciences were in exercise, and they determined not to forsake the house of their God (vers. 32-39). And so will it ever be where the love of Christ reigns.
Apart from this all must degenerate more and more until all testimony for God is gone. One who knew and suffered much as standing for the present truth left behind seasonable words of warning with which I bring this portion to a close.
What is important is not The Brethren, but the truth they have God could set them aside, and spread His truth by others-would, I believe, though full of gracious patience, if they be not faithful. Their place is to remain in obscurity and devotedness, not to think of Brethren (it is always wrong to think of ourselves), but of souls, in Christs name and love, and of His glory.
Let them walk in love, in the truth, humble, as little (and content to be little) as when they began, and God will bless them. If not, their candlestick may go as that of others-and oh, what sorrow and confusion of face it would be after such grace!
As regards also the activity outside them, it is one of the signs of the times, and they should rejoice in it But it does not give their testimony at all I do not believe attacks on anything to be our path. Self-defence is every way to be avoided. The Lord will answer for us if we do His will God has no need of us, but He has need of a people who walk in the truth, in love, and holiness. I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of Jehovah (Zep 3:12).
The gospel we may, and must, rejoice in; yet it only makes the testimony of Brethren outside the camp more necessary than ever; but it must be real If brethren fall in with the current Christianity inside the camp, they would be but another sect with certain truths-J. N. D.
In the light of much that has transpired one can almost hear the voice of prophecy in such words. Beloved brethren, let us one and all heed their serious message.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
CHAPTER 10
1. Those who sealed the covenant (Neh 10:1-27)
2. The obligations of the covenant (Neh 10:28-39)
Neh 10:1-27. The last verse of the preceding chapter mentions a covenant. And yet for all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, our Levites, and our priests, seal unto it. In this chapter we find the names of the heads of the different houses who sealed the covenant, which means they put their signature to it. According to talmudical tradition these signers constituted the Great Synagogue. Originally it consisted of 120 members, but later only 70 belonged to it. Its covenants were as follows:
(1) Not to marry heathen women;
(2) to keep Sabbath;
(3) to keep the Sabbatical year;
(4) to pay every year a certain sum to the Temple;
(5) to supply wood for the altar;
(6) to pay the priestly dues;
(7) to collect and to preserve the Holy Scriptures.
The list is headed by Nehemiah with his official title as Governor (Tirshatha). In Neh 10:2-8 the priestly houses are given. The Levitical houses are recorded in Neh 10:9-13. From the book of Ezra we learn that only four priestly houses and only two Levites had returned under Zerubbabel. Here we have twenty-one priestly and seventeen Levitical houses. This shows a marked increase. The chiefs of the people were forty-one houses; their names are given in Neh 10:14-27.
Neh 10:28-39. Besides the heads of the houses recorded in this chapter there were the rest of the people, priests, Levites (the individuals), porters, singers and the Nethinim (Ezr 2:43); they all had separated themselves and entered into a curse, and into an oath. The word curse has the meaning of an imprecatory expression in the form of an oath. There must have been some formula in connection with signing the covenant, in which the signers declared that if they broke the covenant God would do something to them (the curse) and then by a direct oath swore to keep the covenant. The obligationsof the covenant are given in the rest of this chapter. These obligations may be summed up in one word, obedience. They covenanted to obey the law of the Lord and to do all the commandments.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Tirshatha
See margin ref. (See Scofield “Neh 3:26”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
those that sealed: Heb. at the sealings, Neh 9:38
Nehemiah: Neh 8:9
Tirshatha: or, governor, Neh 7:70, Ezr 2:63
son of Hachaliah: Neh 1:1
Reciprocal: Exo 1:1 – General 2Ch 29:10 – to make a covenant Neh 7:65 – the Tirshatha Isa 44:5 – subscribe Jer 34:8 – had
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Neh 10:1. Now those that sealed Both in their own names, and in the name of all the rest. It may seem strange that Ezra doth not appear among them. But that might be because he was prevented by some sickness, or other extraordinary impediment. It is true we meet with Ezra after this, at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, (Neh 12:36,) and therefore he was then freed from this impediment, whatsoever it was. It appears from hence, that the government of the Jews was an aristocracy, or a government in which the nobles were the rulers. This mode of administration continued till the time of the Asmodan princes, and from thence, by a natural translation, passed into an absolute monarchy, or rather tyranny.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Neh 10:1. Those that sealed were the governor, the priests, the levites, and the chiefs or princes of the people. The more distinguished men of these several orders, with the full sanction of all their brethren, subscribed this solemn covenant, and the nation ratified it with an oath, and with a curse on all who should violate the covenant and the oath.
Neh 10:32. The third part of a shekel. The ransom of their souls, to be paid by the rich and the poor alike, for the souls of all are of equal value in the sight of God. The law required half a shekel, Exo 30:15; but owing to the poverty of the people, the third part of a shekel was now accepted, but only for a time. The half shekel was afterwards paid, and this was the sum demanded of our Lord. Mat 17:24.
Neh 10:38. The tithe of the tithes. The levites received the tithes of the land, out of which they paid a tithe or tenth to the priests. Num 18:26.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Neh 9:38 to Neh 10:39. The Covenant.This section is probably originally from Ezras memoirs, though it has been considerably worked over, presumably not by the Chronicler, since he writes in the third person. It is, in the main, written in the first person plural, and may in its present form have come from some loyal follower of Ezra or Nehemiah who writes as representing one of the people. The special points of the covenant are the undertaking not to marry foreigners, to observe the Sabbath more strictly, to remit debts in the seventh year, to pay a third of a shekel to the Temple, to supply wood for burning the sacrifices, to offer all the first-fruits, and to give tithes; with all this cf. ch. 13.
Neh 9:38. And yet . . . this: better because of all this; these words are either intended to refer to the contents of Neh 9:6-37, but this gives no sense; or else they are meant to introduce what follows. The text, however, is not in order. The verse is probably an addition by the Chronicler, and the abrupt way in which it is introduced suggests that it was inserted after ch. 10 had found its way in here.
Neh 10:1. those that sealed: cf. Jer 32:14. The number of seals which in recent years have been discovered during the excavations on different ancient sites in Palestine shows that there is nothing improbable about what we are here told. Apparently a document of some kind was drawn up stating the nature of what was to be undertaken, to this the seal was appended by each man, who thereby bound himself. We know, however, too little about all this to picture to ourselves with any certainty the actual procedure. In the list that follows, twenty-one names are those of priests, seventeen those of Levites, in addition to which there are forty-four names of chiefs of the people (Neh 10:1-27). The rest of the people, not having any seal of their own, did not sign but took an oath to walk in Gods law (Neh 10:28 f.).
Neh 10:30. The first person plural is taken up here again and continued to the end of the section.
Neh 10:31. Cf. Neh 13:16 and see Lev 25:2-7.
Neh 10:32. This is a modification of the written law (Exo 30:11-16), according to which a half shekel was the amount due.
Neh 10:34. The mention of priests among those who were to supply wood shows that this section is not likely to have come from the Chronicler, to whom such a thing would have appeared unfitting.
Neh 10:37. the cities of our tillage: i.e. our agricultural villages.
Neh 10:39. the chambers . . .: i.e. the rooms situated round the sanctuary; cf. Neh 13:4-12.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
THE NAMES OF THOSE WHO SEALED
(vv. 1-27)
Nehemiah is first mentioned as having endorsed the covenant, then 22 priests listed along with him (vv. 1-8). Then 17 Levites are listed (vv. 9-13), followed by 44 leaders of the people (vv. 14-27). We may wonder if some of them did not have doubts about their ability to keep the covenant, or of the likelihood that they would. No doubt they wanted to express their desire to obey the Lord at least. The Lord did not say at this time what He thought of it, but the New Testament makes His thoughts very clear, as for instance Rom 3:19, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”
THE TERMS OF THE COVENANT
(vv. 28-39)
All the people who had separated themselves from the nations in the land, with a desire of obeying the law of God, joined with their leaders in making an oath, with a curse attached for any infraction, to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord, His ordinances and statutes. Of course this was a repetition of their promise to keep the law at the time it was given. The special sin at the time was emphasized in verse 30. Though they had done so, now they promise not to give their daughters as wives to the people of the land, nor take their daughters for Israelitish sons (v. 30).
Secondly, they agree not to buy anything from the inhabitants of the land on the Sabbath day or on any other holy day. Thirdly, they promise to release every debt in the seventh year (v. 31). Fourthly, they made an ordinance to exact from themselves one-third of a shekel for the service of the house of God and the regular rituals connected with this (v. 32). A fifth action taken was to cast lots among priests, Levites and the people to decide who would bring the wood offering at the proper time year by year (v. 34).
A sixth decision was made at this time to bring the firstfruits of the ground and the firstfruits of all the fruit of the trees, each year, to the house of the Lord (v. 35). It is too great a temptation to people to first make sure that their own needs are met before considering giving to the Lord. But faith will consider Him first. In fact, this is only true wisdom, for if He is honored, He will make sure that the needs of His people will be properly met. If we agree to this fact, do we act on it?
The same was decided as regards bringing to the Lord the firstborn of their sons and of their cattle, to the priests as offerings (v. 36). Other offerings also were included in this, even dough, fruit, wine and oil. The tithes of the land also were included in this covenant, tithes to be given to the Levites (v. 37). It was agreed too that the priests would see to it that the Levites would give one tenth of the tithes to the storehouse of the temple (v. 38). Thus they promised to observe all these laws, saying, “We will not neglect the house of our God” (v. 39).
These were good intentions. But it was not long before the Book of Malachi was written, in which God asks Israel, “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, In what way have we robbed You? In tithes and offerings” (Mal 3:8). Thus Malachi shows the great departure of Israel from this covenant made in Nehemiah’s time, not only in withholding tithes and offerings, but in many other ways, so that there were only few remaining who really feared the Lord (Mal 3:16).
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
THE COVENANT
Neh 9:38, Nehemiah 10
The people have returned to the word of God. They have gone over their history before God, and discovered that the source of all their present distress lies in their failure to obey the word of God. Having clearly seen and owned their past failure, they seek to provide against its repetition. The means they adopt to accomplish this desirable end, is to enter into a sure covenant, written and sealed (Neh 9:38). Nehemiah, twenty-two priests, seventeen Levites, and forty-four chiefs of the people, sign the covenant (Neh 10:1-27). By this covenant they bind themselves by a curse and an oath (28, 29).
1st. As to their personal walk, that it should be in obedience to the law of God given by Moses (29).
2nd. As to the nations around, they would maintain a holy separation (30)
3rd. As to Jehovah, they would devotedly render to Him His due by the observance of the Sabbath, the holy days, and the law of the seventh year (31).
4th. As to the house of God, they charge themselves to maintain the service and not forsake the house (32-39).
All this is excellent in its time and season, and the covenant of this chapter is the outcome, and fitting conclusion, of the confession of the previous chapter. As another has said, “‘Ceasing to do evil’ is to be followed by ‘learning to do well.’ It is very right, if we have been doing wrong, to begin with confession of the wrong, ere we set ourselves to do the right. But to do the right thing is a due attendant on the confession of the wrong thing. And all this moral comeliness we see here, as we pass from the ninth to the tenth chapter.”
Referring to the terms of the covenant, it is significant to notice that while a very prominent place is given to the house of God, there is no mention of the city walls and gates. Why this omission, seeing that the special service of Nehemiah was concerned with the walls and gates? And why, we may ask, is so much made of the house of God? Is it not to insist on the great fact, as another has written, “that the great test of faithfulness was the upkeep of the house, the support of those who ministered it, and the necessary obedience to, and consistency with, the principles of divine order of which the house was ever the reminder and symbol. Yet there was no Presence in the house as there had been of old, and it was only of value in so far as its moral features were maintained. The people within the city and the people without the city, – the whole people – through their signatories, signified their intention to conform to the will of God, and pledged their support to the house rather than to the wall. (To stiffen the wall without regard to the universality and purity of the house would only repeat the sad departure and obduracy of previous years). So families, cattle, fruits, harvests, vintage, were all to contribute from the country to the house, for a recognition of God, and for the support of the priests, Levites, singers and porters.”
The realization by this returned remnant that all their prosperity and blessing depended upon the upkeep of the house is very happy, and points the way of spiritual prosperity and blessing for the people of God in our day (Hag 2:18; Hag 2:19). The method however, by which they sought to carry out their obligations, should act as a warning rather than an example to those who live in a day of grace. That the remnant of Nehemiah’s day undertake the upkeep of the house by the way of Covenant is in keeping with the dispensation of the law in which they lived, and yet the history of their nation would warn us of the uselessness of man entering into a covenant with God. Did not Israel in their early days make a covenant with disastrous result? After three months of continual failure on their part, and unwearied grace on Jehovah’s part, they entered into a covenant at Sinai, saying “All that the Lord hath said we will do” (Ex. 24).
Furthermore after the reign of the wicked Manasseh, there was a revival under Josiah and a return to the word of God. Whereupon the King made a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep His commandments, “And all the people stood to the covenant” (2Ki 23:3).
What was the result of these covenants? Israel having entered into a covenant to do all that the Lord had said, immediately set up an idol and apostatised from God. And of the covenant of Josiah’s day, we are told by the prophet Jeremiah, that the people turned to the Lord “with falsehood.”
With such sad examples before us we can see the futility of men’s covenants and that though the people of God may return to the authority of God’s word, and judge themselves by it, yet they will not in the future be able to walk according to the word by any efforts of their own.
The people were perfectly sincere and intensely in earnest. But the fact that they had rebuilt the walls, set up the gates, and returned to the word of God, confessing their sins, apparently deceived them into thinking that in the future they would do better than their fathers. Hence in apparent forgetfulness of their own weakness, and carried away by the enthusiasm of the moment, they enter into a covenant for their future good behaviour.
Yet may we not say, when viewing the remnant in the light of the dispensation in which they lived, that they had ground for the course they took? Whether they did, or did not, make a covenant they were under obligation to obey the law. This obligation they accepted by way of a covenant. The light they had would hardly warrant them in taking any other course, even though the futility of covenants had been demonstrated in the history of the nation. For the Christian there can be no excuse. With the warning of Old Testament covenants, and the light of the truth which reveals the believer’s place before God as “not under the law, but under grace,” how can we rightly revert to a covenant which binds by legal obligation? And yet in our own day, as throughout the Christian period, how often have the people of God bound themselves by covenants. At times sincere people, judging the prevailing low condition among the people of God, have strongly and rightly urged a return to the word of God. And the fact that a few have, in any measure, done so has, at times, deceived them into thinking that they were somewhat better than, or different from, those who have gone before them. The result being they have sought to provide for their future obedience to the word by means of that which, in principle, is a covenant written and sealed. Under the enthusiasm of a fresh movement, they seek to set forth clearly in writing the limits of their fellowship, the terms on which they propose to meet, the method of their reception and the character of their discipline. And this is sent forth subscribed by the names of their leaders. But what is this, in principle, but a covenant signed and sealed, betraying the legality of our hearts which love to have some written charter to fall back upon? The legal mind, however, while intensely sincere, is ever ignorant of its own weakness, and confident in its fancied strength. Herein lies the weakness of all such methods, they make too much of man, and dependence upon his definitions, interpretations and efforts. They make too little of the Lord and dependence upon His wisdom, His direction and His grace.
All who seek to act on the principle of the covenant written and sealed, will find that while it appears very easy, under the influence of a fresh movement, to carry out the agreed terms of fellowship, yet when the first fervour of the movement has passed away, the agreed terms are increasingly ignored, independency and selfwill assert themselves, and disintegration sets in. That such is the case only proves that it is impossible to hold the people of God together by any human formula, however sincerely, carefully and even scripturally devised.
It is not enough to get back to Scripture. We must also have the Lord Himself to guide, and the Holy Spirit to control.
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
3. The renewed commitment of the people ch. 10
Nehemiah explained the agreement he previously referred to in Neh 9:38 in this chapter. Conviction of sin (ch. 8) led to confession of sin (ch. 9) and resulted in a covenant with God (ch. 10).
"Nehemiah 10, despite its forbidding portal of 27 verses of proper names, is in reality a small treasure house of post-exilic interpretations of earlier Israelite law." [Note: David Clines, "Nehemiah 10 as an Example of Early Jewish Biblical Exegesis," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 21 (1981):111.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The signers of the document 10:1-27
The names in Neh 10:2-8 are those of the heads of 21 priestly families (cf. Neh 12:12-21). Neh 10:9-13 record the names of 17 Levites. Then the writer gave the names of 44 heads of other leading families (Neh 10:14-27).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
THE COVENANT
Neh 10:1-39
THE tenth chapter of Nehemiah introduces us to one of the most vital crises in the History of Israel. It shows us how the secret cult of the priests of Jehovah became a popular religion. The process was brought to a focus in the public reading of The Law; it was completed in the acceptance of The Law which the sealing of the covenant ratified. This event may be compared with the earlier scene, when the law book discovered in the temple by Hilkiah was accepted and enforced by Josiah. Undoubtedly that book is included in Ezras complete edition of The Law. Generations before Ezra, then, though nothing more than Deuteronomy may have been forthcoming, that vital section of The Law, containing as it did the essential principles of Judaism, was adopted. But how was this result brought about? Not by the intelligent conviction, nor by the voluntary action of the nation. It was the work of a king, who thought to drive his ideas into his subjects. No doubt Josiah acted in a spirit of genuine loyalty to Jehovah, and yet the method he followed could not lead to success. The transient character of his spasmodic attempt to save his people at the eleventh hour, followed by the total collapse of the fabric he had built up, shows how insecure a foundation he had obtained. It was a royal reformation, not a revival of religion on the part of the nation. We have an instance of a similar course of action in the English reformation under Edward VI, which was swept away in a moment when his Catholic sister succeeded to the throne, because it was a movement originating in the court and not supported by the country, as was that under Elizabeth when Mary had opened the eyes of the English nation to the character of Romanism.
But now a very different scene presents itself to our notice. The sealing of the covenant signifies the voluntary acceptance of The Law by the people of Israel, and their solemn promise to submit to its yoke. There are two sides to this covenant arrangement. The first is seen in the conduct of the people in entering into the covenant. This is absolutely an act of free will on their part. We have seen that Ezra never attempted to force The Law upon his fellow-countrymen-that he was slow in producing it; that when he read it he only did so at the urgent request of the people, and that even after this he went no further, but left it with the audience for them to do with it as they thought fit. It came with the authority of the will of God, which to religious men is the highest authority, but it was not backed by the secular arm, even though Ezra possessed a firman from the Persian court which would have justified him in calling in the aid of the civil government. Now the acceptance of The Law is to be in the same spirit of freedom. Of course somebody must have started the idea of forming a covenant. Possibly it was Nehemiah who did so. Still this was-when the people were ripe for entering into it, and the whole process was voluntary on their part. The only religion that can be real to us is that which we believe in with personal faith and surrender ourselves to with willing obedience. Even when the law is recorded on parchment, it must also be written on the fleshy table of the heart if it is to be effective.
But there is another side to the covenant-sealing. The very existence of a covenant is significant. The word “covenant” suggests an agreement between two parties, a mutual arrangement to which each is pledged. So profound was the conviction of Israel that in coming to an agreement with God it was not possible for man to bargain with his Maker on equal terms, that in translating the Hebrew name for covenant into Greek the writers of the Septuagint did not use the term that elsewhere stands for an agreement among equals, but employed one indicative of an arrangement made by one party to the transaction and submitted to the other. The covenant, then, is a Divine disposition, a Divine ordinance. Even when, as in the present instance, it is formally made by men, this is still on lines laid down by God; the covenanting is a voluntary act of adhesion to a law which comes from God. Therefore the terms of the covenant are fixed, and not to be discussed by the signatories. This is of the very essence of Judaism as a religion of Divine law. Then, though the sealing is voluntary, it entails a great obligation; henceforth the covenant people are bound by the covenant which they have deliberately entered into. This, too, is a characteristic of the religion of law. It is a bondage, though a bondage willingly submitted to by those who stoop to its yoke. To St. Paul it became a crushing slavery. But the burden was not felt at first, simply because neither the range of The Law, nor the searching force of its requirements, nor the weakness of men to keep their vows, was yet perceived by the sanguine Jews who so unhesitatingly surrendered to it. As we look back to their position from the vantage ground of Christian liberty, we are astounded at the Jewish love of law, and we rejoice in our freedom from its irksome restraints. And yet the Christian is not an antinomian; he is not a sort of free lance, sworn to no obedience. He too has his obligation. He is bound to a lofty service-not to a law, indeed, but to a personal Master, not in the servitude of the letter, but, though with the freedom of the spirit, really with far higher obligations of love and fidelity than were ever recognised by the most rigorous covenant-keeping Jews. Thus he has a new covenant, sealed in the blood of his Saviour, and his communion with his Lord implies a sacramental vow of loyalty. The Christian covenant, however, is not visibly, exhibited, because a formal pledge is scarcely in accordance with the spirit of the gospel. We find it better to take a more self-distrustful course, one marked by greater dependence of faith on the preserving grace of God, by turning our vows into prayers. While the Jews “entered into a curse and into an oath” to keep the law, we shrink from anything so terrible, yet our duty is not the less because we limit our professions of it.
The Jews were prepared for their covenant by two essential preliminaries. The first was knowledge. The reading of The Law preceded the covenant, which was entered into intelligently. There is no idea of what is called “implicit faith.” The whole situation is clearly surveyed and The Law is adopted with a consciousness of what it means as far as the understanding of its requirements by the people will yet penetrate into its signification. It is necessary to count the cost before entering on a course of religious service. With a view to this our Lord spoke of the “narrow way” and the “cross,” much to the disappointment of His more sanguine disciples, but as a real security for genuine loyalty. With religion, of all things, it is foolish to take a leap in the dark. Judaism and Christianity absolutely contradict the idea that “Ignorance is the mother of devotion.”
The second preparation consisted in the moral effect on the Jews of the review of their history in the light of religion and their consequent confession of sin and acknowledgment of Gods goodness. Here was the justification for the written law. The old methods had failed. The people had not kept the desultory Torah of the prophets. They needed a more formal system of discipline. Here too were the motives for adopting the covenant. Penitence for the nations miserable past prompted the desire for a better future, and gratitude for the overwhelming goodness of God roused an enthusiasm of devotion. Nothing urges us to surrender ourselves to God so much as these two motives-our repentance and His goodness. They are the two powerful magnets that draw souls to Christ.
The chronicler-always delighting in any opportunity to insert his lists of names-records the names of the signatories of the covenant. The seals of these men were of importance so long as the original document to which they were affixed was preserved, and so long as any recognised descendants of the families they represented were living. To us they are of interest because they indicate the orderly arrangement of the nation and the thoroughness of procedure in the ratification of the covenant. Nehemiah, who is again called by his Persian title Tirshatha, appears first. This fact is to be noted as a sign that as yet even in a religious document the civil ruler takes precedence of the hierarchy. At present it is allowed for a layman to head the list of leading Israelites. We might have looked for Ezras name in the first place, for he it was who had taken the lead in the introduction of The Law, while Nehemiah had retreated into the background during the whole months proceedings. But the name of Ezra does not appear anywhere on the document. The probable explanation of its absence is that only heads of houses affixed their seals, and that Ezra was not accounted one of them. Nehemiahs position in the document is official. The next name, Zedekiah, possibly stands for Zadok the Scribe mentioned later, {Neh 13:13} who may have been the writer of the document, or perhaps Nehemiahs secretary. Then come the priests. It was not the business of these men to assist in the reading of The Law. While the Levites acted as scribes and instructors of the people, the priests were chiefly occupied with the temple ritual and the performance of the other ceremonies of religion. The Levites were teachers of The Law, the priests were its administrators. In the question of the execution of The Law, therefore, the priests have a prominent place, and after remaining in obscurity during the previous engagements, they naturally come to the front when the national acceptance of the Pentateuch is being confirmed. The hierarchy is so far established that, though the priests follow the lay ruler of Jerusalem, they precede the general body of citizens, and even the nobility. No doubt many of the higher families were in the line of the priesthood. But this was not the case with all of them, and therefore we must see here a distinct clerical precedence over all but the very highest rank.
Most of the names in this list of priests occur again in a list of those who came up with Zerubbabel and Jeshua, {Neh 12:1-7} from which fact we must infer that they represent families, not individuals.. But some of the names in the other list are missing here. A most significant omission is that of the high-priest. Are we merely to suppose that some names have dropped out in course of transcription? Or was the high-priest, with some of his brethren, unwilling to sign the covenant? We have had earlier signs that the high-priest did not enjoy the full confidence of Ezra. The heads of the hierarchy may have resented the popularising of The Law. Since formerly, while the people were often favoured with the moral Torah of the prophets, the ceremonial Torah of the priests was kept among the arcana of the initiated, the change may not have been pleasing to its old custodians. Then these conservatives may not have approved of Ezras latest recension of The Law. A much more serious difficulty lay with those priests who had contracted foreign marriages, and who had favoured the policy of alliance with neighbouring peoples which Ezra had so fiercely opposed. Old animosities from this source were still smouldering in the bosoms of some of the priests. But apart from any specific grounds of disaffection, it is clear that there never was much sympathy between the scribes and the priests. Putting all these considerations together, it is scarcely too much to conjecture that the absentees were designedly holding back when the covenant was signed. The only wonder is that the disaffected minority was so small.
According to the new order advised by Ezekiel and now established, the Levites take the second place and come after the priests, as a separate and inferior order of clergy. Yet the hierarchy is so far honoured that even the lowest of the clergy precede the general body of the laity. We come down to the porters, the choristers, and the temple-helots before we hear of the mass of the people. When this lay element is reached, the whole of it is included. Men, women, and children are all represented in the covenant. The Law had been read to all classes, and now it is accepted by all classes. Thus again the rights and duties of women and children in religion are recognised, and the thoroughly domestic character of Judaism is provided for. There is a solidity in the compact. A common obligation draws all who are included in it together. The population generally follows the example of the leaders. “They clave to their brethren, their nobles,” {Neh 10:29} says the chronicler. The most effective unifying influence is a common enthusiasm in a great cause. The unity of Christendom will only be restored when the passion of loyalty to Christ is supreme in every Christian, and when every Christian acknowledges that this is the case with all his brother Christians.
It is clear that the obligation of the covenant extended to the whole law. This is called “Gods law, which was given by Moses the servant of God.” {Neh 10:29} Nothing can be clearer than that in the eyes of the chronicler, at all events, it was the Mosaic law. We have seen many indications of this view in the chroniclers narrative. Can we resist the conclusion that it was held by the contemporaries of Ezra and Nehemiah? We are repeatedly warned against the mistake of supposing that the Pentateuch was accepted as a brand-new document. On the contrary, it was certainly received on the authority of the Mosaic origin of its contents, and because of the Divine authority that accompanied this origin. By the Jews it was viewed as the law of Moses, just as in Roman jurisprudence every law was considered to be derived from the “Twelve Tables.” No doubt Ezra also considered it to be a true interpretation of the genius of Mosaism adapted to modern requirements. If we keep this clearly before our minds, the Pentateuchal controversy will lose its sharpest points of conflict. The truth here noted once more is so often disregarded that it needs to be repeatedly insisted on at the risk of tautology.
After the general acceptance of the whole law, the covenant specifies certain important details. First comes the separation from the heathen-the burning question of the day. Next we have Sabbath observance-also made especially important, because it was distinctive of Judaism as well as needful for the relief of poor and oppressed labourers. But the principal part of the schedule is occupied with pledges for the provision of the temple services. Immense supplies of fuel would be required for the numerous sacrifices, and therefore considerable prominence was given to the collecting of wood; subsequently a festival was established to celebrate this action. According to a later tradition, Nehemiah kindled the flames on the great altar of the burnt-offerings with supernatural fire. {RAPC 2Ma 1:19-22} Like the Vestal virgins at Rome, the temple officials were to tend the sacred fire as a high duty, and never let it go out. “Fire shall be kept burning upon the altar continually,” {Lev 6:13} was the Levitical rule. Thus the very greatest honour was given to the rite of sacrifice. As the restoration of the religion of Israel began with the erection of the altar before the temple was built, so the preservation of that religion was centred in the altar fire-and so, we may add, its completion was attained in the supreme sacrifice of Christ.
Finally, special care was taken for what we may call “Church finance” in the collection of the tithes. This comes last, yet it has its place. Not only is it necessary for the sake of the work that is to be carried on, it is also important in regard to the religious obligation of the worshipper. The cry for a cheap religion is irreligious, because real religion demands sacrifices, and, indeed, necessarily promotes the liberal spirit from which those sacrifices flow. But if the contributions are to come within the range of religious duties, they must be voluntary. Clearly this was the case with the Jewish tithes, as we may see for two reasons. First, they were included in the covenant, and adhesion to this was entirely voluntary. Secondly, Malachi rebuked the Jews for withholding the payment of tithes as a sin against God, {Mal 3:8-12} showing that the payment only rested on a sense of moral obligation on the part of the people. It would have been difficult to go further while a foreign government was in power, even if the religious leaders had desired to do so. Moreover, God can only accept the offerings that are given freely with heart and will, for all He cares for is the spirit of the gift.