Nehemiah – Chapter 12

Priests and Levites, Verses 1-26

These verses are numeration of the priests and Levites who were among the first repatriates who came back to Judah in the first return under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Jeshua, the high priest (verse 1). These numbered twenty-two. Some had prominent names, previously borne by famous people, but are not to be confused with these; e. g., Amariah, Iddo, Abijah, Shemaiah, and Hilkiah.

The Levites among the initial returnees numbered eight (verses 89). Of them Mattaniah was in charge of the songs of thanksgiving. Two of these Bakbukiah and Unni, were over the porters, or those who stood watch. Since the number of priests and Levites (of all branches of their service) numbered far more than this when they returned from Babylon (see Ezr 2:36-42) ft is evident that those named here were the foremost leaders among them.

The lineage of Jeshua the high priest who returned with Zerubbabel, is traced in verse 10-11: Jeshua, Joiakim, Eliashib, Joiada, Jonathan, Juddua. Of these Jeshua was active, of course, in the rebuilding of the temple; Joiakim served in the time from Zerubbabel to Ezra; Eliashib was high priest at the time of the rebuilding of the wall (Neh 3:1); Joiada appears to have succeeded to the high priesthood during the lifetime of Nehemiah (Neh 13:28); Jonathan and Jaddua may have been added here in anticipation of their succession, or inserted by a later scribe. Jaddua is the last named high priest in the Old Testament.

Verses 12 through 21 list the names of the chief priests, each one the ruler of a household among the priests. These men served in their places during the high priesthood of Joiakim, the son of Jeshua, before the coming of Nehemiah, although their descendants doubtless succeeded them in the office. They numbered twenty or twenty-one. Actually twenty are named, but the chief of the house of Miniamin (verse 17) is not listed, the reason of his omission not now known.

The registry of the Levites (verses 22-26) were maintained throughout the tenure of those from Eliashib to Jaddua. Verse 22 says they were priests in the time of Darius the Persian, who historians identify as Darius Codommanus, the last of the Persian kings. Some think Jaddua was the high priest who met Alexander the Great when he came into Palestine. Verse 23 adds another historical note, that the names of these chief Levites were maintained in the Book of the Chronicles (a secular record) till the time of Johanan (or Jonathan) the father of Jaddua. The song leaders are named in verse 24, the porters in verse 25, who served in these capacities during the time of Nehemiah and Ezra.

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.] The list of the inhabitants of the province (chap. 11) is followed by lists of the priests and Levites (Neh. 12:1-26). These different lists are, in fact, all connected with the genealogical register of the Israelite population of the whole province, taken by Nehemiah (Neh. 7:5) for the purpose of enlarging the population of Jerusalem Neh. 12:1-9 contains a list of the heads of the priests and Levites who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel and Joshua. The high priests during five generations are next mentioned by name (Neh. 12:10-11). Then follow the names of the heads of the priestly houses, in the days of Joiakim, the high priest; and finally (Neh. 12:22-26), the names of the heads of the Levites at the same period, with titles and subscriptions.Keil. According to Keil, the difference between the names in the two lists of chapters 10, 12, is to be explained simply by the fact that the names of those who sealed the covenant (chap 10) are names neither of orders nor houses, but of heads of houses living in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. Of these names a portion coincides, indeed, with the names of the orders and houses, while the rest are different. The sameness of names does not, however, prove that the individuals belonged to the house whose name they bore. On the contrary, it appears from Neh. 12:13; Neh. 12:16, that of two Meshullams, one was the head of the house of Ezra, the other of the house of Ginnethon.

Neh. 12:27. Out of all their places] The Levites were scattered through the province.

Neh. 12:30. Purified themselves people gates wall] This was probably done by the sprinkling of water (Num. 19:18), and the offering of sacrifices. (Compare 2Ch. 29:21.) The central point of the solemnity was a procession of two bands of singers upon the wall. Nehemiah brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall, and appointed two great companies and two processions. These went each upon the wall all in different directions, and stopped opposite each other at the house of God. At the head of one procession went Ezra, the scribe, with one-half of the nobles; at the head of the second, Nehemiah with the other half.Keil. (See topography of the book of Nehemiah, pages 8789.)

Neh. 12:43. Great sacrifices] i. e. thank offerings which were eaten by the offerers in a happy feast, after the food of the offering made by fire unto the Lord (Leviticus 3).Crosby. With Neh. 12:44, according to Keil, Nehemiahs Later Reforms begin, at that time being used in a general sense. Crosby differs, referring the phrase to the time of the dedication. Others postpone the dedication, making it one of the Later Reforms.

Neh. 12:44. Portions of the law] That is, portions prescribed by the law for the priests and Levites. (See Num. 18:20-24; Deu. 18:1-8.) That waited] Literally, the ones standing; that is, standing to minister before the Lord. (Compare Deu. 10:8.)

Neh. 12:45. Kept the ward] Cared for all that concerned the temple; did their duty faithfully.

Neh. 12:47. Sanctified unto the Levites] To sanctify, said of the bringing of gifts and dues to the ministers of the sanctuary (comp. 1Ch. 26:27; Lev. 27:14). On the matter itself, comp. Neh. 10:38 seq., and Num. 18:26-29.Keil.

HOMILETICAL CONTENTS OF CHAPTER 12

Neh. 12:27-43. The Dedication of the Wall.

Neh. 12:23. A Book.

Neh. 12:24. Posthumous Influence.

Neh. 12:30. Beginning at the Right Place.

Neh. 12:43. A Great Rejoicing.

Neh. 12:43. True Joy.

Neh. 12:44-47. Thanksgiving and Thanksliving.

Neh. 12:46. The Good Old Times.

THE DEDICATION OF THE WALL

Neh. 12:27-43. And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication, &c.

WE have read of the building of the wall of Jerusalem, with a great deal of fear and trembling; we have here an account of the dedicating of it, with a great deal of joy and triumph. They that sow in tears shall thus reap.

I. We must inquire what was the meaning of this dedication of the wall. We will suppose it to include the dedication of the city toothe thing containing for the thing contained; and, therefore, it was not done till the city was pretty well replenished.

1. It was a solemn thanksgiving to God, for his great mercy to them in the perfecting of this undertaking, which they were the more sensible of, because of the difficulty and opposition they had met with in it.

2. They hereby devoted the city in a peculiar manner to God, and to his honour, and took possession of it for him, and in his name. All our cities, all our houses, must have Holiness to the Lord written upon them; but this city was (so as never any other was) a holy city, the city of the Great King. It had been so ever since God chose it to put his name there, and as such, it being now refitted, it was afresh dedicated to God by the builders and inhabitants, in token of their acknowledgment that they were tenants, and their desire that it might still be his, and that the property of it might never be altered. Whatever is done for their safety, ease, and comfort, must be designed for Gods honour and glory.

3. They hereby put the city and its walls under the Divine protection, owning that, unless the Lord kept the city, the walls were built in vain. When this city was in possession of the Jebusites, they committed the guardianship of it to their gods, though they were blind and lame ones. With much more reason do the people of God commit it to his keeping who is all-wise and almighty. The superstitious founders of cities had an eye to the lucky position of the heavens, but these pious founders had an eye to God only, to his providence, and not to fortune.

II. We must observe with what solemnity it was performed, under the direction of Nehemiah.

1. The Levites from all parts of the country were summoned to attend. The city must be dedicated to God; and therefore his ministers must be employed in the doing of it, and the surrender must pass through their hands. When those solemn feasts were over (chaps. Neh. 8:9), they had gone home to their respective posts to mind their cares in the country; but now their presence and assistance were again called for.

2. Pursuant to this summons there was a general rendezvous of all the Levites. Observe in what method they proceed.

(1) They purified themselves. We are concerned to cleanse our hands, and purify our hearts, when any work for God is to pass through them. Themselves they purified, and then the people. They that would be instrumental to sanctify others, must sanctify themselves, and set themselves apart for God with purity of mind and sincerity of intention. Then they purified the gates and the wall. Then may we expect comfort when we are prepared to receive it. To the pure all things are pure (Tit. 1:15); and to them who are sanctified, houses and tables, and their creature comforts and enjoyments are sanctified (1Ti. 4:4-5). This purification was performed, it is probable, by sprinkling the water of purifying or of separation, as it is called (Num. 19:9), on themselves and the people, the walls and the gates; a type of the blood of Christ, with which our consciences being purged from dead works, we become fit to serve the living God, and to be his care.

(2) The princes, priests, and Levites walked round upon the wall in two companies, to signify the dedication of it all to God, the whole circuit of it. This procession is here largely described; one end of the ceremony being to affect them with the mercy they were giving thanks for, and to perpetuate the remembrance of it among them;
3. The people greatly rejoiced. While the princes, priests, and Levites testified their joy and thankfulness, by great sacrifices, sound of trumpet, musical instruments, and songs of praise, the common people testified theirs by loud shouts, which were heard afar off, farther than the more harmonious sound of their songs and music; and these shouts coming from a sincere and hearty joy are here taken notice of: for God overlooks not, but graciously accepts, the honest zealous services of mean people, though there be in them little of art, and they are far from being fine. It is observed that the women and children rejoiced; and their harmonies were not despised but recorded to their praise. All that share in public mercies ought to join in public thanksgivings. The reason given is, that God had made them rejoice with great joy; he had given them both matter for joy and hearts to rejoice: his providence had made them safe and easy, and then his grace made them cheerful and thankful. The baffled opposition of their enemies no doubt added to their joy, and mixed triumph with it. Great mercies call for the most solemn return of praise, in the courts of the Lords house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem!Matthew Henry.

A BOOK

Neh. 12:23. The chief of the fathers were written in the book of the chronicles

THE BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES
A book is a marvelwhy not say a standing miracle?

I. A book unites the ages. Brings the past into the present: borrows the future to give the present significance. The sceptred spirits of history rule us still. The worlds grey patriarchs thought for us. With books the poorest enters the highest society: the loneliest need not be solitary. A good book the truest guide, philosopher, friend.

II. A book reveals lifes importance. A book gives permanence to thought, because thoughts sway the world: gives permanence to deeds, because if good they encourage, if bad they warn. Life is a writing. And with deeper than Pilates meaning, What I have written, I have written.

III. A book silently anticipates the judgment. It is written. A record may be appealed to. Is this thy handwriting? Gods Book of Remembrance.

POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE

Neh. 12:24. The chief of the Levites with their brethren over against them, to praise and to give thanks, according to the commandment of David the man of God.

A mans influence after he is dead. He is still present with his people.

I. By his will. The commandment of David. The grip of the dead is on our fields and churches; schools and hospitals.

II. By his writings. Immortality of genius. Davids Psalms. Solomons proverbs. And outside the circle of sacred history, Shakespeare and Milton, Bunyan, and a thousand others. Being dead, they yet speak.

III. By his example. David the man of God. Goodness is greatness. Kind words; good deeds never die. Let your light shine before men. Intentional influence may fail: unconscious influence cannot. For good or evil a man lives. For good or evil his deeds will live after him. The memory of the just is blessed.

BEGINNING AT THE RIGHT PLACE

Neh. 12:30. And the priests and the Levites purified themselves, and purified the people, and the gates, and the wall.

I. A pure Church may make a sound commonwealth. They purified themselves. Like priest, like people. And as with the people so with the priest. Cleric and laic act and react on each other. Pulpit and pew not two but one. All history testifies that an impure priesthood means an impure people. Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord. Elis sons. Uzzah may not sustain the ark. Jesus swept the temple of the traffickers.

II. To a pure people all things are pure. They purified the people, and the gates, and the wall. Citizens and city: sanctuary and house: Gods work and their own.

All things are sacred.
The eye of God is on them all
And hallows all.

Jesus revealed God in the minutest. Peters vision. The present preparatory. I think our fathers had a better, a grander, a diviner idea even of common life than we have, when they spoke about the trades and professions of men as being their calling. We sometimes use the word yet, though it has almost passed out of use. It is a pity, for there is a great thought in it. Why, it makes all the men, streets, shops, and warehouses to me, as I walk along, Divine objects. I feel that I am in a Divine place when I think of the men about me as following their calling. I feel that there is a God above men; that there in a God in human society; a God in the shops and counting-houses of London, touching and teaching every human being; and that every man is occupying the place, and putting his hand to the work, to which God has called him. Sometimes you may see a man at a certain calling which is but preparatory. He is meant for something else. Providence opens the way, and he goes up higher and does another thing. God has given us a spiritual vocationa Divine calling in Jesus Christ, and we are to walk worthy of that vocation, heredoing all worldly things in a spiritual manner, preparatory to a higher calling which shall come one day, when we shall enter upon other forms of duty and service, to which the present inferior forms of duty and service faithfully fulfilled shall gradually prepare and fit us.Binney.

A GREAT REJOICING

Neh. 12:43. That day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy: the wives also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.

A great rejoicing as it should be.

I. Associated with the rites of religion. Sacrifices. Holy-day and holiday united. Holy-days joy-bringing times. Holidays not to be dissevered from the sacred nature of those who share them.

II. The outcome of a great deliverance. From captivity to freedom: exile to home: heathen surroundings to heaven-chosen city and divinely-built temple. The memory of Gods great goodness should awaken joya joy that all may share. The wives also and the children rejoiced.

III. The preparation for strong adhesion to the sacred cause. The joy of the Lord is your strength. And you must be strong to labour. Sacred festivals not an end but a means to an end. Get to give; know to communicate; experience to declare; rest to toil; share to servethis is the will of God concerning us.

TRUE JOY

Neh. 12:43. That day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced

I. Its right. The God who has given us life, wishes also that it shall move joyfully; the God who always anew overwhelms us with favours wishes that they should fulfil their mission; that is, make us happy, in the end holy.

II. Its occasion. Gods grace, which has strengthened, protected, assured or elevated our lower or higher life. The chief sites in Jerusalem testified to this, and in the Christian Church; yes, indeed, in our lives, all the heights testify thereof.

III. Its kind. It raises itself to God, is a joy in him, that is, becomes a service to God and our neighbours.Dr. Schultz.

THANKSGIVING AND THANKSLIVING

Neh. 12:44-47. And at that time were some appointed over the chambers for the treasures, for the offerings, for the first-fruits, and for the tithes, to gather into them out of the fields of the cities the portions of the law for the priests and Levites: for Judah rejoiced for the priests and for the Levites that waited. And both the singers and the porters kept the ward of their God, & c.

We have here an account of the remaining good effects of this universal joy that was at the dedication of the wall. When the solemnities of a thanksgiving-day leave such impressions on ministers and people, as that both are more careful and cheerful in doing their duty afterward, then are they indeed acceptable to God, and turn to a good account. So it was here.

I. The ministers were more careful than they had been of their work. The respect the people paid them upon this occasion encouraged them to diligence and watchfulness; the singers kept the ward of their God, attending in due time to the duty of their office; the porters too they kept the ward of the purification, this is, they took care to preserve the purity of the temple, by denying admission to those that were ceremonially unclean. When the joy of the Lord thus engageth us to our duty, and enlargeth us in it, it is then an earnest of that joy which, in concurrence with the perfecting of holiness, will be our everlasting bliss.

II. The people were more careful than they had been of the maintenance of their ministers. The people, at the dedication of the wall, among other things which they made matter of their joy, rejoiced for the priests and the Levites that waited. They had a great deal of comfort in their ministers, and were glad of them; when they observed how diligently they waited, and what pains they took in their work, they rejoiced in them. The surest way for ministers to recommend themselves to their people, and gain an interest in their affections, is to wait on their ministry, to be humble and industrious, and to mind their business; when these did so, the people thought nothing too much for them, to encourage them. The law had provided them their portions; but what the better were they for that provision, if what the law appointed them either was not duly collected or not justly paid them?

1. Care is here taken for the collecting of their dues. They were modest, and would rather lose their right than call for it themselves; the people were many of them careless, and would not bring it unless they were called upon; and therefore some were appointed whose office it should be to gather in to the treasuries, out of the fields of the cities, the portions of the law for the priests and Levites, that their portion might not be lost for want of being demanded. This is a piece of good service both to ministers and people, that the one may not come short of their maintenance, nor the other of their duty.

2. Care is taken that, being gathered in, it might be duly paid out. They gave the singers and porters their daily portion, over and above what was due to them as Levites; for we may suppose when David and Solomon appointed them their work, above what was required from them as Levites, they settled a fund for their further encouragement. Let those that labour more abundantly in the word and doctrine be counted worthy of this double honour. As for the other Levites, the tithes, here called the holy things, were duly set apart for them, out of which they paid the priests their tithe according to the law. Both are said to be sanctified. When what is contributed, either voluntarily or by law, for the support of religion, and the maintenance of the ministry, is given with an eye to God and his honour, it is sanctified, and shall be accepted of him accordingly; and it will cause the blessing to rest on the house, and all that is in it.Matthew Henry.

THE GOOD OLD TIMES

Neh. 12:46. The days of old

The aged regret, the young despise, these good old times. The old feed on memory, the young on hope. These place the golden age in the future, those in the past.

I. Nothing is necessarily good because it is old. Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden? Habit, education, tradition, prejudice play an important part in history.

II. That which is old is presumptively valuable. Good lasts. Truth is as old as the hills.

Application. Prove all things. Despise nothing. Gather treasures wherever they can be found. Be not blinded by passion. There is a soul of goodness in things that at first sight seem only evil. The present is a huge borrower from the dead past. Reverence the true word, the saintly deed whenever found. God is all, and in all things bright and good.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

TEXT AND VERSE-BY-VERSE COMMENT

Having given an honor roll of those who accepted the discomforts of living in Jerusalem in order to assure a strong and healthy state, the book next gives an honor roll of the religious leaders who contributed equally to the survival and well-being of the state. The text itself will indicate the varying periods in which this data was assembled.
The fact that in many cases the names are of families and not individuals does not lesson the honor; the oriental would find it even more gratifying to bring honor to the family name than to his own.

B. The genealogies of priests and Levites are given, and the wall is dedicated.
1. A list is given of the priests and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel and Jeshua.

TEXT, Neh. 12:1-9

1

Now these are the priests and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,

2

Amariah, Malluch, Hattush,

3

Shecaniah, Rehum, Meremoth,

4

Iddo, Ginnethoi, Abijah,

5

Mijamin, Maadiah, Bilgah,

6

Shemaiah and Joiarib, Jedaiah,

7

Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, and Jedaiah. These were the heads of the priests and their kinsmen in the days of Jeshua.

8

And the Levites were Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and Mattaniah who was in charge of the songs of thanksgiving, he and his brothers.

9

Also Bakbukiah and Unni, their brothers, stood opposite them in their service divisions.

COMMENT

Neh. 7:39-42 has already told us there were over 4,000 priests who returned to Jerusalem at the one time. Here in Neh. 12:1-7 a longer list of heads of families is given (the clans are evidently broken down into smaller units), but it is still from Jeshuas and Zerubbabels time. Eight, perhaps eleven, of the twenty-two names are also affixed to the document in chapter 10.

Neh. 12:8-9 add the names of Levites from Zerubbabels day. Of the eight, four names are on the document in chapter 10. Of course, in neither this nor the case above can we assume that the others were opposed: see Neh. 10:28 f. The reference in Neh. 12:8 to being in charge of song, and in Neh. 12:9 to standing opposite them, appears to refer to antiphonal arrangement of choirs: see Neh. 11:17. The occasion being referred to could be that in Ezr. 3:10.

WORD STUDIES

PURIFY (Neh. 12:27): the basic idea of the Hebrew word is brightness or splendor; i.e. it causes something to shine or be bright. It signifies to be or become clean or pure: to cleanse or purify. It can be done for three reasons. (1) Of physical purity: Eze. 39:12 describes the cleansing of the land from corpses. Num. 8:6-7 speaks of washing and completely shaving the Levites to prepare them for Gods service. (2) Of ceremonial purity: Eze. 43:26 speaks of cleansing the altar for the new Temple of which Ezekiel had a vision, A leper who had been healed would be purified in a ceremony administered by a priest: Lev. 14:11. (3) Of moral purity: Mal. 3:3 uses the figure of purifying metal from dross as a parallel of a persons moral cleansing. Jer. 33:8 speaks of cleansing through Gods forgiveness.

DEDICATION (Neh. 12:30 : Hanukkah): Sometimes a study of word derivations leads one down some strange and unexpected paths. There are three words formed from the same base, all of which have one common meaning: to choke. Apparently from this come the ideas of being narrow or of closing. A collar is placed around the neck of an animal and it is strangled down so that it can be initiated into mans service and trained for usefulness: thus it becomes dedicated, or consecrated to certain purposes. Each of the italicized words is a translation of one of the forms of this word. Our English word, neck, is derived from this same base (note the N and K, also in Hanukkah). So a wall was collared for mans service.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

XII.

(1-9) The priests and Levites of the First Return.
(1) Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra.The first is the family name, represented by Jeshua. Of the two others we know nothing more than this record gives.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

List Of The Leading Priests And Levites Who Went Up With Zerubbabel From Exile ( Neh 12:1-9 ).

The list is divided into two parts, the names of chiefs of the priests, and the names of the (leading) Levites. These were the priests and Levites whose genealogies had been demonstrated (Neh 7:64; Ezr 8:15-20).

Neh 12:1

‘Now these are the priests and the Levites who went up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua:’

Note how it is emphasised that among the returnees were a substantial number of priests and Levites. Thus the worship of the new Israel is seen to have been established on a sound foundation, being in the hands of those authorised by God. As happens so often Zerubbabel, and Joshua the High Priest, are named together (compare Hag 1:12; Hag 2:2; Hag 2:4; Ezr 3:2; Ezr 3:8; Ezr 4:3; Ezr 5:2), and there may be the underlying thought that the foundation of the new Israel was to be seen as established on the houses of David (Zerubbabel was a ‘son of David’) and Aaron (Joshua/Jeshua was a ‘son of Aaron’).

Neh 12:1-7

The Chiefs of The Priests Who Went Up With Zerubbabel ( Neh 12:1-7 ).

Here we are given the names of the chiefs of the priests and their brothers who returned from exile with Zerubbabel ‘in the days of Jesuha (the High Priest)’. It is being made clear that the priests of the new Israel are firmly vouched for as being of genuine descent (compare Neh 7:64). It will be noted that these names are largely paralleled in Neh 12:12-21 where they are (as we would expect) the ‘fathers’ of the chiefs of priests in the time Joiakim the High Priest, i.e. the next generation. Apart from understandable variations (Hebrew names were flexible) the names are the same except that Hattush is not mentioned in Neh 12:12-21, for reasons we can only surmise. Possibly he was childless. A Hattush is included in Neh 10:2-8 as a priestly signatory to the covenant, which may exclude the idea that the family had died out, but we must remember that Hattush was a fairly common name. That Hattush spoken of there may have been a relative signing in the name of the family. See also, for example, Neh 3:10 where a Hattush was supervising repairs on one part of the wall. See also 1Ch 3:22, of a descendant of David; and Ezr 8:2 of a prominent returnee with Ezra.

The names of ‘the chiefs of the priests and their brothers’ are now given:

Neh 12:1

‘Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,’

Neh 12:2

Amariah, Malluch, Hattush,

Neh 12:3

Shecaniah, Rehum, Meremoth,

Neh 12:4

Iddo, Ginnethoi (or in some MSS Ginnethon), Abijah,

Neh 12:5

Mijamin, Maadiah, Bilgah,

Neh 12:6

Shemaiah, and Joiarib, Jedaiah.

Neh 12:7

Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah.

Some of the twenty two names parallel those in Neh 10:2-8 where they were names of signatories to the covenant of Nehemiah (a generation or so later). This could partly have arisen from the fact that the signatories signed, not in their own names, but in the name of the clan. It may also partly have arisen because of the popularity at that time of the custom of giving the names of grandfathers to their grandsons. But both lists include names which are not in the other. Thus seven name mentioned here (Iddo and the last six names) are not found in the list of signatories in Neh 10:2-8, whilst the latter includes six other names, viz Passhur, Malchijah, Obadiah, Daniel, Baruch, Meshullam, which are not included here.

Neh 12:7

‘These were the chiefs of the priests and of their brothers in the days of Jeshua.’

It is stated specifically that those named here lived in the days of Jeshua the High Priest, although whether they had changed their names, taking the clan name, is something of which we cannot be sure. It is difficult from our viewpoint to see why the phrase ‘these were the chiefs of the priests’ has had added on ‘and of their brothers’. It may suggest that not all those mentioned were seen as chiefs of priests (compare the similar use of Levites in Neh 12:8-9). Possibly ‘of their brothers’ refers to the last six names distinguishing them in some from the remainder (note the ‘and’ which occurs before the names of the last six, which distinguishes them from the remainder). These six are not mentioned as signatories of the covenant. They might not thus have been officially recognised ‘chiefs of the priests’. They may have been included here because attempts were being made to increase the number of priestly courses until they reached twenty four, as they did towards the end of the Persian period, and as they were in the days of David. Eventually towards the end of the Persian period the number of courses of priests would again be twenty four, as they would be in the time of Jesus. The names Joiarib and Jedaiah may have been taken by those named in order deliberately to connect them with the Davidic courses of priests. They are the first two names in that list (1Ch 24:7-18). But the fact that there are only twenty two names here confirms the early nature of this list. It is significant that it is not specifically conformed to the Davidic pattern. Rather it arose through necessity.

When we remember that at the return only four priestly clans were mentioned (apart from those who could not prove their ancestry), viz. Jedaiah, Immer, Passhur and Harim (Neh 7:39-42), it is clear that the number of priestly houses was increasing, probably with a view to the requirements of Temple worship and service. Jedaiah and Harim (if identified also as Rehum, with a transposition having taken place of the first two consonants. Hebrew names are fluid. Compare Neh 12:3 with Neh 12:15. But this is by no means certain) are names mentioned above. But there is no mention of the names of Immer and Passhur, which may be explained by the division into sub-clans. Immer is also unmentioned in Neh 10:1-8. The whole situation is undoubtedly complex, and many suggestions have been made by commentators, too numerous to deal with simply.

Neh 12:8-9

The Levites Who Went Up With Zerubbabel ( Neh 12:8-9 ).

We are now given the names of the Levites who went up with Zerubbabel. These are all recognised Levite names, clearly passed on from one generation to another, which means that we have to be careful in the Book of Nehemiah about identifying who is who. But the important point here is that there were genuine Levites of true descent, available to carry on the work of God in the new nation in accordance with God’s ordinance. Not for this new Israel the error of appointing ‘strange priests and Levites’ as northern Israel had done long before (1Ki 12:31).

Neh 12:8

‘Moreover the Levites:’

Neh 12:8

‘Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, (and) Mattaniah, who was over the thanksgiving, he and his brothers.’

These chief Levites returned with Zerubbabel. They have names which occur over and over again in Ezra/Nehemiah. Thus this Jeshua had no direct connection with the High Priest of that name, but was rather a chief Levite. He was connected with the building of the new Temple and the commencement of its activities in Ezr 3:9. The Jeshua mentioned in Neh 7:43; Ezr 2:40 was either his clan ancestor, or himself. It was a descendant of his who signed the covenant, either in his own name or, as clan-leader, taking the name of the clan (Neh 10:9), and was presumably the Jeshua who helped the people to understand the covenant (Neh 8:7), and who, with others, interceded on behalf of the new Israel (Neh 9:4-5). This Jeshua is described as ‘the son of Azaniah’. A Jeshua is mentioned in Neh 12:24, but he was ‘the son of Kadmiel’ (although see on that verse).

Binnui was another popular Levite name. His descendant, who also bore the same name, also signed the covenant (Neh 10:9), and assisted in the building of the wall (Neh 3:24) and if the same as Bani (a good possibility in context, the difference in the Hebrew names being slight), helped the people to understand the covenant (Neh 8:7), and interceded on behalf of Israel (Neh 9:4-5). Descendants of both Jeshua and Binnui helped to receive from Ezra the gold and silver vessels for the house of God (Ezr 8:33). Men with, or connected with, the names Bani and Binnui had to rid themselves of idolatrous foreign wives (Ezr 10:29-30; Ezr 10:34; Ezr 10:38) but there is no reason for connecting them with this Binnui, and Bani was a very common name used by people of all tribes ( 2Sa 23:36 ; 1Ch 9:4; Ezr 2:10).

This Kadmiel likewise passed on his name to his descendants. The Kadmiel mentioned in Neh 7:43; Ezr 2:40 was either this Kadmiel or his ancestor, and it was this Kadmiel who, along with Jeshua, was connected with the building of the new Temple and the commencement of its activities in Ezr 3:9. One of his descendants (either having been given the name or having taken the name) signed the covenant (Neh 10:9), helped the people to understand the covenant (Neh 8:7), and interceded on behalf of the new Israel (Neh 9:4-5). A Kadmiel was the father of the Jeshua mentioned in Neh 12:24, which see. It is noteworthy that Jeshua, Binnui and Kadmiel, in that order, are constantly the first names spoken of when the Levites are described, the exception being Neh 12:24 for a reason we consider easily explicable.

Sherebiah was another common Levite name. Here it referred to a chief Levite who arrived with Zerubbabel, of whom nothing further is known. One of his descendants signed the covenant of Nehemiah, either in his own name, having himself been given the family name, or in the family name (Neh 10:12). This descendant also caused the people to understand the Law (Neh 8:7), and made intercession for the new Israel (Neh 9:4-5). There can be no certainty as to whether he is linked with the Sherebiah of Neh 12:24. In Ezr 8:24 one of the chiefs of the priests was named Sherebiah, but that demonstrates nothing more than the popularity of the name, especially in the tribe of Levi.

Judah is nowhere else spoken of as a chief Levite or family head of the Levites, but the name was common among the Jews (compare Neh 12:34), and we should note a Levite named Judah who had to put away his idolatrous foreign wife (Ezr 10:24). Furthermore mention is made in Ezr 3:9 MT of ‘the sons of Judah’, this Judah also being a Levite. We can also compare Judah the son of Hassenuah who was a Benjamite (Neh 11:9). Some seek to relate the name Judah to the very similar Hodiah who is often referred to as one of the leading Levites in the time of Nehemiah (Neh 8:7; Neh 9:5; Neh 10:10; Neh 10:13), but there are no solid grounds for doing so. It may, however, relate to the Hodaviah of Ezr 2:40. In view of the lack of mention elsewhere of these leading Levites in the time of Zerubbabel (apart from sparse mention in Ezr 3:9), there are no good grounds for seeking to see their names in terms of later times. They were probably rather obtained from contemporary records. It would indeed be this fact that gave the argument of the chapter solidity (the argument that worship in the new ‘holy city’ was being carried on by those who were of genuinely valid ancestry).

Mattaniah, who was over the thanksgiving, may relate in some distant way to the Mattaniah who was an ancestor at least four removed of Uzzi the Levite, who was an overseer of the Levites in Jerusalem (Neh 11:22). He may indeed have been the grandfather of ‘Hanan the son of Zaccur the son of Mattaniah’ (Neh 13:13) who was connected with the Temple treasury distributions, but it is not certain. His connection with the Mattaniah who was the chief to begin the thanksgiving in prayer in the time of Nehemiah (Neh 11:17), was probably ancestral. This latter would serve to confirm that ‘over the thanksgiving’ indicate a central role in worship The Mattaniah in Neh 12:25, who was a gate-keeper, was therefore a distinct person, despite his being in parallel with a Bakbukiah (compare Neh 12:8-9). The ‘he’ of ‘he and his brothers’ probably refers to Mattaniah, ‘his brothers’ thereby bringing in the wider Levite family.

So in all cases the later repetition of these names simply emphasises the custom of passing on the family name from grandfather to grandson, and a possible tendency for the beginners of the new Israel to take the names of their leading ancestors in recognition of that new beginning. What is underlined is that these were genuine, true-born Levites, which is the purpose of the whole passage.

Neh 12:9

‘Also Bakbukiah and Unno, their brothers, were over against them according to their offices.’

Additional to the six leading Levites mentioned were Bakbukiah and Unno, described as ‘their brothers’, that is, fellow Levites. These two were important, but not as important as the six. They stood out more because of the positions they held than directly because of ancestry. The Bakbukiah of Neh 11:17 was probably the direct descendant of the Bakbukiah mentioned here. But Bakbukiah is probably not the Bakbukiah of Neh 12:25, who was a gate-keeper and ‘kept watch at the storehouses of the gates’. The name Unno (Unni) is unknown elsewhere except as applied to Levite musicians from the time of David (1Ch 15:18; 1Ch 15:20).

The suggestion that Neh 12:8-9 were based on Neh 12:24-25 has little to commend it except for the coincidence of popular names. Those in Neh 12:8-9 were Levites at the time of the return. Those in Neh 12:24-25 were Levites at a later date. Both lists would be obtained from contemporary records. The differences are as striking as the coincidences at a time when repetition of names were popular. Thus the first list includes Binnui, Judah and Unno, not mentioned in the second list, whereas the second list has Hashabiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon and Akkub, not mentioned in the first list. Furthermore the Kadmiel of the first list, named alongside Jeshua, does not equate with the Kadmiel of the second list who was the father of Jeshua. The coincidences may simply reflect the popularity in certain Levite circles of the names in question over this period, partly based on the past, and the custom of naming a grandson after his grandfather. It is noteworthy that Bukkiah (now Bakbukiah) and Mattaniah were also linked in David’s day (1Ch 25:4).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Details Concerning The Priests And Levites Who Returned With Zerubbabel, And Those Who Subsequently Developed ( Neh 12:1-26 ).

The importance of the genuinely appointed Priests and Levites to the new Israel and to the new Jerusalem as the holy city is now emphasised by providing details concerning their connection with the return, and their subsequent development. It is being emphasised that God had made provision for the continuation of orthodox worship in ‘the holy city’, including the maintenance of the High Priesthood. The passage may be divided up into:

The chiefs of the priests who went up with Zerubbabel, whose genealogies had been verified (Neh 12:1-7; compare Neh 7:64).

The Levites who went up with Zerubbabel (Neh 12:8-9).

The maintenance of the High Priestly line (Neh 12:10-11).

Subsequent chiefs of priests in the time of the high priest Joiakim (Neh 12:12-21), thus down to the time of Nehemiah.

Brief note regarding when the records of priests and Levites were made (Neh 12:22-23).

The chiefs of the Levites in the days of Joiakim the high priest, who was contemporary with Nehemiah and Ezra (Neh 12:24-26).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Establishment Of Jerusalem As The Holy City, Populated By True Israelites; Its Worship Conducted By Those Specifically and Provably Appointed By God; Accepted from God With Due Gladness And Praise; And Purified By the Removal Of All That Could Be Displeasing To God ( Neh 11:1 to Neh 13:31 ).

The Book closes with a description of the restoring of Jerusalem as the holy city. This was accomplished by:

Populating Jerusalem the holy city with members of the new true Israel who would defend it and (hopefully) maintain its purity (Neh 11:1-36).

Establishing the God-appointed leaders of worship whose genealogies demonstrate that they were of those appointed by God, maintaining the holiness of worship (Neh 12:1-26).

The celebration of gladness and thanksgiving for the completion of the wall and gates which made possible its being established as holy and the re-establishment of the system of tithes that ensured the maintenance of YHWH’s chosen appointees (Neh 12:27-47).

The purifying of the holy city from the defilements of Sabbath breaking and idolatry (Neh 13:1-31).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Priests and Levites who came up with Zerubbabel

v. 1. Now, these are the priests and the Levites that went up with Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, in the preceding century, the names being taken from ancient records: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,

v. 2. Amariah, Malluch, Hattush,

v. 3. Schechaniah (or Shebaniah), Rehum (or Harim), Meremoth (or Meraioth),

v. 4. Iddo, Ginnetho, Abijah,

v. 5. Miamin, Maadiah, Bilgah,

v. 6. Shemaiah, and Joiarib, Jedaiah,

v. 7. Sallu (or Sallai), Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah. These were the chief of the priests and of their brethren in the days of Joshua, the heads of the courses which remained of the twenty-four into which the priesthood was divided at the time of David, 1Ch 24:1-20. The four courses which had returned from the captivity had either been increased by later additions or had been subdivided, those not appearing in the list being such as had become extinct during the exile. No significance should be attached to the names, since the identity with those of a later day is often accidental.

v. 8. Moreover, the Levites: Joshua, Binnul, Kadmid, Sherebiah, ludah, and Mattaniah, which was over the thanksgiving, the choirmaster, or the leader in striking up the psalms of thanksgiving, as sung in the Temple services, he and his brethren.

v. 9. Also Bakbukiah and Unni, their brethren, were over against them in the watches, either stationed opposite them in the Temple or alternating with them in the office of guarding the Temple entrances.

v. 10. And Jeshua begat Joiakim, Joiakim also begat Eliashib, and Eliashib begat Joiada,

v. 11. and Joiada begat Jonathan, and Jonathan begat Jaddua.

v. 12. And in the days of Joia-kim, who was high priest at the time when Nehemiah was governor, were priests, the chief of the fathers, the heads of the priestly courses: of Seraiah, Meraiah; of Jeremiah, Hananiah;

v. 13. of Ezra, Meshullam; of Amariah, Jehohanan;

v. 14. of Melicu, called Malluch above, Jonathan; of Shebaniah, Joseph;

v. 15. of Harim, called Rehum above, Adna; of Meraioth, Helkai;

v. 16. of Iddo, Zechariah; of Ginnethon, Meshullam;

v. 17. of Abijah, Zichri; of Miniamin, of Moadiah, Piltai;

v. 18. of Bilgah, Shammua; of Shemaiah, Jehonathan;

v. 19. and of Joiarib, Mattenai; of Jedaiah, Uzzi;

v. 20. of Sallai, Kallai; of Amok, Eber;

v. 21. of Hilkiah, Hashabiah; of Jedaiah, Nethaneel. It seems, then, that the course of Hattush became extinct, and that the name of the representative of Miniamin has dropped out.

v. 22. The Levites in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, and Johanan (called Jonathan above), and Jaddua were recorded chief of the fathers, they were entered into the registers under the names of their chiefs until the time of Alexander the Great; also the priests, to the reign of Darius the Persian.

v. 23. The sons of Levi, the chief of the fathers, were written in the book of the chronicles, the public registers in which the genealogical lists were kept, even until the days of Johanan, the son of Eliashib.

v. 24. And the chief of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua, the son of Kadmiel, with their brethren over against them, leaders of the singers among the Levites, to praise and to give thanks, according to the commandment of David, the man of God, 1 Chronicles 23-26, ward over against ward, as in verse 9.

v. 25. Mattaniah, and Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, Akkub, were porters, although the names of some singers are included, keeping the ward at the thresholds of the gates, at the chambers for storage attached to the various gates, where the people could immediately deposit their gifts.

v. 26. These were in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Joshua, the son of Jozadak, that is, when Jehoiakim was high priest, and in the days of Nehemiah, the governor, and of Ezra, the priest, the scribe. To hold office as priest or Levite it was necessary that a man could prove his descent from Levi. At the present time the call of the congregation is necessary in order that a man may officiate as preacher or teacher.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

LIST OF THE LEVITICAL AND PRIESTLY FAMILIES WHICH RETURNED FROM BABYLON WITH ZERUBBABEL (Neh 12:1-9). This list receives elucidation and, to some extent, correction from two others:

1. That of the priestly families whose seals were set to the covenant (Neh 10:2-8); and,

2. That of the heads of the priestly courses under the high priest Joiakim (Neh 12:12-21). The number of the names in each of the three lists is almost exactly the same (twenty-two or twenty-one); the names are for the most part the same; and they are given nearly in the same order. That they are the names of families appears most distinctly from the third list (Neh 12:12-21).

Neh 12:1

Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel. See the comment on Ezr 3:2. Jeshua. The high priest of Zerubbabel’s time. Seraiah. Compare Neh 11:11 with the comment on that place. The original Seraiah was the high priest murdered by Nebuchadnezzar (2Ki 25:18-21). Jeremiah and Ezra, who gave name to the second and third course, must not be regarded as the prophet or the scribe so named, but as persons of whom nothing more is known to us.

Neh 12:2

Malluch is rolled “Melicu” below, in Neh 12:14; but the reading of “Malluch” is confirmed by Neh 10:4. Hattush. It is curious that Hattush is omitted from the third list (infra, Neh 10:12-21). He appears, however, in the first (Neh 10:4), as well as here.

Neh 12:3

Shechaniah Rather, “Shebaniah,” as the name is given in Neh 10:4 and Neh 12:14. Rehum. Rather, “Harim,” which is found in Neh 12:15, and also in Neh 10:5. Compare, moreover, Ezr 2:39; Neh 7:42. Meremoth is probably correct, though altered to Meraioth in Neh 7:15, since we find Meremoth in Neh 10:5.

Neh 12:4

Iddo is probably correct, rather than “Obadiah,” which we find after Meremoth in Neh 10:5, since “Iddo” recurs in Neh 10:16. Ginnetho. Rather, “Ginnethon”(see Neh 10:6; Neh 12:16). Abijah. This would seem to be the course to which Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, belonged (Luk 1:5).

Neh 12:5

Miamin is confirmed by Neh 10:7, and is therefore to be preferred to the “Miniamin” of Neh 10:17. Maadiah “Moadiah” (Neh 10:17), and “Maaziah” (Neh 10:8) are not so much different names as different ways of spelling the same name. The same may be said of Bilgah and “Bilgai” (Neh 10:8).

Neh 12:6

And Joiarib. The introduction of the conjunction “and” here, and here only, in this list separates off very markedly the last six names from the first sixteen. A similar division is made in Neh 12:19. The reason for the division seems to be that these last six courses, though including some of the very highest priestly families, as those of Joiarib and Jedaiah (1Ch 24:7; Ezr 2:36; Neh 7:39; Neh 11:10), for some reason or other, did not seal to the covenant, whereas the other sixteen courses did so. Jedaiah. The double occurrence of this name (in Neh 12:6 and Neh 12:7) would naturally raise a suspicion of corruption; but the two Jedaiahs are confirmed by Neh 12:19, Neh 12:21.

Neh 12:7

These were the chief, etc. It may be suspected that this is properly the heading of another list, parallel to that in Neh 12:12-21, which gave the names of the actual heads of the courses in Jeshua’s time.

Neh 12:8

Moreover the Levites: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, etc. Here again families are probably intended, as in Ezr 2:40; Ezr 3:9; Neh 9:4, Neh 9:5, etc; though it is possible that the founders of the families actually returned with Zerubbabel. Jeshua, Binnui, and Kadmiel appear as the leading Levitical families at the sealing of the covenant (Neh 10:9). On Mattaniah see the comment upon Neh 11:17.

Neh 12:9

Bakbukiah and Unni. Bakbukiah’s position with respect to Mattaniah has been already mentioned (Neh 11:17). “Unni” appears, in this place only, as a Levite of Zerubbabel’s time. Were over against them in the watches. i.e. “ministered in their courses, as the others did, and kept their stations over against them in their turns of attendance, which are called their ‘watches’ or wards” (Bp. Patrick).

Neh 12:10-11

LIST OF THE HIGH PRIESTS FROM JESHUA TO JADDUA (Neh 12:10, Neh 12:11).

That this is the line of descent in the high priestly family of the time sufficiently appears both from the names themselves, and from the position assigned to those who bore them in Neh 12:22, Neh 12:23, Neh 12:26. Whether all of them actually exercised the high priest’s office is left uncertain in Scripture, but satisfactorily established by Josephus. The six names cover a space of at least 205 yearsfrom the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus, b.c. 538, to the submission of Jerusalem to Alexander the Great, b.c. 333, which gives very long generations, but still such as are historically possible. Jeshua was certainly high priest from b.c. 538 to b.c. 516. He may have been succeeded by his son, Joiakim, about b.c. 490. Joiakim had certainly been succeeded by his son, Eliashib, before b.c. 444 (Neh 3:1); and Eliashib was probably succeeded by Joiada about b.c. 420. Joiada’s high priesthood may be assigned to the period between b.c. 420 and 380; Jonathan’s to that between b.c. 380 and 350. Jaddua might then hold the dignity from b.c. 350 to 330, or later, and so be brought into contact with Alexander the Great. It is questioned whether in that case Nehemiah can have written the present passage, and certain that he cannot have done so unless he lived to be at least 131 years of age. As this is exceedingly improbable, it is best to suppose, either that the whole list was placed here by Malachi, or at any rate that that prophet added the clause, “and Jonathan begat Jaddua.”

Neh 12:10

Jeshua. The “Jeshua” of Neh 12:1, not of Neh 12:8the high priest of Zerub-babel’s time (Ezr 3:2, Ezr 3:8; Ezr 4:3; Ezr 5:2, etc.). Begat Joiakim. The high priesthood of Joiakim falls into the interval between the first part (chs. 1-7.) and the second part (chs. 7-10.) of Ezra. He is only mentioned in this chapter (verses 12, 26). Eliashib is first mentioned in Ezr 10:6, but he does not appear as high priest until after Nehemiah reaches Jerusalem (Neh 3:1). On his close connection with Tobiah see Neh 13:4, Neh 13:5, Neh 13:28. Joiada is called Judas by Josephus (‘Ant. Jud.,’ 11.7, 1). His term of office lasted, according to Syncellus and the Paschal Chronicle, thirty-six years.

Neh 12:11

Jonathan, or “Johanan,” as the name is given in Neh 12:22, Neh 12:23, became high priest about b.c. 380, according to Syncellus and the Paschal Chronicle, and held the office for thirty-two years. Josephus, who calls him “Jannseus” (= John), says that he murdered his own brother, Jeshua, in the temple, because he was endeavouring to supplant him in the high priesthood through the influence of the Persians. Jaddua is mentioned as high priest at the time of Alexander’s entrance into Jerusalem by Josephus (‘Ant. Jud.,’ 11.8, 5) and Eusebius. The story of Alexander’s having previously seen him in a dream is not generally credited. He is said to been high priest for twenty years, and to have outlived Alexander.

Neh 12:12-21

LIST OF THE HEADS OF THE PRIESTLY COURSES IN THE TIME OF THE HIGH PRIEST JOIAKIM (Neh 12:12-21).

Joiakim must have been contemporary with Xerxes, and consequently have been high priest at the time when the very existence of the Jewish people was threatened by Haman. It is curious that we have no record of his high priesthood, nor of the condition of the Palestinian Jews at the time, beyond the slight hints furnished by this chapter. These hints seem to imply that under him special attention was paid to the formation of lists, especially of the chief priests and Levites, and that the temple service was celebrated with great exactness and regularity (Neh 12:24-26). The present list is particularly valuable, as enabling us to check that with which the chapter opens, and as establishing the family character of the names whereof that list is made up.

Neh 12:12

Of Seraiah, Meraiah. It will be observed that the family names of the priestly, courses follow the order of the same names in Neh 12:1-7, and exactly accord with them, excepting in minute differences of spelling, and in one omissionthat of the name of “Hattush.’ It might be supposed that the family of Hattush had died out; but this is contradicted by its reappearance among the signatures to the covenant (Neh 10:4); the omission here would therefore appear to be accidental.

Neh 12:17

Of Miniamin Rather, “of Miamin” (see Neh 12:5). The name of the head of the course in Joiakim’s time has, by the carelessness of a copyist, fallen out.

Neh 12:19

And of Joiarib. The conjunction “and’ occurring here, exactly as it does in Neh 12:6, once only in the whole list, and before the same name, shows that the two documents (Neh 12:1-7, Neh 12:12-21) are from the same hand. That the hand is that of Nehemiah, or a contemporary, seems to follow from the fact that no reason can be assigned for the division, or for the low place in the lists of the names Joiarib and Jedaiah, except the failure of these families to set their seals to the covenant (see the comment on verse 6).

Neh 12:22-23

PARENTHETIC STATEMENT OF THE TIME DOWN TO WHICH EXACT LISTS OF THE LEADING PRIESTS AND LEVITES WERE KEPT (Neh 12:22, Neh 12:23).

These verses appear to constitute a late insertion. They interrupt the list of high church officers in the time of Joiakim, which is commenced in Neh 12:12 and not concluded till Neh 12:26. By their mention of Jaddua as high priest, and of “Darius the Persian” as contemporary king, they betray a writer who lived at least as late as b.c. 336, or nearly a century after the time of Nehemiah’s religious reforms. The facts put on record by this writer are not of very much importance. They seem to be simply these:

1. That the practice of accurately recording the heads of the priestly and Levitical courses, which Nehemiah has noted as belonging to the days of Joiakim, was continued under his successors, Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan, and Jaddua, down (at any rate) to the accession of Darius Codomannus; and,

2. That in the case of the Levites the lists were inserted into the book of the chroniclesnot our “Book,” but that larger one, of which ours is in the main an abbreviationdown to the time of Johanan, the son (or, rather, grandson) of Eliashib. It has been supposed that the writer originally accompanied these statements with lists that have been lost, but this does not appear to be probable.

Neh 12:22

In the days of Eliashib, Joiada, and Johanan, and Jaddua. See comment on Neh 12:10, Neh 12:11. In the reign of Darius. Rather, “to the reign.” The “Darius” intended is beyond all doubt Codomannus, the adversary of Alexander the Great, who was contemporary with Jaddua. The lists went on under the four high priests down to the time when Darius Codomannus was king of Persia. It is not said that they then ceased. The Persian. Some suppose an antithesis here between this Darius.and “Darius the Mede” of Daniel (Dan 5:31; Dan 11:1). But this is unlikely, since there was nothing to recall that unimportant personage to the thoughts of the writer. Others, with better reason, suggest a tacit allusion to the transfer of empire from Persia to Macedon, and think the date of the passage must be subsequent to b.c. 331, when the kingdom passed away from Persia

Neh 12:23

Even until the days of Johanan. Why the practice of inserting the names in the book of the chronicles ceased at this date it is impossible to say, unless it was that the chronicles themselves ceased to be compiled. There certainly appears to be a long gap in the authentic Jewish annals between the close of the Old Testament canon and the composition of the First Book of the Maccabees. Johanan, the son of Eliashib. The “grandson” really, as appears by Neh 12:10, Neh 12:11.

Neh 12:24-26

LIST OF THE CHIEF LEVITICAL FAMILIES IN THE TIME OF JOIAKIM AND LATER (Neh 12:24-26).

That family, rather than personal, names are here intended is sufficiently shown in the final summary of Neh 12:26, since the same individuals cannot have flourished under Joiakim and also under Nehemiah. The actual namesJeshua, Kadmiel, Hashabiah, Shersbiah, etc.are all found as family names.

Neh 12:24

Hashabiah. See above, Neh 9:5; Neh 10:11. Sherebiah. Compare Neh 9:4, Neh 9:5; Neh 10:12; Neh 12:8. Jeshua, the son of Kadmiel. For ben, “son,” we should probably read “Bani,” a common Levitical name (Neh 9:4, Neh 9:5; Neh 10:13), in which case the passage would run as follows:”And the chief of the Levites were Hashabiah, Sherebiah, Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, with their brethren,” etc. To praise and to give thanks, according to the commandment of David. Compare 1Ch 15:16; 1Ch 23:5; 1Ch 25:3, etc. Man of God is an epithet not often applied to David. It occurs, however, again in verse 36, and also in 2Ch 8:14. Ward over against ward. Antiphonicallydivision over against division.

Neh 12:25

Meshullam and Obadiah are new as Levitical names; but the remaining names of the passage are well known. Talmon and Akkub are among the porters of David’s time (1Ch 9:17), and are mentioned in Ezr 2:42; Neh 7:45; Neh 11:19. Bakbukiah and Mattaniah occur in Neh 11:17 and Neh 12:8, Neh 12:9; but as families of singers, rather than of porters, in those places. Keeping the ward at the thresholds of the gates. Rather, as in the margin, “at the treasuries.” It is thought that the chambers above the gateways may have been used as storehouses or treasuries.

HOMILETICS

Neh 12:1-26

Ministers in God’s temple.

These lists, once so important, are to us little more than fragmentary relics of a vanished system. They remind us how all that is external decays and passes away. They may, however, also suggest to us truths which abide and retain their worth throughout all ages.

I. THE VARIETIES OF MINISTRY IN THE HOUSE OF GOD. Here, high priests, priests, Levites; chiefs and subordinates; singers and musicians; gate-keepers and guards of treasure-houses. In the Christian Church, pastors, preachers, evangelists, deacons, teachers of the young, etc. In the Church, in the wider sense, all are to minister in some way; secular relations and employments are to be deemed sacred; “Holiness to the Lord“ stamped on everything (see Zec 14:20). In all, God may be served more really than by the high priest of the old covenant, if he were content with only outward ministration. And each, performing his appointed ministry faithfully, is acceptable to God.

“All works are good, and each is best

As most it pleases thee;

Each worker pleases when the rest

He serves in charity;

And neither man nor work unblest

Wilt thou permit to be.”

II. THE RIGHT OF MINISTRY. In the case of the ministers of the temple this was hereditary. Hence the importance of the genealogies. Under the gospel, as the service is spiritual, the ministers must be spiritual also. No ordination or appointment can make an unregenerate man a true minister of Christ, though it may give him authority to take part in the external services of the Church which appoints him. Such a man may, indeed, do good; but so does the devil, through the overruling power and grace of God. In like manner, all who would employ themselves in spiritual ministration of any kind, in the Church or in private life, should seek first to have the Spirit in their own hearts; and all who have the Spirit are priests of God for some service.

III. THE SHORT DURATION OF EACH MINISTER‘S WORK ON EARTH. If no other cause bring it to an end, death will. A motive to diligence and fidelity. “Work while it is day.” A motive also for care to obtain, and to exercise in the earthly ministry, those spiritual qualities which insure an eternal sacred service in the heavenly temple.

IV. THE SUCCESSION OF MINISTERS. If “one generation passeth away,” “another generation cometh.” The Jewish priesthood was perpetuated by the natural processes. More worthy of note and of thanksgiving is the unbroken succession of godly men from age to age in such a world as this, and of men qualified and willing to undertake the more difficult and arduous ministries. The One ever-living Head of the Church, the One ever-abiding Comforter, assure us that this will ever be the case. Stall the labourers are few, and constant prayer should be presented to “the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”

V. THE UNCERTAINTY OF FAME. Many of the most excellent live and die unnoticed, and their names are found in no record; and many of the recorded names are not of the most worthythey may be in the register for quite other and inferior reasons. Besides, the recorded names soon become little more than names; and when it is otherwise, those who once owned them are not benefited by the distinction. The honour which comes from men cannot then be the chief reward of good service. Let us not seek it, but seek to act our part well, looking for the unfailing rewards which God bestows.

VI. THE GREAT INFERIORITY OF THE MINISTRIES OF THE TEMPLE IN COMPARISON WITH THOSE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. “The least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than” the greatest prophet; but prophets were superior to priests, and the humblest Christian is, therefore, superior to the greatest priest of the Old Testament, as he is, indeed, to the greatest mere official in the Christian Church. He is a priest of a higher order; has greater privileges, approaches nearer to God, can offer really “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ,” and has the true qualification for spiritual service to his brethren. For he has that “unction from the Holy One,” without which, whatever external office is filled, no spiritual ,functions can be exercised. But high above all others is the one great High Priest of our religion. All, and surpassingly more than all, that the whole order of priests of the law were in the national, external sphere, Christ is in the spiritual and eternal. All that they and their ministrations represented as types, he has become and accomplished. What they could not effect by the whole of their sacrifices from age to age he effected by the one offering of himself. In his qualifications for priesthood, combining sinless holiness and tenderest sympathy with sinners; in his nearness to God; in the efficacy of his priestly acts, he stands alone. He offered once for all the only atoning sacrifice; and by fulfilling all that was typified by the old sacrifices and priesthood he abolished them.

Neh 12:9, Neh 12:24

Sacred singing.

Its place in public worship at the tabernacle and the temple, from David onward, if not earlier. The careful arrangements made for conducting it. Its place in the Christian Church, in which it was prominent from the first. Pliny’s testimony.

I. Its DESIGN. Not the glorification of poets, organists, or choirs, or the musical entertainment of the people; but

1. The united praise of God. Of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. This chiefly, not this only, or many of cur best hymns would have to be condemned.

2. The benefit of the congregation. Of the Christians worshipping, and of others present. Promoting devout feelings, and impressing great truths on the heart. In Eph 5:19; Col 3:16, a distinctly didactic purpose seems, notwithstanding adverse criticism, to be reeognised.

II. The QUALIFICATIONS it requires. Besides the physical and the musical, and far above them in nature and importance.

1. Understanding of what is sung (1Co 14:15).

2. Faith. In the object of worship, the truths uttered, the Mediator (Heb 11:6; Heb 13:15).

3. Devout feelings. Reverence, humility, gratitude, love, joy in God.

4. Unity with fellow-worshippers (Rom 15:5, Rom 15:6). Mutual harmony is essential to harmonious praise. Anger, envy, alienation, hinder united worship, spoil the best singing.

III. The DUTY OF THOSE WHO PROVIDE FOR OR CONDUCT IT. Such as (Col 3:12) are “over the thanksgiving” are to regard themselves not as performers exhibiting their own skill, but as ministers of Christ and the congregation, to worship with their brethren, and aid them in worshipping God. The composition and choice of hymns and tunes, and the style of playing and singing, are all to be subordinate to this end. If this seem to require of composers, organists, and choirs some sacrifice of credit, it confers on them a far higher dignity than they could otherwise reach, and secures them a richer recompense now and hereafter.

IV. THE DUTY OF CONGREGATIONS IN RESPECT TO IT.

1. To take part in the worship. In heart, if not with voice.

2. To unite, if capable, in the singing itself. The singing at the temple appears to have been chiefly choral; that of the Christian Church should be congregational. All are as Levites, “to praise and to give thanks,” unless physically incapacitated. The benefits of the service depend much on the union of the many in it.

3. To qualify themselves, therefore, as far as possible for the exercise. That “with one mouth” (Rom 15:6), as well as “one mind,” all may “glorify God.” The subject requires more thought and care by ministers and congregations than it sometimes receives.

HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON

Neh 12:1-26, Neh 12:44-47

Ministers of the Lord.

Twenty-six verses of this chapter are given to the record of the names of priests and Levites. That fact itself is suggestive. It is indicative of the high place which the ministers of God held in the national estimation. We meet in these chronicles with the names of few men of comparative wealth, or rank, or soldierly ability; but the names of the ministers of religion are recorded, and are thus immortalised. Concerning these we may learn

I. THEIR RELATIVE VALUE IN THE STATE. “Judah rejoiced in the priests and Levites that waited”stood at their posts (Neh 12:44). The worth of the “non-productive classes” of the community, however high their social position, has been said to be less than that of the man who “makes two blades of grass to grow where only one grew before.” But the worth of this last is surely less by far than that of him who makes a true thought to live and grow in the mind where one false fancy throve before, who plants right principles in the soul, who is the means of cultivating fruits of righteousness in the hearts and lives of men. A number of men scattered all over the land who live to circulate that sacred truth which leads men into and along the way of wisdom, and to draw the hearts of men into fellowship with a holy God, must be dying a work of truest patriotism, second to none that can be mentioned. Well might “Judah rejoice in the priests and Levites that stood at their posts” (or that waited), and treasure their names in her archives. Well may England rejoice in her ministers of Christ who stand at their posts and do the work he has placed in their hands.

II. THE PRINCIPLE OF THEIR APPOINTMENT (Neh 12:10). We are naturally struck with the expression (Neh 12:10), “And Jeshua begat Joiakim, Joiakim also begat Eliashib,” etc. It brings before usas indeed all these family names dothe hereditary principle adopted by God in the appointment of his ministers. The priestly and the Levitical office went from father to son. In that age, and under the system of religion appointed of God, there can be no doubt that this was the best possible principle. We have sad and striking instances, indeed, of its failure to secure purity and integrity. The cases of Eli and Samuel, whose sons “walked not in their fathers’ ways,” immediately suggest themselves. Yet there was an unquestionable spiritual force in this family arrangement. The sons and grandsons who looked back to their fathers, to their ancestors, as men that stood before God in his near presence, as men that taught Israel the sustaining, reviving, saving truths of religion, would gain a powerful incentive from the thought; and as they looked forward to their sons and their grandsons, to a remote posterity discharging the same sacred offices, a holy anticipation would join with a holy pride to keep them loyal to their faith and to their functions. With the Christian ministry the hereditary principle is in the background; it is a secondary, not primary, consideration. The first thing is fitness for the work, and the conviction that a man is personally called thereto by God’s own Spirit. “Aptness to teach” (1Ti 3:2) and to serve in the various offices of the ministry of Christ, with that earnest desire to “do good and to communicate” which argues a heaven-born inspiration, must be the decisive thing. Nevertheless, there is room for the influence of the family principle here. Many of the very best ministers of Christ are sons and grandsons of those who thus served their God and their generation before them; and these have been worthier and abler servants of their age because they have drawn inspiration from their fathers’ lives and labours. In this our time there is much of holy influence and power to gain from those who have gone before us, and much to give to those who shall come after us. We should aim to

(1) be worthy of our ancestors, and to

(2) supply an incentive and example to our posterity.

III. THEIR RECOMPENSE (Neh 12:44-47). So much did “Judah rejoice for (in) her priests and Levites” (Neh 12:44), that men had to be appointed “over the chambers for the treasures,” first-fruits, tithes, and free-will offerings which the people freely brought to them. All those who held any sacred officeincluding those of the Levites who were singers and porters, and “who kept the ward,” i.e. did their work (Neh 12:45)received their recompense, and the people “sanctified” (set apart) “holy things” (their offerings to the Lord) to the Levites, and these gave their tenth to the “children of Aaron” (Neh 12:47). The Christian minister has his recompense, which is threefold.

1. It is present and temporal. “Sowing spiritual things, he expects to “reap carnal things” (1Co 9:11). He that is “taught in the word is to communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things” (Gal 6:6).

2. It is present and spiritual. In the approval of Christ his observant Lord; in the gratitude and affection of those whom he serves; in the excellency and success of his workintrinsically the highest and best of all works; and in the opportunities it provides for his own spiritual culture.

3. It is future. The smile of the Master in the day when “every man has praise of God;” the greeting again of those rescued and strengthened on earth; the “rule over many cities” to be enjoyed by those who wisely employ their talents here.C.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Neh 12:1-47

1Now [And] these are the priests and the Levites that went up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra , 2 Amariah, Malluch, Hattush, 3, 4, 5Shechaniah, Rehum, Meremoth, Iddo, Ginnetho, Abijah, Miamin, Maadiah, 6Bilgah, Shemaiah, and Joiarib, Jedaiah, 7Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah. These were the chief of the priests and of their brethren in the days of Jeshua. 8Moreover [And] the Levites: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and 9Mattaniah, which was over the thanksgiving, he and his brethren. Also [And] Bakbukiah and Unni, their brethren, were over against them in the watches. 10And Jeshua begat Joiakim, Joiakim also [and Joiakim] begat Eliashib, and Eliashib 11begat Joiada, and Joiada begat Jonathan, and Jonathan begat Jaddua. 12And in the days of Joiakim were priests, the chief of the fathers: of Seraiah, Meraiah; 13, 14of Jeremiah, Hananiah; of Ezra, Meshullam; of Amariah, Jehohanan; of Melicu, Jonathan; of Shebaniah, Joseph; 15of Harim, Adna; of Meraioth, Helkai; 16of Iddo, Zechariah; of Ginnethon, Meshullam; 17of Abijah, Zichri; of Miniamin, 18, 19 of Moadiah, Piltai; of Bilgah, Shammua; of Shemaiah, Jehonathan; And 20, 21of Joiarib, Mattenai; of Jedaiah, Uzzi; of Sallai, Kallai; of Amok, Eber; of Hilkiah, Hashabiah; of Jedaiah, Nethaneel. 22The Levites in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, and Johanan, and Jaddua were recorded [according to the] chief of the fathers: also [and] the priests, to the reign of Darius the Persian. 23The sons of Levi, the chief of the fathers, were written [recorded] in the book of the Chronicles [book of the events of the times], even until the days of Johanan, the son of Eliashib. 24And the chief of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua the son of Kadmiel with their brethren over against them to praise and to give thanks, according to the commandment of David the man of God, ward over against ward. 25Mattaniah, and Bakbukiah, [and] Obadiah, [were singers]. Meshullam, Talmon, Akkub, were porters keeping the ward at the thresholds [treasuries] of the gates. 26These were in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor, and of Ezra the priest, the scribe.

27And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought the Levites out of all their places to bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication with gladness [to keep the dedication and festivity], both with thanksgivings and with singing, with cymbals, psalteries and with harps. 28And the sons of the singers gathered themselves together, both out of the plain country [circuit] round about Jerusalem, and 29from the villages of Netophathi; also [and] from the house of Gilgal [Beth-gilgal], and out of the fields of Geba and Azmaveth: for the singers had builded their villages round about Jerusalem. 30And the priests and the Levites purified themselves, 31and purified the people, and the gates, and the wall. Then [And] I brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall, and appointed two great companies of them that gave thanks, whereof one went on the right hand upon the wall toward the dung gate [rubbish gate]. 32And after them went Hoshaiah, and half of the princes of 33, 34 Judah, and Azariah, Ezra, Meshullam, Judah, and Benjamin, and Shemaiah, 35and Jeremiah, and certain of the priests sons with trumpets; namely [the priests names have fallen outhere follow the Levites names] Zechariah the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Michaiah, the son of Zaccur, the son of Asaph: 36And his brethren, Shemaiah, and Azarael, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethaneel, and Judah, Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God, and Ezra the scribe before them. 37And at the fountain gate, which was over against them, [and over the fountain gate and in front of them], they went up by the stairs of the city of David, at the going up of the wall, above the house of David, even unto the water gate eastward.

38And the other company of them that gave thanks went over against them, and I after them, and the half of the people, upon the wall from beyond [past] the tower of the furnaces even unto the broad wall; 39and from above [past] the gate of Ephraim, and above [past] the old gate, and above [past] the fish gate, and the tower of Hananeel, and the tower of Meah, even unto the sheep gate: and they stood 40still in the prison gate. So [And] stood the two companies of them that gave thanks in the house of God, and I, and the half of the rulers with me: 41And the priests; Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Michaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah with trumpets; 42and Maaseiah, and Shemaiah, and Eleazar, and Uzzi, and Jehohanan, and Malchijah, and Elam, and Ezer. And the singers sang loud [made their voice to be heard], with Jezrahiah their overseer.

43Also [And] that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy: [and] the wives also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.

44And at that time were some [men] appointed over the chambers [which were] for the treasures, for the offerings, for the first fruits, and for the tithes to gather into them out of [according to] the fields of the cities the portions of the law [i.e., appointed by the law] for the priests and Levites: for Judah rejoiced [the joy of Judah was] for the priests and the Levites that waited [that stood at their posts]. 45And both the singers and the porters kept the ward of their God, and the ward of the purification [And they kept the ward (or charge) of their God, and the ward of the purification, and so did also the singers and the porters keep their ward], according to the commandment of David, and of Solomon his son. 46For in the days of David and Asaph [see note] of old, there were chief of the singers, and songs of praise and thanksgiving unto God. 47And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel, and in the days of Nehemiah, gave the portions of the singers and the porters, every day his portion [the thing of a day on its day], and they sanctified [dedicated, as in 1 Chron. 26 28] holy things unto the Levites; and the Levites sanctified them unto the children of Aaron.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

1 Neh 12:38. for from the root , according to Ewald. The usual form is or . May it not be from , formed like a Hoph. participle?

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

The Dedication of the Walls

Before the ceremony of the dedication is rehearsed, a preliminary statement regarding the priests and Levites, as chief actors in the dedication, is made.

Neh 12:1-9. This is a list of the principal priests and Levites who came with Zerubbabel from Babylon in the preceding century.

We have already spoken of the accidental identity of names, in many of these, with those who sealed the Covenant (Neh 10:1-8). If the question is here asked, Why, then, are not the names of the sealers put down in Neh 12:12-21, as the representatives of the old priestly houses of Zerubbabels day? the reply is that the sealers were in Eliashibs day, but the representatives of the priestly families in Neh 12:12-21 were of Joiakims day, Eliashibs father. The persons were not the same, and hence we do not look for the same names. We have three sets of names. In Neh 12:1-7 we have those of Jeshuas time (i.e., Zerubbabels); in Neh 12:12-21, we have also those of Joiakims day. In Neh 10:1-8 we have those of Eliashibs day.

But another question is raised by the fact that in Ezr 2:36-39 and Neh 7:39-42 only four orders of priests are said to have come up with Zerubbabel, to wit, those of Jedaiah, Immer, Pashur, Harim, i.e., the 2d, 3d, 5th and 16th orders, Pashur representing Malchijah, (see Neh 11:12), while here are twenty-two families. The answer is suggested by Keil that those four represent grand families (and not the four priestly orders) and these represent an inferior division into twenty-two, two of the names, Jedaiah and Harim, being accidentally the same with two of the four. I know not, however, why the four courses or orders may not be intended in Neh 7:39-42 and the twenty-two families belong to these four. Keils reasoning seems defective.

Neh 12:7. And of their brethren.This does not refer to the Levites, for they are especially mentioned immediately afterward. It is a phrase in apposition, thus chief of the priests, namely, their brethren.

Jeshua or Joshua, the high-priest at the return from Babylon under Cyrus (B. C. 536), nearly a hundred years before.

Neh 12:8. We have already shown that the identity of names here with those in Nehemiah 10 is accidental. See notes on Neh 10:1-13, and the first note in this chapter. Hence the identification of Judah, Mattaniah and Bakbukiah with Hodijah (Neh 10:10), Mattaniah of Neh 11:17, and Bakbukiah of Neh 12:25 (which identification Keil suggests) is an error, as these last three were men of Nehemiahs time (see Neh 12:26), while the first three were of Jeshuas day, (see Neh 12:1; Neh 12:7).

This Mattaniah and his brethren were over the thanksgiving (al huyyedoth) in Jeshuas day. The Mattaniah of Neh 11:17 was the principal to begin the thanksgiving in prayer (rosh hat–tehillah yehodheh lat–tephillah) in Nehemiahs day. The phrases are not identical. One refers to several men, the other to one.

Neh 12:9. Bakbukiah and Unni were chiefs of the Levitical relays, who, in Jeshuas day, kept the watches over against the Levites commissioned to sing the thanksgivings. Mishmar must mean a watch or guard, even in Neh 13:14 and in Eze 38:7.

Neh 12:10-11. The pedigree of the high-priests from Zerubbabels time to the time of Alexander the Great, i.e., from B. C. 536 to B. C. 332. As Nehemiahs government of Jerusalem was B. C. 446434, we have this genealogy carried a century beyond him by a later hand. Jonathan is evidently a mistake in transcription for Johanan, as in Neh 12:22-23.

Neh 12:12-21. A list of the representatives in Joiakims day of the priestly houses whose names are obtained from those chiefs of the priests who came with Zerubbabel, as given in Neh 12:1-7.

Melicu = Malluch. Hattush is omitted (see Neh 12:2). Shebaniah = Shechaniah.Harim = Rehum.Meraioth = Meremoth.Miniamin = Miamin. Miniamins representative is omitted,dropped accidentally in transcription. Sallai = Sallu. These changes in a list evidently intended to be a copy of one immediately preceding form a good instance of the uncertainty of names in these old genealogical registers.

Neh 12:22-23. An interjected statement by the later hand. The Levites were regularly to the time of Alexander the Great recorded by the names of their chiefs, and the priests also, that is, to the reign of Darius (Codomannus). But the book of the Chronicles (1 Chronicles 9.) only contained their names to Johanans high-priesthood. That is, probably in Jadduas time the record was no longer engrossed. Keils effort to make these verses refer to Nehemiahs time as the ultimate is ingenious but forced. The days of Johanan and the days of Jaddua cannot mean the days in which they were living as young men or boys, but the days of their active high-priesthood. Hence the Darius is not Nothus, but Codomannus.

Neh 12:23-26. The Levites in Joiakims day and in Nehemiahs time. Hashabiah = Hashabniah in Neh 9:5.

Sherebiah (see Neh 9:5). Jeshua, the son of Kadmiel. See Neh 9:4, where Jeshua and Bani and Kadmiel is probably for Jeshua ben Kadmiel. These were leaders of the singing Levites.

Mattaniah is put probably by mistake among the porters. He was a singer, (see Neh 11:17). The same remark may be made of Bakbukiah and Obadiah (Abda). See, as before, Neh 11:17.

Meshullam is Shallum in 1Ch 9:17. Porters keeping the ward at the treasuries of the gates.See 1Ch 26:15; 1Ch 26:17. These were the store-chambers attached to the various gates, inner and outer, belonging to the temple.

Neh 12:26. Joiakim was probably high-priest when Ezra arrived at Jerusalem, Eliashib his son soon succeeding.

Neh 12:27. The preliminary statements regarding the priests and Levites being ended, here begins the account of the dedication of the walls. Out of all their places, for the Levites were scattered throughout the province (see Neh 11:3). To keep the dedication with gladness.Instead of supposing a preposition wanting, we may take simhah as a concrete and read to keep the dedication and festivity.

Psalteries and harps differed but slightly from one another. The nebel or psaltery had more strings than the kinnor or harp. They both rather resembled our guitar than our harp.

Neh 12:28. The sons of the singers.Heb. Ben hamshorerim. That is the guild or company of singers of the three great Levitical families of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun. The plain country round about Jerusalem.Heb. hakkikkar sevivoth yerushalayim. There is no plain country round about Jerusalem. The kikkar must here be simply circuit (). Compare Neh 12:29.

If kikkar is to have here its specific meaning of the valley of Jordan (as Keil insists), then we must insert umin hatzr between hakkikkar and sevivoth (for an omission likely to happen) and read the valley of Jordan and from the villages round about Jerusalem. The idea that the valley of Jordan at Jericho could be said to be sevivoth yerushalayim (round about Jerusalem) is absurd.

Netophathi, the gentile noun without article, seems to be for Netophah, a place near Bethlehem (Neh 7:26). Beit Netif, which is fourteen miles west of Bethlehem, seems too far off.

Neh 12:29. And from the house of Gilgal.Rather, and from Beth-haggilgal or Beth-Gilgal. Although we should look for a Jiljilia or a Beit-Jiljilia for the modern name of this place, yet as no such name occurs near Jerusalem, we may suppose Beit-Jala close to Bethlehem to be the modern representative.

Geba is now Jeba, six or seven miles north of Jerusalem. Azmaveth is not identified.

Neh 12:30. The purification of priests, Levites, people, gates and wall was accomplished, doubtless, by a series of prescribed sacrifices.

Neh 12:31. Read literally, appointed two great thanksgivings, i, e., two great thanksgiving-companies. Perhaps the thodhoth in Neh 12:27 has this concrete meaning.

Judah is used in this verse for the whole people of Israel.

Whereof one went on the right hand.Literally, and processions on the right hand. The whole passage should read, and appointed two thanksgiving – companies and processions. On the right hand, etc. (i.e., the one on the right hand).

Although it is not mentioned, yet it is clear that the two processions started at the valley-gate, the same at which Nehemiah had started to examine the ruined walls of the city on his arrival (Neh 2:13). The valley-gate was at or south of the present Jaffa Gate (see on Neh 2:13). Dung-gate.(See l. c.)

Neh 12:32-34. There followed the one thanksgiving company of Levites to the right (i.e., to the South) one-half the princes of Judah (i.e., chiefs of the entire Jewish people) with Hoshaiah at their head. The names in Neh 12:33-34 are the names of these princes. The names of Judah and Benjamin are not the tribal names.

Neh 12:35. And certain of the priests sons with trumpets.This should close a section, as the names that follow are not of priests but of Levites. The priests names have probably dropped out. In the corresponding list of the other procession the priests names are given (see Neh 12:41). Priests Sons,i.e., sons of the priests, i.e., priests.

Zechariah, an Asaphite, is leader of those who bear the Davidic instruments of music.

Neh 12:36. Zechariah had eight with him, as Jezrahiah had eight with him in the other band (see Neh 12:42).

Ezra the scribe went before all except the thanksgiving-company of Neh 12:31, just as Nehemiah took this position in the other band (see Neh 12:38; Neh 12:40).

Neh 12:37. The fountain-gate we believe to have been near the pool of Siloam, and the water-gate to have been an interior gate not far from the present south wall of the Haram. (See for these and the stairs of the city of David the notes on Neh 3:15; Neh 3:26; also see Excur.). We may read this verse, and over the fountain gate and in front of them they went up over the stairs of the city of David at the going up of the wall above the house of David even unto the water-gate eastward. We explain this description thus; that the procession kept along the south wall of Zion until it reached a point on the descent of that wall over against the fountain-gate and the pool of Siloam. There it would be over the fountain-gate. At this point it turned north (in front of them), leaving the main wall and passing up over the line of the great stairs that led up to the city of David (Zion), where an inner wall ran up and along the eastern crest of Zion. This inner wall had a place called Beth-David below it on the side of the Tyropon valley. (Or if meal be translated past, then the Beth-David may be placed above). The procession would thus pass along Zions eastern front and cross over to Ophel and the water gate at a point where the Tyropon was not so deep and broad.

Neh 12:38. And the other company of them that gave thanks. (See on Neh 12:31).

Read and the second thanksgiving company which went in the opposite direction, and which I followed and half the people (went) upon the wall past the tower of the furnaces even to the broad wall. By the people are meant those who formed the procession, not the people at large. The Heb. meal here when used before the tower of the furnaces must mean past. We cannot conceive the processions passing over a tower. (See note on Neh 12:37, where the phrase above the house of David occurs). For the tower of the furnaces and the broad wall, see on Neh 2:8; Neh 2:11. Also see Excursus.

Neh 12:39. The gate of Ephraim must have been at the north-eastern extremity of the broad wall. The prison gate was on the north side of the temple, not connected with the palace prison of Jer 32:2. See Excursus. (For the other localities here mentioned, see on chap. 2 and Excursus.)

Neh 12:40-42. The latter part of Neh 12:40 and verses 41 and 42 belong before the former part of Neh 12:40. There may have been an error of transcription, or it may be a roughness of rhetoric.

Comp. Neh 12:41 with the first part of Neh 12:35, and verse 42 with Neh 12:35-36.

Neh 12:43. Great sacrifices,i.e., thank-offerings which were eaten by the offerers in a happy feast, after the food of the offering made by fire unto the Lord (Leviticus 3.)

Neh 12:44.1At that time.Evidently the time of the dedication. Some.Heb. men. The treasures (or stores) comprised the three sorts enumerated, to wit, the first-fruits, the tithes, and the free-will offerings. Out of the fields.Rather, according to the fields.The portions of the law,i.e. the portions appointed by the law (as in margin). For Judah rejoiced for the priests and Levites that waited.Rather, for Judah rejoiced in the priests and Levites who stood at their posts. The people gladly gave the prescribed offerings for the priests and Levites, so that there was no sense of burden upon them, nor any friction between the Levites and the people.

Neh 12:45. The singers and the porters formed two important bodies of Levites. They kept the ward, that is, performed their appointed duties. The verse is improperly divided in the E. V. It should read, And they (the priests and Levites of Neh 12:44) kept the ward of their God and the ward of the purification, and so did also the singers and the porters keep their ward. The priests and Levites attended to their duties of public worship and purifying, and the singers and porters observed their appropriate functions.

Neh 12:46-47. The wav before Asaph is generally supposed an error, and the verse is read for in the days of David, Asaph of old was chief. This will explain the singular chief, (the plural Kri being unsupported). But still it is difficult to see why Asaphs headship should be mentioned just here. It may be suggested that the Masorites are wrong, and that the 46th and 47th verses (Silluk being removed) should run together, all Israel being subject in both, anticipated in Neh 12:46, from Neh 12:47, thus: for in the days of David and Asaph, of old, chief of the singers and songs of praise and thanksgiving unto God,and all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah gave, etc. From Davids day to Nehemiahs the care of Israel for the Levitical singers and porters was marked.

Sanctified,i.e., Brought as consecrated or dedicated. As in 1Ch 26:28.

The Levites brought as dedicated to the priests the tithe of that which was dedicated to them. (Num 18:26.)

HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL

1. Both the Heb. hanukkah and the Greek enkainia define a dedication as the initiation or beginning of a new thing. There is no notion of consecration in the word. There is no grace conferred or new nature implanted. Even in the dedication of the temple, it was only the Lords miraculous presence which consecrated the place. The dedication of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah and his brethren was simply a joyful religious celebration of the work achieved under the gracious providence of God. The priests indeed purified the walls, but so they purified the people. Everything Jewish was purified; so that this purification is no distinct part of the dedication. The primal element in the dedication was joy, exhibited in music, vocal and instrumental, and in thanksgiving. There was a formal recognition of Gods mercy and loving-kindness by the assembled people.

2. The culminating point in the days observance was certainly when the two processions, after each passing over half the wall, met at the temple and united their praises with new emphasis, while great sacrifices were offered on the brazen altar. The high position of the temple would add much to the imposing character of this service.
3. The ministers of religion were not considered as useless, non-producing men by the godly Jews. Even the singers were reckoned worthy of a public support. It is a low, materialistic philosophy that cannot see the moral importance of leaders and teachers of religion in a community, and that without them material accumulation will only expedite national destruction.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Neh 12:1-26. It was without doubt a matter of piety that in the time after the exile, they restored more and more the old classes of priests and Levites which had existed before the exile. It was a necessity for the congregation, which deserved all consideration, to have again an equally manifold-numbered, complete equipment for the establishment of the beautiful service of the Lord, as before the exile. It was also for the priests and Levites themselves most important and wholesome that they should find themselves together again in the old divisions, and should also acknowledge their venerable ancestors as their heads. Who can estimate the blessing there is, when descendants remain conscious that they are preceded by many and ancient ancestors in piety and the service of God, when in families piety too becomes a matter of tradition, when the children know that parents and grand-parents have prayed for them, and particularly for their spiritual prosperity, and when they feel themselves called upon by this to pray again in turn for their children and grandchildren. It was an enviable time when in the Christian church likewise there were Aaronic families, when the children received an impulse from the example of parents and ancestors to devote themselves to the service of the word, and when the parents knew no higher joy than to see their children advancing to the same high office which their fathers had occupied. The first condition of a proper, worthy exercise of the office, which shall be rich in blessing, is indeed the pouring out of the Spirit, and the Spirit breathes where He listeth, but even in the Christian church the ordained ways hold an important position by the side of extraordinary ones. In connection with the fact that the number of the priests classes was about the same as before the exile, Bedas remark is applicable: Sic spe sancta ecclesia ex detriments suis majora recepit incrementa, cum uno per incuriam lapso in peccatum plures exemplo ejus territi ad persistendum in castitate fidei fiunt cautiores. Spe idem ipsi, qui peccaverunt, majores post actam pnitentiam bonorum operum fruclus ferre incipiunt, quam ante incursum peccati ferre consuerant. Spe ab hreticis ecclesia vastata, postquam instantia catholicorum doctorum lucem veritatis recepit, plures ad cognoscendam tuendamque rationem recuperantes ejusdem veritatis filios procreavit. Neque enim unquam beati patres Athanasius, Ambrosius, Hilarius, Augustinus, et ceteri tales tot et tam magnificos in sanctam scripturam tractatus conderent, si non contra fidem rectam tam multifarius hreticorum fuisset error ortus.

Neh 12:27-43. The feast of dedication. 1. Whose part is it? The congregations, to which God has anew given protection and power against its enemies, but also the individual believers, when the Lord has secured to him his position, and has even enclosed it with a wall. 2. How is it to be celebrated? In that we purify ourselves from all that displeases the Lord, that we thankfully consecrate His gifts, that is, put them at His service, that we rejoice in them as a proof of the grace that desires our salvation, and thereby cause our faith to be strengthened, etc. 3. What blessing has it? It appropriates thus truly Gods gifts to us, and enkindles thus our zeal to honor God with new desire by consecration, devotion, and homage.Beda: Facta autem civitas sancta dedicatur, cum, completo in fine sculi numero electorum, ecclesia universaliter in clis ad visionem sui conditoris introducitur.How must the congregation celebrate the feast of dedication? 1. With joyful thanks, that the power and salvation of the Lord has surrounded them as a wall for their protection against the world, and for their separation from the same. 2. With firm trust, that the Lord will still farther protect them. 3. With the sincere vow to hold themselves separate from the world, and to live to the Lord. True joy. 1. Its right, the God who has given us life, wishes also that it shall move joyfully; the God who always anew overwhelms us with favors, wishes that they should fulfil their mission, that is, make us happy, in the end holy. 2. Its occasion is Gods grace, which has strengthened, protected, assured, or elevated our lower or higher life. The chief sites in Jerusalem testified to this, and in the Christian church, yes, indeed, in our lives, all the heights testify thereof. 3. Its kindit raises itself to God, is a joy in Him, that is, becomes a service to God and our neighbor.Bede: Requiruntur et Levit spirituales, hoc est, assumpti in sortem regni de omnibus locis suis, quando mittet filius hominis angelos suos et congregabit electos suos a quatuor ventis, a summo terr usque ad summum cli. Faciunt illi dedicationem in ltitia, cantico, gratiarum actione, atque in organis musicorum variis, cum in perceptione tern vit invicem gaudebunt.Starke: Dedications shall take place with praise and thanks, singing and praying, not with sins and wantonness. That should be the delight and joy of our hearts when we see that the city of God, that is, the Christian church, is protected by God within by the defence of faithful authorities. (Psa 58:2.) Christian joy, at the proper time, does not displease God.

Neh 12:44-47. What is also needful: 1. That there should be teachers and servants in the church. 2. That they should perform their service without being hindered in it by lower cares. 3. That the congregation should joyfully supply them with what is necessary for their support.Bede: Hujus autem capituli nobis expositio allegorica in promptu est; quia dominus statuit eos, qui evangelium annuntiant, de evangelio vivere. Sed v illis sacerdotibus ac ministris sanctorum, qui sumptus quidem cum gaudio debitos sumere a populo delectantur, sed nihil pro ejusdem populi student salute laborare, non aliquid sacri ducatus ei recte vivendo prbere, non de suavitate regni clestis ei quippiam dulce prdicando canere, sed nec januam ei supern civitatis aperire, municipatum in clis habendo, verum potius occludere perverse agendo probantur.Starke: It is Gods will and command that with the treasure of the godly word and for the maintenance of the same, we should make a provision that churches, schools, and those who serve in them may be supported. (1Ch 27:20; 2Ch 24:8; 2Ch 31:4; 2Ch 34:9.)

Footnotes:

[1]The opinion that Neh 12:44-47 are an insertion by an other hand than Nehemiahs is founded on the change from the 1st person to the 3d person, and from the assumption that here is described the same transaction as in Neh 13:10-13. The former argument is too weak to trust anywhere. (How would it apply to Ezra Nehemiah 7?) The latter argument is baseless, for the passage Neh 13:10-13 refers to a different event.

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

Though this Chapter contains little more than a record of the names of those who first returned from the captivity with Zerubbabel, yet it forms a most important Chapter, because it hath in it the record of the several characters as they succeeded in the High Priest’s office.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

It should seem that the office of superintending the subjects of thanksgiving, was of no small importance in the priests’ employment, by the testimony here given.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Neh 12

[This chapter is made up of two portions. From Rev Neh 12:1-26 it mainly consists of lists of the leading priests and Levites at different periods. At verse 27 Nehemiah commences to give an account of the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem. It seems strange (Speaker’s Commentary) that the wall should not have been dedicated immediately after its completion. But the nexus of the remainder of this chapter with the next, and the date given in chap.Rev 13:6Rev 13:6 , make it certain that the ceremony was deferred for the space of nearly twelve years. Perhaps Nehemiah required an express permission from the Persian king before he could venture on a solemnity which might have been liable to misrepresentation.]

27. And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites out of all their places [ i.e. out of the various cities of Judah and Benjamin in which they dwelt (see chap. Neh 11:36 )], to bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgivings, and with singing with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps.

28. And the sons of the singers gathered themselves together, both out of the plain country round about Jerusalem and from the villages of Netophathi [ rather, the villages of the Netophathites, as the same phrase is rendered in 1Ch 9:16 ];

29. Also from the house of Gilgal, and out of the fields of Geba and Azmaveth: for the singers had builded them villages round about Jerusalem.

30. And the priests and the Levites purified themselves [comp. 2Ch 29:15 ; Ezr 6:20 ], and purified the people, and the gates, and the wall.

31. Then I brought up [the first person is here resumed, which has been laid aside since chap. Neh 7:5 , and is now continued to the end of the Book] the princes of Judah upon the wall, and appointed two great companies of them that gave thanks, whereof one went on the right hand upon the wall toward the dung gate [see chap. Neh 2:13 ].

32. And after them went Hoshaiah [perhaps the “Hoshea” of chap. Neh 10:23 ], and half of the princes of Judah,

33. And Azariah, Ezra, and Meshullam,

34. Judah, and Benjamin, and Shemaiah, and Jeremiah,

35. And certain of the priests’ sons with trumpets; namely, Zechariah the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Michaiah, the son of Zaccur, and the son of Asaph:

36. And his brethren, Shemaiah, and Azarael, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethaneel, and Judah, Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God, and Ezra the scribe before them.

37. And at the fountain gate [see chap. Neh 3:15 ], which was over against them, they went up by the stairs of the city of David, at the going up of the wall, above the house of David even unto the water gate [cf. chap. Neh 3:26 ] eastward.

38. And the other company of them that gave thanks went over against them, and I after them, and the half of the people upon the wall, from beyond the tower of the furnaces even unto the broad wall;

39. And from above the gate of Ephraim, and above the old gate, and above the fish gate, and the tower of Hananeel, and the tower of Meah, even unto the sheep gate: and they stood still in the prison gate.

40. So stood the two companies of them that gave thanks in [ rather, by] the house of God, and I, and the half of the rulers [comp. Neh 12:32 ] with me:

41. And the priests; Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Michaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah, with trumpets;

42. And Maaseiah, and Shemaiah, and Eleazar, and Uzzi, and Jehohanan, and Malchijah, and Elam, and Ezer. And the singers sang loud, with Jezrahiah their overseer.

43. Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy: the wives also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.

44. And at that time were some appointed over the chambers for the treasures, for the offerings [ i.e. the freewill offerings] for the firstfruits, and for the tithes, to gather into them out of the fields of the cities the portions of the law for the priests and Levites: for Judah rejoiced [Judah’s satisfaction with the priests and the Levites took the shape of increased offerings, more ample tithes, and the like, whence the appointment of treasuries and treasurers became necessary] for the priests and for the Levites that waited [that served in the Temple].

45. And both the singers and the porters kept the ward of their God, and the ward of the purification [the observances with respect to purification (see 1Ch 23:28 )], according to the commandment of David, and of Solomon his son.

46. For in the days of David and Asaph of old there were chief of the singers, and songs of praise [ rather, chiefs of the singers and of the songs of praise] and thanksgiving unto God.

47. And all Israel in the days of Zerrubbabel, and in the days of Nehemiah [ The Speaker’s Commentary says: The intention is to compare the religious activity and strictness of Nehemiah’s time with that which had prevailed under Zerrubbabel, as described by Ezra (Ezr 6:16 , Ezr 6:22 ). It is implied that the intermediate period had been a time of laxity], gave the portions of the singers and the porters, every day his portion: and they sanctified holy things [ i.e., the people paid their tithes regularly to the Levites, and the Levites paid the tithe of the tithes to the priests (comp. ch. Neh 10:37-38 )] unto the Levites; and the Levites sanctified them unto the children of Aaron.

Prayer

Almighty God, we desire that thou wouldest evermore reign over us, for we have reigned over ourselves, and lo, we are before thee as men who confess their sins. We have usurped the prerogative of God, and we suffer by reason of our blasphemy. Thou hast made us, and not we ourselves: do thou therefore rule over us altogether, and may thy kingdom come into our hearts! If we had hearkened unto thee, thou wouldst soon have subdued our enemies before us, and chased the alien away. We were our own lords and kings, we looked not unto the Lord of lords; therefore didst thou cause us to suffer much, to be bitterly disappointed, and to be grieved with great pain. We bless thee, if the disappointment of the Lord has brought us to contrition; we thank thee that, having suffered under thy just law, we now cry out with our whole heart for the exercise of thy saving mercy. Undertake for us, we humbly beseech thee, O God: let our whole life be thy care; lead us out of ourselves. Thou canst turn the curse into a blessing, and the blessing that is unworthy thou canst also turn into a curse. We put ourselves into thy keeping, to be led where thou dost please, to be settled here or there, to have unrest or pain, content or enjoyment, defeat or victory, as the Lord will. Let thy will be done in earth, as it is done in heaven. Let there be no rivalry with thee in our hearts; let thy kingdom within us be complete. We meet at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, where all hearts are one, where all sins may be forgiven, where men may see heaven opened, and the great purpose of God realised. Help us to look steadily unto Jesus, to fix our undivided vision on the slain Lamb. Create within us a great expectation concerning his power, and may all our expectancy be more than satisfied! We would that this should be a memorable time in our history, for the opening of our hearts towards God, for the quick and bitter remembrance of sin, for great liberty of speech in the confession and owning of our guilt. Help us to see ourselves as thou dost see us, to see the enormity of sin, to feel it to be the abominable thing which God hates, and then show us all the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and say unto us by thy Holy Spirit, Where sin abounds grace shall much more abound. Then the terror which comes out of our sin shall be lost and swallowed up utterly in the joy that comes out of thy salvation. We pray for others as we would pray for ourselves: for the sick, that they may be comforted, chastened, and perfected in saintly trust; for the poor, that they may be saved from hopelessness and from distrust in thy goodness; for the young, that they may be pure, brave, unselfish, and wise; for the prodigal, that he may soon return; and for all thy Church throughout the world. Hear us, Lord, and give us now some new token of thy love. Amen,

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 12:1 Now these [are] the priests and the Levites that went up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,

Ver. 1. Now these are the priests and the Levites ] Ancestors to those that dedicated the walls; and here registered, as for honour’s sake to themselves, so to show that their successors, now employed in this work, were true priests and Levites of a right descent and alloy.

That went up with Zerubbabel ] Together with those that came afterwards with Ezra, Ezr 8:2-3 ; Ezr 8:18-19 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Nehemiah Chapter 12

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 12:1-7

1Now these are the priests and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,

2Amariah, Malluch, Hattush,

3Shecaniah, Rehum, Meremoth,

4Iddo, Ginnethoi, Abijah,

5Mijamin, Maadiah, Bilgah,

6Shemaiah and Joiarib, Jedaiah,

7Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah and Jedaiah. These were the heads of the priests and their kinsmen in the days of Jeshua.

Neh 12:1 Now these are the priests and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel The main return of exiled Israelites under Cyrus’ decree occurred in 538 B.C. Documenting one’s ancestry was very important for the returning exiles to verify their tribal lineage. This list is similar to, but has some differences in comparison with Ezr 2:36-39 and Neh 7:39-47. The exact reasons for the differences are uncertain.

Ezra This is not Ezra, the priest/scribe (cf. Ezra 7; Ezra 10; Nehemiah 8; Neh 12:13; Neh 12:26; Neh 12:33; Neh 12:26).

Neh 12:4 Ginnethoi The priest’s name appears as Ginnethon in Neh 10:6; Neh 12:16 (and the Vulgate).

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

these. Nehemiah had given the heads of families (Neh 7:6-73) and the numbers of the four classes of priests (Neh 7:39-42). Compare Ezr 2:36-39. Here he inserts twenty-two names, the heads of priests’ classes, or courses formed out of these four, “in the days of Jeshua” (Neh 12:7). See Ezr 6:18.

Ezra. Not the Ezra of the book of Ezra.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 12

In chapter 12:

Now these are the priests and the Levites ( Neh 12:1 )

And so it gives the names of those priests and Levites that were serving at the time, and it gives their genealogy in verses Neh 12:10-21. And then it tells the chief of the Levites the priests. So when we get to verse Neh 12:27 of chapter 12,

And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites out of all the places, to bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgiving, and with singing, with cymbals, and psalteries, and with harps ( Neh 12:27 ).

And so the time of the dedication of the wall was to be a time of great festivities, a lot of singing, a lot of music, a lot of just excitement and worship as they were dedicating the wall. So gathering the Levites were most of them the musicians among the people, so to gather them together.

And the sons of the singers they gathered themselves together, both out of the plain country round about Jerusalem, and the villages; and also from the house of Gilgal, and out of the fields of Geba ( Neh 12:28-29 )

And so forth. And from all over the people gathered. And then he said,

I brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall, and I appointed two great companies of them that gave thanks, whereof one went on the right hand of the wall toward the dung gate ( Neh 12:31 ):

And those that went down in that direction.

And also that day they offered great sacrifices, they rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy: and the wives also of the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off ( Neh 12:43 ).

So a tremendous day dedicating the wall and worshipping God, and just the shout and the joy and the singing was so glorious it was heard for a long distance.

And at that time some were appointed over the chambers of the treasures, for the offerings, for the firstfruits, and for the tithes, to gather into them out of the fields. And both the singers and the porters kept the ward of their God, and the ward of the purification, according to the commandment of David, and of Solomon his son. For in the days of David, Asaph was appointed as the chief singer, to sing songs of praise and thanksgiving to God. And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel, and in the days of Nehemiah, gave the portions of the singers and the porters, every day his portion: and they sanctified the holy things unto the Levites; and the Levites sanctified them unto the children of Aaron ( Neh 12:44-47 ). “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Neh 12:1-21

Introduction

DEDICATION OF THE COMPLETED WALL OF JERUSALEM

(Note: in this chapter, we shall use the text of the RSV, which has returned to the order of verses in the KJV).

This chapter exhibits two separate parts: (1) certain lists of priests, High Priests and Levites (Neh 12:1-16); and (2) the elaborate ceremonies of the dedication. Cook classified the lists thus: (1) the chief priestly and Levitical families who returned with Zerubbabel (Neh 12:1-9); (2) the first six of the post-exilic High Priests from Jesuha to Jaddua (Nehemiah 12:19-11); (3) the actual heads of the priestly families in the times of the High Priest Joiakim (Neh 12:12-21); and (4) the chief Levitical families of Nehemiah’s time (Neh 12:22-26). Cook wrote that all of these lists were probably compiled by Nehemiah, except the second; he supposed that list might have been far later due to the mention of Jaddua, mentioned by Josephus as High Priest in the times of Alexander the Great (339 B.C.). This writer rejects that supposition altogether.

REGARDING THE PROBLEM OF JADDUA (Neh 12:22)

This is as good a place as any to dispose of the problem centered around the name Jaddua.

1.There might easily have been several High Priests named Jaddua. If there’s anything about all these Jewish names we have been studying that stands out above everything else, it is that the same names appear again, and again, generation after generation. “For example there were twenty-seven Zechariahs”! And even among the Twelve Apostles there were two Simons and two James. Nehemiah mentions a Jaddua here (Neh 12:11; Neh 12:22), apparently in his times; and Josephus mentions another one more than a century later. The critics will have to come up with something a lot better than this in order to late-date Nehemiah. We simply will not receive any such thing on the premise that only one High Priest was named Jaddua!

2.We believe that Josephus’ identification of Jaddua as the High Priest in the times of Alexander the Great is an error by Josephus. There’s not a scholar on earth who has not questioned Josephus’ reliability on many things.

3.It is altogether possible that Jaddua lived to be over a hundred years old and might have been high priest in the times of both Nehemiah and Alexander. Whitcomb stressed this, pointing out that one of the High Priests, “Jehoiada died at the age of 130 (2Ch 24:15).” That possibility is supported by the fact that Jaddua died very soon after his meeting with Alexander the Great, indicating that he might indeed have been a very old man when that happened.

4.Then there is the very definite possibility that the word Jaddua here is an interpolation. It is this writer’s opinion that overwhelming odds favor this possibility. Williamson admitted that these lists are “defective,” due to copyist’s errors, etc. We appreciate Hamrick, a very recent scholar, and his elaboration of this very point. “Jaddua in verse 22 (Neh 12:22) may have been added by a subsequent editor. In the Hebrew, it reads, `and Johanan, and Jaddua’ (cf. KJV), as though the latter name had been inserted by a later hand.”

All of these four options may be defended, and indeed have been defended, by able scholars; so one may take his choice. Until the critics effectively refute all four of these options, we shall stick to our conviction that the appearance of the name of Jaddua in this chapter is no adequate basis whatever for late-dating Nehemiah.

There isn’t anything that betrays the enthusiastic bias of critics in favor of late-dating Bible books any better that their ridiculous seizure of one single word in a defective list of names as their sole basis for denying the Word of God, which ascribes this Book to Nehemiah, and not to some mythical `chronicler’ living a hundred years later in the times of Alexander the Great. Such an action goes much further in discrediting the critics than it does toward late-dating Nehemiah.

Counting the list of the inhabitants of the province given in Nehemiah 11, the four we have here in Nehemiah 12 make five lists in all. “They are all connected with the genealogical register of the Israelite population of the whole province, taken by Nehemiah for the purpose of enlarging the population of Jerusalem.”

We shall not discuss these lists in detail. It is sufficient to remember that they served their purpose as far as Nehemiah was concerned. The discrepancies, questions, problems and variations in all of these are insoluble at this period of time, twenty five centuries afterward.

One of the first problems regarding the two lists in Nehemiah 10 and Nehemiah 12 is that they do not coincide. “This difference is due to the time elapsed between the taking of the two lists; and also because, the names in Nehemiah 10 are not the names of orders nor houses, but the names of heads of families.”

Neh 12:1-11

PRIESTS AND LEVITES WHO CAME UP WITH ZERUBBABEL

“Now these are the priests and Levites who went up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua: Seraiah. Jeremiah, Ezra, Amariah, Malluch, Hattush, Shechaniah, Rehum, Meremoth, Iddo, Ginnethoi, Abijah, Mijamin, Maadiah, Bigah, Shemiah, Joiarib, Jedaiah, Sallu, Antok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah. These were the chiefs and of their brethren in the days of Jeshua. And the Levites: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah and Mattaniah, who with his brethren was in charge of the songs of thanksgiving. And Bakbukiah and Unno their brethren stood opposite them in the service. And Jeshua was the father of Joiakim,Joiakim the father of Eliashib, Eliashib the father of Joiada, Joiada the father of Jonathan, and Jonathan the father of Jaddua.

Neh 12:10 and Neh 12:11 are a parenthesis thrown in at this point as an aid in the chronology. The names are those of the first six High Priests in the period after the exile.

Neh 12:12-21

LIST OF PRIESTS WHEN JOIAKIM WAS HIGH PRIEST

“And in the days of Joiakim were priests, heads of fathers’ houses: of Seraiah, Meraiah; of Jeremiah, Hananiah; of Ezra, Meshullam; of Amariah, Jehohanan; of Malluci, Jonathan; of Shebaniah, Joseph; of Harim, Adna; of Meraioth, Helkai; of Iddo, Zechariah; of Ginnethon, Meshullam; of Abijah, Zichri; of Miniamin, Moadiah, Piltai; of Bilgai, Shammua; of Shemaiah, Jehonathan; of Joiarib, Matteniah; of Jedaiah, Uzzi; of Sallai, Kallai; of Amok, Eber; of Hilkiah, Hashabai; of Jedaiah, Nethanel.”

E.M. Zerr:

Neh 12:1-21. It will help to understand the apparent repetition of all these names to quote, in part, from Smith’s Bible Dictionary. “The book of Nehemiah, like the preceding one of Ezra, is clearly and certainly not all by the same hand. By far the most important portion, indeed, is the work of Nehemiah; but other portions are either extracts from various chronicles and registers or supplementary narratives and reflections, some apparently by Ezra.” Much of the discussion of this chapter, therefore, should be regarded as information on the state of affairs at different times. I shall make comments on the merits of the several verses, not always trying to settle upon any specific date for the incidents that may be under consideration.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Here the story of the settlement of the people in Jerusalem is completed. This is followed by an account o f the solemn dedication of the wall. It would seem as though it had been postponed for some considerable time. Differences of opinion exist as to the length of time, some placing the dedication in immediate relation to what succeeds, which undoubtedly happened twelve years after Nehemiah’s first coming. Others would place it within a few months of the actual completion of the wall. It is difficult to decide, and the matter is of no moment.

The dedication ceremony proceeded in three stages. First, the two processions of singers who chanted the praises of God; second, the reading of the Law; and, finally, the separation of the mixed multitude from the people of God. Thus the reformers perpetually sought to bring these people back in every way to a recognition of the deepest truth concerning the national life, namely, its relation to God.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

Chapter 12

The Dedication Of The Wall

It will be remembered that in the duplicate lists of those who first came up to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest (or Jeshua, as he is here called), the families only of the priests were mentioned, not the names of the chief priests themselves. That lack is supplied in the opening verses of the present chapter (vers. 1-7). God would have these men in everlasting remembrance, who so efficiently fulfilled their service with true-hearted devotion. The chiefs of the Levites are also mentioned, though of these we have read before in chapters 8:7 and 9:4, 5. A later generation of priests, serving doubtless in the latter days of Nehemiah, is given in verses 12 to 21, the sons of those referred to above, faithful men walking in their fathers footsteps, and ensamples to the people. But in the intervening verses (10 and 11) we have a short genealogical list carrying down the line of Jeshua for five generations to Jaddua, the great and justly-celebrated high priest who held this supreme office in the days when the Persian dominion was overthrown by Alexander the Great. There can, I think, be no question as to this table having been added by a later hand, which the Holy Spirit was pleased to use to preserve the record of Jadduas descent. Verse 22 must have been added at the same time, declaring that a faithful record of the heads of the Levites had been kept to the days of Darius the Persian, whom I take to be Darius Codomanus, overthrown by the great Macedonian conqueror. It is possible indeed that the book of Malachi may have been written about that time, and that he may have added to the list, or the list itself. His solemn message shows us the sad condition into which the children of the remnant, degenerated after the fathers had died.

Simple souls will not be confused or perplexed at the suggestion we have made above, if they bear in mind that the entire Old Testament was in the hands of the Jewish doctors in the days of our Lords sojourn upon earth, and that concerning it all He declared, The Scripture cannot be broken. It is not necessary therefore to know in each instance the human author of a book or part of a book. We know that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and thus we have in every part a God-breathed record, and that is enough.

It is evident from the next table (vers. 23-26) that both Nehemiah and Ezra lived through the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua, as well as in the days of the father who accompanied Zerubbabel in the first emigration from Babylon. During their life-time the people clung to the word of God, and, with occasional individual lapses, such as we read of in the next chapter, maintained, on the whole, a testimony for the Lord who had brought them back, though in feebleness, to the place where He had set His name. Of the chief of the Levites (ver. 24) it is distinctly said that they were appointed both to praise and to give thanks, according to the commandment of David the man of God, ward over against ward. The temple might be poor indeed as compared with Solomons building, exceeding magnifical, and the people themselves a small and afflicted remnant, but they sought to act on the divine instruction as to the service of the house of God which had been communicated by David to Solomon at the beginning. Likewise, whatever the feebleness to-day, it is the part of faithfulness to go back to that which was from the beginning, and to endeavor, though in weakness, to carry out that which is written in the word of God.

The present chapter is divided into two almost equal parts, the first twenty-six verses belonging properly to chapter eleven, as being entirely composed of genealogical tables similar to those of the previous chapter. The second division continues the course of the history, and contains the account of the feast of the dedication of the now completed wall of Jerusalem. This was turned into a great occasion of rejoicing and thanksgiving to God, who had not only brought the people back from the strangers land, but had permitted them to surround His house and His holy city with a separating wall, testifying both to friends and enemies alike that they were under His care who had once scattered their nation because of unjudged sin.

From every quarter the Levites gathered to keep the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgivings, and with singing, with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps (ver. 27). It was a gladsome occasion indeed, and worthy of being joyously commemorated in coming years.

The sons of the singers were gathered together all about the city to participate in the general rejoicing. Jerusalems wall was a symbol of salvation and her gates of praise.

After the priests and Levites had concluded a ceremony of purification, dedicating the people, the gates, and the wall to the Lord, Nehemiah brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall and divided all into two great companies, stretching out on the right and the left toward the Dung Gate. With trumpets pealing out their notes of gladness and voices lifted up in songs of praise, the Levites and priests answered one another in antiphonal chants, after the manner of the 24th psalm; Nehemiah leading one company and Ezra the scribe the other. Thank-offerings were offered upon the altar, and God made them rejoice with great joy-as He always does when His people walk before Him in holiness and truth (vers. 31-43).

Nor were the servants of the Lord forgotten, for the people brought their tithes into the storehouse, and out of willing hearts gave abundantly for the maintenance of the sons of Aaron, in accordance with the Word (vers. 44-47).

One is reminded of the two-fold offering of Heb 13:15, 16: By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But to do good and to communicate, forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. These two offerings should never be divorced-thanksgiving going up to God from grateful hearts, and benevolence flowing forth toward men, the practical expression of that gratitude.

There is no surer indication of a low state in Gods people than to find the poor among them left to suffer want, and the Lords servants permitted to endure privation. These last are called to a path of trial, and must needs learn to be abased as well as to abound, to be full and to be empty; but whatever blessing they may find as they thus share Christs sufferings, it is to the shame of the people of God, whose debtors they are. Were there more conscientious concern about this matter in many places, there would be richer and fuller ministry vouchsafed by God to His people, and more blessing in the assemblies of His saints, who often need to be reminded that:

It never was loving that emptied a heart,

Nor giving that emptied a purse.

Let God be honored with the first-fruits of our substance, and He will soon prove that He will be no mans debtor, but will abundantly confirm the word spoken by Malachi the prophet: Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in My house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts (Mai. 3:10, 11). That this illustrates a great spiritual truth is certain. That many have proven it to be intensely literal is equally sure. And it has been to the eternal loss of greater numbers who have failed in this very thing, and forgotten that they were only the stewards, not the owners, of wealth entrusted to them, to be used in view of the everlasting habitations.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

CHAPTER 12

1. Priests and Levites at the time of the return under Zerubbabel and Joshua (Neh 12:1-9)

2. The descendants of Joshua, the high priest (Neh 12:10-11)

3. The heads of the priestly houses in the time of Joiakim (Neh 12:12-21)

4. Heads of Levitical houses (Neh 12:22-26)

5. The dedication of the walls (Neh 12:27-43)

6. Provisions for the priests and Levites, and other temple officials (Neh 12:44-47)

Neh 12:1-9. The names of the priests and Levites, who went up under Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua (or Joshua), the High Priest, are recorded first. Ezra, mentioned in the first verse, is not the Ezra of the book of Ezra. According to the seventh verse these persons were the chiefs of the priests and of their brethren in the days of Jeshua. They constituted the heads of the twenty-four courses into which the priesthood was divided (1Ch 24:1-20). Only four heads of these courses had returned from the captivity; Jedaiah, Immer, Pasher and Harim. These were divided by Zerubbabel and Jeshua into the original twenty-four; but only twenty-two are mentioned in this record. The Abijah of verse 4 is one of the ancestors of John the Baptist (Luk 1:5).

Neh 12:10-11. This is the important register of the high priests, the descendants of Jeshua, or Joshua. From now on in the history of the Jewish people chronological reckonings were no longer made by means of the reign of kings, but by the successions of the high priests. Jaddua is unquestionably the same who is mentioned by Josephus, the Jewish historian. In his high priestly robes he met Alexander the Great as he besieged Jerusalem, and was the means of saving Jerusalem. Alexander fell on his face when he saw Jaddua, for the great king claimed to have seen this very scene in a dream vision. Inasmuch as Jaddua was not in office till a considerable time after the death of Nehemiah, the name Jaddua must have been added later, under the sanction of the Spirit of God, so that Jadduas descent might be preserved.

Neh 12:12-26. The heads of the priestly houses in the time of Joiakim (the son of Jeshua, verse 10) are here recorded, as well as the heads of the Levitical houses. The sentence, also the priests, in the reign of Darius the Persian (Darius Codomannus 336-331), was probably added later, under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Further comment on the recorded names is not needed.

Neh 12:27-43. A full and interesting account of the dedication of the walls follows the register of the names. The singers are mentioned first (verse 27-30) for it was the occasion of praise and great rejoicing. They gathered from everywhere to celebrate the dedication with singing, with cymbals, psalteries and with harps. No doubt the Psalms were used by this multitude of singers, as they gave thanks in holy song. What singing and rejoicing there will be some day when the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads (Isa 35:10). A great procession was made around the walls. This was the main ceremony of the dedication. The procession was in two great companies, one going to the right, and the other to the left. The one company was headed by Nehemiah and the other probably by Ezra, the scribe. Hoshaiah (set free of the LORD) and half of the princes of Judah are mentioned first in the one company. The two companies gave thanks, no doubt responding one to the other. Perhaps they used Psalms 145-147. Thus singing and praising the LORD they came to the house of the LORD. Here the greatest praise was heard, by the whole company. Seven priests blew the trumpets and eight others with them. The singers chorus swelled louder and louder, so that the joyous sound was heard even afar off. Great sacrifices were offered and everybody rejoiced. It was God by His Spirit who produced this joy, for God had made them rejoice with great joy.

Neh 12:44-47. The servants of the Lord, the priests and the Levites, were not forgotten. They brought their tithes and there was an abundant provision for all. Such were the blessed results under the spiritual revival of Nehemiah and Ezra. But when we turn to the last book of the Old Testament, to Malachi, we learn that declension must soon have set in, for we hear there the very opposite from what is recorded here. Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings (Mal 3:8). Therefore a curse rested upon the nation (Mal 3:9-12).

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

Zerubbabel

Called Zorobabel, Mat 1:12; Mat 1:13.

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

We have in this chapter a record of little more than the names of a great many priests and Levites, that were eminent in their day among the returned Jews. It is good to know what our godly ancestors and predecessors were, that we may learn thereby what we should be.

the priests: Neh 7:7, Ezr 2:1, Ezr 2:2

Zerubbabel: 1Ch 3:17-19, Ezr 3:8, Ezr 4:2, Ezr 5:2, Hag 1:1, Hag 1:12, Hag 1:14, Hag 2:2, Hag 2:21-23, Zec 4:6-10, Mat 1:12, Mat 1:13, Zorobabel, Salathiel

Jeshua: Neh 12:10, Zec 3:1-9, Zec 6:11, Joshua

Seraiah: Neh 12:12-21, Neh 10:2-8, Ezr 2:2

Reciprocal: Num 3:18 – General Num 3:19 – General Neh 12:7 – of Jeshua Neh 12:47 – Zerubbabel Neh 13:30 – appointed

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE FIRST 26 verses are occupied with further genealogical records, going back to the days of Zerubbabel and Jeshua the high priest. In verse Neh 12:10, we learn that a grandson of Jeshua was Eliashib, who presently became high priest, and who had a son named, Joiada. These two are again mentioned in verse Neh 12:22, and more concerning them appears in Neh 13:1-31.

In the remaining verses of the chapter, though many names are mentioned, it is not a matter of genealogy but rather of the part they had in the celebration of God’s mercy at the solemn dedication of the wall that had now been completed. On this joyous occasion those who dwelt outside Jerusalem were assembled, as well as those living within it. One thing, however, was necessary: a purification had to take place, not only of priests and Levites, but also of the people and the gates and the wall itself. This we learn in verse 30.

The lesson this has for us is obvious. We may state it in few words-No dedication without purification. We are not told how this cleansing was effected, but it was of course done in some outward and visible fashion, which after all is but the figure and shadow of that inward work of which David had some understanding, as we see in Psa 51:2, and again in Psa 119:9. To dedicate is to devote to God and to His service: the force of the word is very similar to the apostolic injunction, ‘present your bodies a living sacrifice’ (Rom 12:1). We, as redeemed, are not our own, and God claims our very bodies to be devoted to Him and His service.

If now we turn to the verse just quoted, we find the very next words to ‘sacrifice’ are, ‘holy, acceptable unto God’. So here we are confronted by the same fact, what is dedicated to God must be cleansed and holy; that is, separated from defilement unto Him. The first eight chapters of Romans unfold the Gospel, in all its wonderful details, and by that Gospel we are justified and cleansed, and set apart for God.

The purification effected, the dedication was marked by three things. First there was thanksgiving, and songs of praise to God. Second, there was great Joy amongst the people, as they sacrificed, so that ‘the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off’. Third, there was the bringing in of ‘the offerings, for the firstfruits, and for the tithes’. Here again, we can see an analogy: if true dedication marks us, God will receive His portion in praise and thanksgiving; we shall have joy of heart; there will be no lack of gifts for the support of the work of God and of His servants. How do we stand in relation to these things?

Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary

Neh 12:1. Now these are the priests The chief of the priests; the heads of those twenty-four courses which David appointed by divine direction, 1 Chronicles 24. And whereas there were twenty-four, and here but twenty- two, and Neh 12:12, &c., only twenty, the reason of this difference may be because two of the twenty-four courses were extinct in Babylon, and two of the persons here named, (verse, 2-5,) Hattush and Maadiah, may be omitted in the account of the posterity of these, (Neh 12:12, &c.,) because they had no posterity. Ezra Either this was another Ezra, or, if it were the same mentioned Ezra 7., he lived to a great age; which may well be supposed, considering his great sobriety, and his great piety, to which God promised long life, and withal the special providence of God continuing him so long in such a season, wherein the church of God did greatly need his help and counsel.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Neh 12:47. They sanctifiedunto the levites, and the levites sanctified unto the children of Aaron. They dedicated and delivered not only the tithes, and the tithe of the tithes, as stated in Neh 10:38; but whatever was designed for sacred uses in the temple. All these things were accounted holy or sanctified.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Neh 12:1-16. Priests and Levites who Returned with Jeshua and Zerubbabel, and Extracts from other Lists.The details here given were, in all probability, taken largely from the Temple archives.

Neh 12:1-9. Cf. Ezr 2:36-40; Neh 7:39-43.

Neh 12:10 f. A fragment from a genealogical list.

Neh 12:12-16. Further lists of priests and Levites.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

PRIESTS AND LEVITES

(vv. 1-26)

In these verses God sees fit to list the names of the priests and Levites who came to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel in the first return for the rebuilding of the city. Ezra refers to these in chapter 2 of his book, but God is concerned to express His own approval of every individual who is exercised to help in recovery of the testimony of His truth in times when failure has resulted in general apathy. The priests are listed first (vv. 10-7) and the Levites in verses 8-26. At least we can learn from this that God values the worship of devoted hearts, as is illustrated by the priests; and asks the service of those devoted to Him as is pictured in the Levites. There is no reason why both of these characteristics should not be seen in every believer today.

THE DEDICATION OF THE WALL

(vv. 27-43)

We might naturally think that the dedication of the wall would immediately follow the report of its being completed (ch. 6:5), but we have seen many things intervene, things that had to be taken care of that were inconsistent with the truth the wall emphasizes, that is, godly separation from all that would bring dishonor to the name of the Lord. Therefore only when these things had been faced and judged as before God was it time to dedicate the wall. How could the people really rejoice before God (as the dedication required) when they were acting badly?

The dedication then was an occasion “to celebrate with gladness, both with thanksgiving and singing, with cymbals and stringed instruments and harps’ (v. 27). The Levites were gathered from the surrounding area and the sons of the singers also, who had built villages for themselves all around Jerusalem (v. 29). At least, though these did not live in Jerusalem itself, yet they are found “all around Jerusalem,” recognizing Jerusalem as God’s center. Thus, though they are not seen in closest proximity to the Lord, they typically regard Him as their Center. No doubt there are many like them in the Church of God today.

The priests and Levites purified themselves, the people, the gates and the wall (v. 30). Of course this was by a formal ritual, which is only symbolic of the moral self-judgment that believers today should practice continually, not only at special times. Thus Nehemiah brought the leaders of Judah up on the wall, where he appointed two large “thanksgiving choirs.” One of these groups marched to the right hand on the wall, half of the leaders being with them (vv. 31-32), and some of the priests’ sons with trumpets, others with different musical instruments. Ezra took the lead before this group (v. 36).

“The other thanksgiving choir went the opposite way, and I (Nehemiah) was behind them” (v. 38). Evidently the two groups met by the gate of the prison (v. 39). The various gates of the city are mentioned, for they illustrate truths of serious importance for us today, for instance, “the Refuse Gate” (v. 1), which speaks of the putting ways of the filth of the flesh; the Fountain Gate (v. 37), symbolizing the refreshment of the Word of God by the living power of the Spirit; the Water Gate, also insisting on the value of the Word of God; the gate of Ephraim (v. 39), speaking of fruitfulness in the believer’s life; the Old Gate (v. 39), indicating the importance of maintaining “the old paths,” not being enticed away by new suggestions; the Sheep Gate” (v. 39), reminding us of care for the sheep as well as of the sacrifice of Christ; then the Gate of the Prison (v. 39), with its solemn message that God does not allow evil to go unchecked. This was where the two groups stopped, for the lesson of God’s judgment of evil was specially needed after Israel had recognized how evil their history had been.

Still, the trumpets and other musical instruments were employed in praise and thanksgiving to God, and the day was one of great rejoicing. The two thanksgiving choirs eventually “stood in the house of God” (v. 40), the priests with trumpets and the singers singing loudly. Also, evidently afterwards, they offered great sacrifices, and their joy was so great the noise of it was heard far from Jerusalem (v. 43).

FURTHER APPOINTMENTS FOR SERVICE

(vv. 44-47)

At this same time appointments were made for keeping the rooms of the storehouse, which would call for faithful men to take care of offerings and tithes and to to see that there was proper disbursement to the priests and Levites, for Judah had reason to be thankful to have the priests and Levites ministering in their places (v. 44). Singers and gatekeepers were put in their places too, with David’s example to encourage them. Now in the days of Zerubbabel and Nehemiah all Israel contributed to the support of these singers and gatekeepers. Similarly today, we should be thankful to have those among the saints who will devote themselves to encouraging the joy of the people, and those who are concerned as gatekeepers to see that those who ought to be allowed in are welcomed, and that those who should not be in are kept out. This is not the easiest job, but it is important, and we should always back up what is truly done for the Lord.

Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible

THE DEDICATION OF THE WALLS

Nehemiah 12

In the early part of this chapter (1-26) the Lord distinguishes by name those who were directly occupied in the service of the house of God. It was no small thing in God’s sight, in a day of weakness, to maintain the service of the house, and, in the midst of the sorrows of His people, to lead the praise and thanksgiving to Himself. And God has marked His approval by recording the names of the chief priests, the Levites, those who led “the thanksgiving,” who kept “the watches,” and the porters who kept “the ward at the storehouses of the gates” (8, 9, 24, 25, N. Tr.).

All is now prepared for the dedication of the walls. The record of the completion of the wall is given in Chapter 6. But between the completion and the dedication of the wall there is the account of a series of incidents, which, taken as a whole, present the dedication of all the people. The authority of the word is recovered; in the light of the word the people judge themselves, confessing their sins, and dedicate themselves by covenant to the service of God. Then a certain number devote themselves to the interests of the city and the service of the house.

This dedication of the people, as we may call it, makes way for the dedication of the walls. In view of this dedication the Levites are sought out and brought to Jerusalem; the singers gather themselves together; and the priests and the Levites purify themselves, the people, the gates and the walls (27-30).

Following upon this purification two companies are formed to make the circuit of the walls. These two choirs having gone in procession round the walls, meet in the house of God (40). There they sang aloud, and offered great sacrifices and rejoiced, for God had made them to rejoice with great joy. The women too and the children, who had been associated with the men in the confession of sin, are now associated with them in the songs of praise (41-43).

The dedication of the walls sets forth the appreciation of what God has wrought. The procession round the walls would give the people a comprehensive view of the extent of the city. According to the Psalmist they “walk about Zion, and go round about her”; they “tell the towers thereof”; they “mark … well the bulwarks” and “consider her palaces.” The result is, according to the same Psalm, they turn to the Lord in praise saying “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is mount Zion, in the sides of the north, the city of the great King.” Then, as these two choirs meet in the house of God, they can surely take up the words of this Psalm, “We have thought of thy loving-kindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple” (Ps. 48).

Is it not manifest that the dedication of the walls – with the procession round the walls and the meeting of thanksgiving in the house of God – has its answer to-day in the appreciation of the preciousness of the Assembly in the sight of Christ when viewed in all its extent according to the counsels of God? And this appreciation of the Assembly according to the counsels of God calls forth praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. The true appreciation of the Assembly will never lead to the self-satisfaction or exaltation of the Assembly, but turns the Assembly to the One to whom the Assembly belongs, and for whose pleasure and glory the Assembly has been brought into being. If we appreciate the Assembly as viewed according to the counsels of God, it will lead us to say, “Unto Him be glory in the Assembly by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” (Eph 3:21).

Furthermore we learn from this fine scene inn Nehemiah’s day, that when the Lord gets His portion from His people, the servants of the Lord – those who devote themselves to the service of the Lord, will also get theirs. So we read, “All Israel . . . gave the portions of the singers and the porters, every day his portion” (44-47). If the servants of the Lord are neglected, it is a sure sign that the people of God have but a feeble apprehension of the Assembly and its preciousness to Christ. The more we value the Assembly as seen by Christ, the more we shall esteem it a privilege to fulfil our responsibilities and our privileges in ministering in temporal things to the servants of the Lord who minister to us in spiritual things.

Compared with the number of those who returned from the captivity only a few appeared to have taken part in the dedication of the walls. But those who compassed the walls would have for themselves an enlarged view of the city, and an increased joy in the Lord, and others, though taking no part in the dedication, would in a measure benefit, for we read, “the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off” (43). In our days there are those who accept in terms the truth of the Assembly and yet never seem to enter into the truth according to God. They have not walked about Zion, and gone round about her, and marked her bulwarks and considered her palaces. Hence they have known but little what it is to enter into the sanctuary of God and sing His praises. Nevertheless they will benefit by those who do. In the house of Bethany, in the days of our Lord, none had such appreciation of the Lord as Mary, who anointed the feet of the Lord, but others benefited by her act, for “the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.”

Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible

12:1 Now these [are] the priests and the Levites that {a} went up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,

(a) From Babylon to Jerusalem.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

3. The priests and Levites 12:1-26

The priests and Levites were the most important people who returned from exile because they reestablished worship in the land. Neh 12:1-7 give the names of 22 leaders among them who had returned in 537 B.C. with Zerubbabel and Jeshua (cf. 1Ch 24:7-19). The writer also mentioned eight Levites by name (Neh 12:8-9; cf. Ezr 2:40-42).

The genealogy of the high priest was especially important. Five succeeding descendants of Jeshua appear in the text (Neh 12:10-11). [Note: On the complex problem of the identification of these high priests, see Yamauchi, "Ezra-Nehemiah," pp. 580-83.] This list continues the one in 1Ch 6:3-15 that ends with the Babylonian exile in 586 B.C.

The text also lists heads of 21 priestly families in the generation that followed Jeshua’s (Neh 12:12-21). The names of the heads of the nine Levitical families that Nehemiah referred to in Neh 12:22 appear in Neh 12:24-26. The four high priests he mentioned in Neh 12:22 evidently registered these names. Darius the Persian (Neh 12:22) is probably Darius II (423-404 B.C.). [Note: Whitcomb, p. 443.] The "Book of the Chronicles" (Neh 12:23) is not the canonical Book of Chronicles but another record of names. [Note: Vos, p. 129.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)