Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Nehemiah 10:31
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.
31. Prohibition of Traffic on the Sabbath; and Observance of Sabbatic Year
people ] R.V. peoples. ‘The peoples of the land ( ’ammey harec) are the heathen dwellers in the land. The title ‘the people of the land’ (’am harec) w as used in later days of the unlearned multitude ‘which knoweth not the law’ (Joh 7:49).
ware ] The Hebrew word occurs only here in the O.T. (LXX. , Vulg. ‘venalia’).
on the sabbath day ] The prohibition is not found in so many words in the Pentateuch. But it represents the natural expansion of the command to keep the Sabbath holy. Pollution would most easily be contracted by the interchange of wares with the heathen.
Complete abstention from such occupation was the only safeguard for the purity of the people, as well as for the observance of the Sabbath as a day of rest, cf. Neh 13:15. This abstention was practised in the kingly period in respect of the sabbath and the new-moon days. Amo 8:5, ‘When will the new moon be gone that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat?’
on the holy day ] R.V. on a holy day. The days set apart to be observed as ‘holy-days’ are described in Numbers 28, 31.
That these were to be observed as ‘days of rest,’ and were thus on the same footing with the Sabbath-days argues the acquaintance of the writer with the Levitical Law of the Priestly Code.
leave ] R.V. forgo. The same word that is used in Exo 23:11 for ‘let lie fallow.’ LXX. .
the seventh year ] See Exo 23:10-11, ‘And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the increase thereof; but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest (marg. ‘release it’) and lie fallow.’ This observance of the Sabbatic year is not referred to in the Deuteronomic Law which only speaks of it as the year of release from debt (Deuteronomy 15). But the Priestly Law in Lev 25:2-7 enters with some minuteness into the agricultural ‘rest’ of the seventh year. This regulation was not, for practical reasons, scrupulously carried out; its neglect is the subject of rebuke, Lev 26:34-35; Lev 26:43; 2Ch 36:21. It seems to have been observed in later times, cf. 1Ma 6:49 ; 1Ma 6:53 ; Jos. Ant. xi. 8. 6, xiii. 8. 1, &c. Tacitus, who is prejudiced against the Jews, attributes the custom to national laziness, Hist. Neh 10:4.
and the exaction of every debt ] This is a technical expression taken from Deu 15:2, and constitutes the expansion, for the requirements of a more developed time, of the principle laid down in the agricultural Law of the Sabbatic Year (Exodus 23). By a common error it has been supposed that debts were on this year altogether remitted. The analogy of the ‘fallow’ land shows that the debts remained, but were not exacted; payment was ‘hung up’ for a whole year. Some render ‘the exaction of every man’s pledge.’ The versions are literal, LXX. . Vulg. ‘exactionem universae manus.’ The remission of ‘the exaction of debt’ on the seventh or Sabbatic year is found in the Deuteronomic, but not in the Levitical Laws. The covenant to which the Israelites were now subscribing did not rest on a Levitical code alone, but recognised the authority of other portions of the Pentateuch.
This is one indication among others that the Law, which Ezra administered, contained substantially all the component parts of our Pentateuch, though not necessarily every item, as we now have it, in each component part.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Bring ware … on the sabbath day – Compare Neh 13:16, where this desecration of the Sabbath is shown to have commonly taken place.
Leave the seventh year … – i. e., let the land rest in the sabbatical year (margin reference) and give up the pledge-taking Neh 10:2-10.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Neh 10:31
And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to all
The profit of Sabbath-keeping
John Brand was an old Cornish fisherman.
The fishing had not been good for some days, the water had been wild and stormy; but at length, on the Sunday, the weather became fine, and the other fishermen said, We would keep Sunday–but–we have had so few fish lately; and we are sorry to go out to-day–but–the weather is so good. It is a pity; we would not go if we were not so poor. What! said honest John, are you going to break Gods laws with your ifs and buts? Better be poor than be wicked. My religion is not the kind that shifts with the wind. Thou shalt remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy–that is enough for me. So he persuaded them, and they took his advice, and spent the day in worshipping God. And it was well they did so; for that night, just when the boats would have been coming back, a terrible storm suddenly burst over the deep, and lasted two days. Any boat out in that weather would certainly have been wrecked. But two days after the beautiful weather returned, and more fish were taken then than had been caught for weeks before. No; no one ever yet lost by obeying God. Be you like John Brand; be thorough, honest, and God-fearing in and out; do not have a religion like a weathercock that shifts with the wind, or one that can be broken with An if or a but. (J. Reid Howatt.)
The Sabbath beneficial
In a prize essay on the Sabbath written by a journeyman printer in Scotland, there appears the following striking passage: Yoke-fellows, think how the abstraction of the Sabbath would hopelessly enslave the working-classes with whom we are identified. Think of the labour thus going on in one monotonous, and continuous, and eternal cycle–limbs for ever on the rack, the fingers for ever plying, the eyeballs for ever straining, the brow for ever sweating, the feet for ever plodding, the brain for ever throbbing, the shoulders for ever drooping, the loins for ever aching, and the restless mind for ever scheming! Think of the beauty it would efface, of the merry-heartedness it would extinguish, of the giant strength it would tame, of the resources of nature it would exhaust, of the aspirations it would crush, of the sickness it would breed, of the projects it would wreck, of the groans it would extort, of the lives it would immolate, of the cheerless graves it would prematurely dig! See them toiling and moiling, sweating and fretting, grinding and hewing, weaving and spinning, sowing and gathering, mowing and reaping, raising mad building, digging mad planting, unloading and storing, striving and struggling–in the garden and in the field, in the granary and in the barn, in the factory and in the mill, in the warehouse and in the shop, on the mountain and in the ditch, on the roadside and in the wood, in the city and in the country, on the sea and on the shore, on the earth in days of brightness and of gloom. What a sad picture would the world present if we had no Sabbath!
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 31. Bring ware] We will most solemnly keep the Sabbath. Leave the seventh year-We will let the land have its Sabbath, and rest every seventh year. See on Ex 23:10-11.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That we would leave the seventh year, i.e. leave the land at rest from ploughing or tilling it in that year, according to Gods command, Exo 23:10,11; Le 25:4.
The exaction of every debt, Heb. hand: debts are called hands, because they are commonly contracted or confirmed by a bill under the hand of the debtor.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And if the people of the land bring ware,…. Any thing to be sold, any sort of goods, that being sold might be taken away, as the word signifies;
or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell; anything to make food of; wheat or barley, as Aben Ezra interprets it; the same word is rendered corn, [See comments on Ge 42:1]; to sell which was not lawful on the sabbath day, see Am 8:5
that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day; any festival, as the feast of the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles:
and that we would leave the seventh year: the ground untilled in that year, the vines unpruned, and the fruits of the earth, which sprung of themselves, for the poor to gather, Le 25:4,
and the exaction of every debt; that they would not demand the payment of any debt on the seventh year, as the law required they should not,
De 15:2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(31) Or on the holy day.On the great festivals, equally with the Sabbath days of rest.
Leave the seventh year.The Sabbatical year naturally follows; in it the ground should be left untilled.
The exaction of every debt.The Lords release of the seventh year (Deu. 15:2).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
31. We would not buy on the sabbath Such breaking of the Sabbath had prevailed among them before this.
Or on the holy day The day of any of the great religious festivals, on which the law forbade all servile work. Num 29:1-7; Num 29:12.
Seventh year See the law in Exo 23:11; Lev 25:4.
Exaction of every debt Literally, the debt of every hand. “So called either because the debtor promised to pay by giving his right hand, or because the hand is the instrument and emblem of deposit, trust. Some editions read here , burden, which is less well.” Gesenius. See the law in Deu 15:1-2.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Neh 10:31 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.
Ver. 31. And if the people of the land bring any ware ] As they might without the Jews’ leave; and did, Neh 13:16 , and some of those Jews, forgetting their covenant, bought of them too; even the children of Judah in Jerusalem, ib., as if they had been of her religion in the tragedy, who said,
.
that is, I swore with my tongue, but not with my heart. But shall they thus escape by iniquity? Be not deceived, God is not mocked; a God of truth, and without iniquity; just and right is he, Deu 32:4 .
That we would not buy it of them
Or on the holy day
And that we would leave the seventh year
And the exaction of every debt
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
ware = wares. Hebrew, plural only here.
on the sabbath. Compare Neh 9:14; Neh 13:15, Neh 13:16, Neh 13:18, Neh 13:19, Neh 13:21. This observation of the sabbath ensured the reading of God’s Word, and the multiplication of copies.
holy. See note on Exo 3:5.
leave, &c.: i.e. forego the produce of the seventh year.
the seventh year. See Exo 23:10, Exo 23:11. Lev 25:2, Lev 25:7.
the exaction of every debt. Hebrew = the burden of every bond. Compare Neh 5:10, Neh 5:11, and Deu 15:2; especially in the year of release.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the people: Neh 13:15-22, Exo 20:10, Lev 23:3, Deu 5:12-14, Isa 58:13, Isa 58:14, Jer 17:21, Jer 17:22
on the holy day: Exo 12:16, Lev 16:29, Lev 23:21, Lev 23:35, Lev 23:36, Col 2:16
and that we: Exo 23:10, Exo 23:11, Lev 25:4-7, 2Ch 36:21
the exaction: Neh 5:1-13, Deu 15:1-3, Deu 15:7-9, Mat 6:12, Mat 18:27-35, Jam 2:13
debt: Heb. band, Isa 58:6
Reciprocal: 2Ki 4:1 – the creditor Mat 18:28 – and took
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Neh 10:31. And if the people of the land The heathen; bring ware or victuals on the sabbath day to sell, we would not buy it They not only would not sell goods themselves for gain on that day, but they would not encourage the heathen to sell by buying of them, no, not victuals, under pretence of necessity, but would buy in their provisions for their families the day before. They that covenant to keep all the commandments of God, must particularly covenant to keep the sabbath holy. For the profanation of this is a sure inlet to all manner of profaneness. Or on the holy day That is, on days of rest from labour, such as the passover, the first and seventh day of unleavened bread, Exo 12:16, the feast of trumpets, Lev 23:25, and others. And that we would leave the seventh year Let the land rest from ploughing or tilling in that year, and leave the fruit of it, which grew of itself, for the poor, as the law required. See the margin. And the exaction of every debt Would remit, in that year, the debts owed by the poor. The Hebrew , masse cal jad, is literally, the burden of every hand. Debts may be so called, because they are commonly contracted or confirmed by a bill, declaration, or promise, given under the debtors hand. Or the meaning is, as in Isa 58:6, that they engage to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and to break off every yoke.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
10:31 And [if] the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, {f} [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.
(f) Which nonetheless they broke soon after, Neh 13:15.