Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Nehemiah 11:16
And Shabbethai and Jozabad, of the chief of the Levites, [had] the oversight of the outward business of the house of God.
16. Shabbethai Jozabad ] See these names in Neh 8:7. They do not occur in the parallel list of 1Ch 9:15-16, where however three other names, Heresh, Galal, and Berechiah are inserted.
chief ] R.V. chiefs.
had the oversight ] R.V. who had the oversight.
the outward business of the house of God ] For the use of the adjective ‘outward’ here, cf. 1Ch 26:29, ‘of the Izharites, Chenaniah and his sons were for the outward business over Israel, for officers and judges.’
Whatever ‘the outward business of the house of God’ was, it is clearly meant to be contrasted with ‘the business, or work, of the house of God’ (cf. Neh 11:22 and 1Ch 23:4) consisting in the worship and its ritual. It must not be limited in application to the maintenance of the fabric of the Temple and its courts. The significance of the expression appears from a comparison of the two passages quoted above. The Levites had duties as ‘officers and judges,’ see 1Ch 23:4; 1Ch 26:29; 2Ch 19:8 ; 2Ch 19:11; and this section formed one-sixth of their whole number (1Ch 23:4).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Neh 11:16
Had the oversight of the outward business of the house of God.
The secular in sacred service
I. It is possible to secularise the sacred. When sacred service is entered upon from secular motives; when it is performed in a perfunctory manner; when any object less than God is regarded in its performance. An unhallowed hand may not bear up an ark. A cowl does not make a monk. High office cannot elevate a base man.
II. It is neccessary to make the secular sacred. He can who thinks he can. Application:
1. The secret of contentment. Self-humiliation is full of truth and reality.
2. The law of growth. Be thy ambition to become pure in thought and feeling, strong in resolve and deed. Serve. Care not how, mind not where. (Homiletic Commentary.)
Outward business
We have prayed about that house, we have thanked God that the crumbling walls of our little houses lean against the foundations and the walls of Gods dwelling-place. Do we catch the music, do we see the vision of the house of God? Do the words balance well? House is a familiar word, God is the most awful of all words; yet here we find them together in sublime unity and relation. What is the house of God? A church. A chapel, a sanctuary, a tabernacle, a temple. Not necessarily. You may have a cathedral without a house of God, and you may find in some little thatched cottage or chapel on the hillside all the cathedrals out of heaven. Hence it is that we must not look at magnitudes, sizes, revenues, apparatus, but at the ideal. I never go to the house of God. How do you know that? Have you ever been really out of it? Let us go to Jacob for an answer. What said he when he awoke after the delight and yet the torment of the dream? He said, This is none other than the house of God. There are those who only know houses by architecture, by wails, stones, bricks. Well, now, what was Jacobs environment at that time? Churches, chapels, institutions? Not one. Yet he was in a walled place, walled in with light, and ministered to by ascending and descending angels. We must get the house of God and many other things back from little definitions and narrow and petty locelisations, and regard the universe as Gods house. Of course Jacob, having seen all these things, could have said, Nightmare! That is all the answer some men can return to the universe. Let us so live as to make the house, even though a little one, grand, tender in all its ministries, a nest in the heart of God. Let us be careful how we divide things into outward and inward. The time will come when we shell get rid of even Scriptural uses of outward, alien, strange, foreign. All these words are doomed to go. I saw no temple therein, said John. Why did he not see a temple in heaven? Because heaven was all temple. He who lives in light does not even see the sun; he who lives in God has no moon, for he has no night. But men are crafty and expert almost at making little definitions, parties, separations, and the like. Some men divide music into sacred and profane. I never heard any profane music; I do not believe there is any. I have heard sacred music, and I have heard music profaned, perverted, taken away to bad uses, made a seduction on the road to hell. But we must get back to real definitions and proper qualities, and see things as God meant them to be seen. I have also heard of profane history and sacred history. There is no profane history. History truly written, and true to human experience, is an aspect of Providence, an elucidation of that marvellous mystery which penetrates all life, and that whispers to us in many a moment of unexpectedness, The very hairs of your head are all numbered. Who is it that rises up amongst us and splits up history into sacred and profane? What right has such a man to define and separate and classify? I would follow the historian who sees God m everything, in the defeat as well as in the success of the battle. And there are persons who have carried their defining powers, if powers they be, into what are called ecclesiastical matters, so that now we have the temporalities and the spiritualities. What man devised so insane a distinction? There is a sense, but a very poor, narrow sense not worth considering, in which the work of the Church may be divided into the temporal and the spiritual, but, properly regarded, in the spirit of Christ and in the spirit of the Cross, the gift of the poor mans penny may be as true an act of worship as the singing of the anthem. There is nothing secular, or if there is anything that we call secular it is only for momentary convenience. He that made ell things is God; He built the wall of the Church, and He will take care of the roof; it is His place. (J. Parker, D. D.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 16. And Shabbethai] This verse, with verses 20, 21, 28, 29, 32, 33, 34, and 35, are all wanting in the Septuagint and the whole chapter is wanting in the Arabic, the translator not being concerned in Jewish genealogies.
The outward business] Calmet supposes that he provided the victuals for the priests, victims for the sacrifices, the sacerdotal vestments, the sacred vessels, and other necessaries for the service of the temple.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
i.e. For those things belonging to the temple and its service, which were to be done without it, or abroad in the country, as for the gathering in of the voluntary contributions, or other necessary provisions, out of the several parts of the land. See 1Ch 26:29.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. the oversight of the outwardbusiness of the house of Godthat is, those things which weredone outside, or in the country, such as the collecting of theprovisions (1Ch 26:29).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Shabbethai and Jozabad, of the chief of the Levites,…. Along with Shemaiah; these had
the oversight of the outward business of the house of God: who had the care of the repairs of the temple, and of getting in the wood for the altar, as Jarchi, and collecting the third part of the shekel, to purchase things with for the use of the temple.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(16) Outward business.This is a remarkable specification of the functions of the Lvites, parallel with the valour of the priests just before. The preceding chapter explains the outward business.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. The outward business of the house of God Not the same as “the outward business over Israel,” which was done in the capacity of “officers and judges.” 1Ch 26:29. It was a business that had special relation to the temple, but its exact nature is at present matter of conjecture. We naturally suppose that it consisted in care for the buildings and furniture, and the collection and arrangement of provisions for the temple service.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
God. Hebrew. Elohim.(with Art.) = the [true] God. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Shabbethai: Neh 8:7
had the oversight of: Heb. were over, 1Ch 26:20
outward: Calmet supposes they provided the victuals for the priests, the victims for the sacrifices, the sacerdotal vestments, the sacred vessels, and other necessaries for the service of the temple. Act 6:2, Act 6:3
Reciprocal: 1Ch 26:29 – the outward Ezr 10:15 – Shabbethai Ezr 10:23 – Jozabad Neh 11:22 – were over
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Neh 11:16. The outward business of the house of God For those things belonging to the temple and its service, which were to be done without it, or abroad in the country, as the gathering in of the voluntary contributions, or other necessary provisions, out of the several parts of the land.