Nehemiahchapter 10
39 verses · Nehemiah · 5th century BC · History
When the people of the land bring merchandise or any kind of grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we will not buy from them on a Sabbath or holy day. Every seventh year we will let the fields lie fallow, and will cancel every debt.
Introduction
Nehemiah, History, Nehemiah Overview.
This chapter is the written agreement that closes the confession of the chapter before. Its first hearers were the heads of families who had set their seal on it, and the households bound by their promise. The first half is a list of names and the second half is a set of commitments. Listen for how ordinary the promises are, and for the particular failures each one is meant to prevent. The chapter ends on a single resolve about the house of God. The last chapter of the book returns to these same promises.
Context
- Who
- Heads of households binding their families to specific, costly commitments
- What
- The names of the leaders, priests and Levites who sealed the covenant, and the obligations the people took on.
- Where
- Jerusalem, on a sealed document headed by Nehemiah the governor.
- When
- 445 BC, immediately after the confession of the seventh month.
- Why
- To bind the community to specific acts of obedience to the law of Moses and to the support of the temple.
Historical context
This is a legal instrument, not a feeling. Ancient agreements were written, rolled, tied and stamped with personal seals, and hundreds of clay seal impressions from this general period have been dug up in the region, a man's seal was his signature. Eighty-four names are listed: the governor, priests, Levites and the chiefs of the people.
Show the rest of the historical context, 2 more paragraphs
The obligations are concrete and each one is aimed at a known failure. No intermarriage with the surrounding peoples. No buying on the Sabbath from traders who bring goods in on that day. Release of debts and rest for the land every seventh year.
The rest is temple finance, which had been quietly collapsing. They bind themselves to a yearly third of a shekel for the service of the house of God, listing what it pays for, the showbread, the daily offering, the feasts, the sin offerings. They organise a wood offering by lot, family by family, year by year, because the altar burned through a great deal of timber. And they commit the firstfruits and the tithes, "and we will not forsake the house of our God."
Significance
The striking thing is how ordinary the promises are. No visions, no campaigns, a market rule, a tax, a delivery rota for firewood.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
That was the lesson of the exile applied. The nation had not fallen through one dramatic apostasy but through a thousand small neglects, and the generation that rebuilt the wall tried to close the gaps with a signed list.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter has no place in the synagogue year. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for Nehemiah, and no festival reading.
It is the covenant of the returned community, and the corpus sets its heaviest legal run on the clauses. Under the thirty-fifth verse by the corpus's count, which Rashi's note on 7:6 names as the verse of the lots cast for the wood offering, it carries Taanit 28a:6, Menachot 20a:5, 20b:3 and 106b:17, with the Jerusalem Talmud at Shekalim 6:4:3 and Bikkurim 1:2:2. Rashi reads the lots of that verse as the lots cast for how much each one should bring (Rashi on Nehemiah 10:35:1). Under the thirty-third it carries Bava Batra 9a:12 and Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 2:3:4. Under the thirty-ninth, which Rashi reads as the Levites' tithing (Rashi on Nehemiah 10:39:1), it carries Makkot 23b:8 and Jerusalem Talmud Maaser Sheni 5:3:6.
Rashi makes one ruling on practice here. On the first fruits of every tree he says they are required by rabbinical injunction (Rashi on Nehemiah 10:36:1). The holy days on which the people would not buy grain he reads as the festivals (Rashi on Nehemiah 10:32:3).
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The corpus numbers this chapter by the Hebrew text, so its first verse is the making of the covenant. Rashi reads the covenant as trust made after disaster. "Despite all the evil that has come upon us, we are making a trust with the Holy One, blessed be He, to believe and to trust in Him." (Rashi on Nehemiah 10:1:1). The writing is a scroll accepting God's kingdom, as a testimony (Rashi on Nehemiah 10:1:2), and the list that follows names the signatories to the acceptance of the commandments (Rashi on Nehemiah 10:2:1).
The first name on the list carries the note a reader will remember. Hattirshatha is Nehemiah, one name, and Rashi gives the reason for the title. "Because the Sages permitted him to drink wine of gentiles, because he was the butler of the king." (Rashi on Nehemiah 10:2:2).
The covenant was open to converts. Rashi reads all who separated themselves from the peoples of the lands as the proselytes. "These are the proselytes who separated themselves from the practice of the nations to cling and attach themselves to the Law of the Holy One, blessed be He, and to keep His commandments." (Rashi on Nehemiah 10:29:1). They joined their brothers and their nobles in the oath (Rashi on Nehemiah 10:30:1 and 10:30:2). The chambers to which the priests' portions were brought were the chambers where the priests were usually found (Rashi on Nehemiah 10:38:1).
The corpus carries ten further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Metzudat David on Nehemiah 10:9:1, 10:10:1, 10:11:1, 10:15:1, 10:29:1, 10:31:1 and 10:40:1, Malbim on Nehemiah 10:31:1 and Ibn Ezra on Nehemiah 10:33:1 and 10:37:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries thirty-nine rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 10, Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 9:5:16, Jerusalem Talmud Kiddushin 1:8:4, Jerusalem Talmud Kiddushin 1:8:5, Jerusalem Talmud Peah 4:6:9, Jerusalem Talmud Sheviit 6:1:4, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayechi 10:2, Midrash Tanchuma, Vayechi 8:3, Midrash Tehillim 119:12, Midrash Tehillim 57:2, Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim on Missing and Extra Letters 1:28, Ruth Rabbah (Lerner) 4:5:4, Ruth Rabbah 4:5 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 940:20. On the twentieth it holds Tractate Soferim 7:4. On the thirty-first it holds Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 1:8:4.
On the thirty-second verse the corpus holds Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introduction to Halakhic Midrashim, Halakhic Midrash 28 and Jerusalem Talmud Demai 2:1:21. On the thirty-third it holds Bava Batra 9a:12, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Batra 1:13, Ein Yaakov, Bava Batra 1:14, Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introductions to Tractates of the Mishnah, Shekalim 5, Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 2:3:4, Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 17:13:8, Otzar Midrashim, Midrash 'Leolam' 1:5 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 363:12. On the thirty-fifth it holds Jerusalem Talmud Bikkurim 1:2:2, Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 6:4:3, Menachot 106b:17, Menachot 20a:5, Menachot 20b:3, Taanit 28a:6 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 454:1. On the thirty-sixth it holds Jerusalem Talmud Peah 1:1:1.
On the thirty-seventh verse the corpus holds Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introductions to Tractates of the Mishnah, Bekhorot 10 and Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introductions to Tractates of the Mishnah, Bekhorot 24. On the thirty-eighth it holds Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introductions to Tractates of the Mishnah, Challah 5. On the thirty-ninth it holds Jerusalem Talmud Maaser Sheni 5:3:6 and Makkot 23b:8. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Nehemiah 10:1:1 to 10:39:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Nehemiah 10:9:1, 10:10:1, 10:11:1, 10:15:1, 10:29:1, 10:31:1 and 10:40:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Nehemiah 10:31:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Nehemiah 10:33:1 and 10:37:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/nehemiah/10.json, the 39 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The names sealed to the covenant, from Nehemiah on down
Nehemiah 10:1-8
Nehemiah the governor: Nehemiah's own name leads the seals, "Nehemiah the governor, son of Hacaliah." Twenty-one priestly names follow him to verse 8, the priesthood sealing first as it does again at the wall's dedication. Ezra's name is absent from the seals, though the narrative meets him again at the dedication in 12:36.
Nehemiah 10:1
“The “Zidkijah” of this passage is probably the same as “Zadok” Neh 13:13. “Zadok” is expressly called “the scribe,” and it was probably as the scribe who drew up the document that “Zidkijah” signed it immediately after Nehemiah.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Nehemiah 10:1
“It may seem strange that Ezra doth not appear among them. But that might be because he was prevented, by some sickness, or other extraordinary impediment. It is true, we meet with Ezra after this, at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, chap. xii, 36, and therefore he was then freed from this impediment, whatsoever it was.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah: Seraiah, Azariah and Jeremiah are priests, and Barnes reads each name as a priestly house that sealed the document through its head. He gives Seraiah's seal to Ezra or Eliashib. Seraiah and Jeremiah also lead the priests who went up with Zerubbabel at 12:1.
Nehemiah 10:2
“The names are not personal, but designate families. The seal of the high-priestly house of Seraiah was probably appended either by Ezra or Eliashib, both of whom belonged to it.”
Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah: Pashhur, Amariah and Malchijah are priests who sealed the document. Pashhur was one of the four houses of priests at the first return, and six of its descendants had taken foreign wives at Ezra 10:22. Malchijah held the fifth of David's courses at 1 Chronicles 24:9.
Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch: All three names return among the priests who came up with Zerubbabel at 12:2-3, where Shebaniah is spelled Shecaniah. Barnes finds the houses of that first list sealing here in nearly the same order. The houses of the first return signed through their heads.
Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah: Harim was another of the four priestly houses of the first return, 1,017 strong at Ezra 2:39. A priest named Meremoth son of Uriah received the temple silver at Ezra 8:33 and rebuilt two stretches of the wall at 3:4 and 3:21. The name ties the seals to the builders.
Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch: Daniel is the house of Ithamar, Aaron's younger son, that came up with Ezra at Ezra 8:2 beside Gershom of the house of Phinehas. Ginnethon stands among the priests of Zerubbabel's return at 12:4. The seal joins Ezra's company to Zerubbabel's.
Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin: Meshullam, Abijah and Mijamin are priests who sealed the document. Abijah held the eighth of the courses David set by lot at 1 Chronicles 24:10. Gill follows the house of Abijah to Zechariah, the priest of Luke 1:5, who served in the division of Abijah in the days of Herod.
Maaziah, Bilgai, and Shemaiah: Maaziah held the twenty-fourth and last of David's courses at 1 Chronicles 24:18, and Bilgah the fifteenth at 24:14. Bilgai here is the Bilgah of Nehemiah 12:5. These were the priests who sealed, and Barnes finds the first sixteen priests of 12:1-7 among them.
Nehemiah 10:9-13
Jeshua son of Azaniah: The Levites follow the priests, headed by "Jeshua son of Azaniah," "Binnui of the sons of Henadad" and Kadmiel. These names reach back to the first return, where Jeshua and Kadmiel already lead the Levitical courses. The roll keeps the temple's two orders, priest and Levite, in their fixed order.
Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan: Four of these five Levites, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah and Hanan, stood among the thirteen who explained the Law to the people as Ezra read it. Shebaniah cried out to the LORD from the Levites' platform at 9:4. The teachers of chapter 8 now bind themselves.
Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah: Hashabiah is a name the Levites carry through both books. A Hashabiah joined Ezra's caravan at Ezra 8:19 and was set apart with the leading priests to carry its silver and gold at 8:24. A Hashabiah leads the Levites at Nehemiah 12:24.
Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah: Sherebiah is the Levite whom Ezra calls a man of insight, brought from the sons of Mahli when Ezra found no Levites in his company. He explained the Law at 8:7 and cried out on the platform at 9:4. Shebaniah appears twice among these seals.
Hodiah, Bani, and Beninu: The Levitical seals close with seventeen names, from Jeshua in verse 9 to Beninu here. Bani stood twice among the Levites who cried out on the platform, and Hodiah joined the call to stand and bless the LORD at 9:5. The voices of chapter 9 sign in chapter 10.
Nehemiah 10:14-27
the leaders of the people: The lay heads of families close the roll, the family names that head the register of the first return in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7. The generation that came up under Zerubbabel and the generation that seals the covenant under Nehemiah are the same houses, the old remnant still standing.
Bunni, Azgad, Bebai: Azgad and Bebai are houses of the first return, counted at 7:16-17, and both sent more men with Ezra at Ezra 8:11-12. Four sons of Bebai had married foreign women at Ezra 10:28. That house now seals the vow against it.
Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin: Bigvai is both a leader who came up beside Zerubbabel at 7:7 and a house of 2,067 at 7:19. Adin counted 655 at the first return, and fifty more of its men came with Ezra at Ezra 8:6. Each name here stands for a household.
Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur: Ater, Hezekiah and Azzur are among the leaders of the people who sealed the document. Ater and Hezekiah also stand together at 7:21, where the descendants of Ater through Hezekiah number ninety-eight. Here each gives its own seal.
Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai: Hashum and Bezai follow each other in the register of the first return at 7:22-23, the order they keep here. A Hashum stood at Ezra's left hand on the platform at 8:4. Seven men of that house appear among those with foreign wives at Ezra 10:33.
Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai: Hariph counts 112 at 7:24, and Ezra 2:18 gives the same number under the name Jorah. Anathoth is a town, whose men numbered 128 at the first return in 7:27. A town's name stands here among the family seals.
Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir: Meshullam son of Berechiah repaired two sections at 3:4 and 3:30, and 3:4 names his grandfather Meshezabel, the name that seals in the next verse. Hezir is also the name of the seventeenth priestly course at 1 Chronicles 24:15. This Hezir signs among the laity.
Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua: Pethahiah son of Meshezabel stood at the Persian king's hand in every matter concerning the people at 11:24. A Zadok son of Baana built beside Meshullam at 3:4. Jaddua here is a lay leader, a namesake of the high priest who closes the line at 12:11.
Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah: Anaiah stood at Ezra's right hand on the wooden platform at 8:4 while the Law was read. Hanan is a name the Levites also carry at verse 10, and a Hanan son of Zaccur assisted the treasurers of the storerooms at 13:13. Names repeat across the orders.
Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub: A Hananiah commanded the fortress and shared charge of Jerusalem at 7:2, praised as a faithful man who feared God more than most. Hasshub son of Pahath-moab rebuilt a section of the wall and the Tower of the Ovens at 3:11. Builders' names recur among the seals.
Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek: Hallohesh, Pilha and Shobek are among the leaders of the people who sealed. Hallohesh is the father of Shallum at 3:12, the ruler of the other half-district of Jerusalem, who made repairs with the help of his daughters. The house of Hallohesh gives its seal here.
Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah: Rehum came up among Zerubbabel's leaders at Ezra 2:2. A Maaseiah stood at Ezra's right hand while the Law was read at 8:4. The name Maaseiah is borne by priests, Levites and laymen alike in these books.
Ahijah, Hanan, Anan: Hanan signs for the third time in this roll, at verses 10, 22 and 26, once as a Levite and twice among the lay leaders. Common names in the list belong to different men. Each is known by his place in the order.
Malluch, Harim, and Baanah: Harim names a lay house of 320 at 7:35 as well as the priestly house of verse 5, and a Malluch appears at Ezra 10:32. Baanah came up among the leaders beside Zerubbabel at 7:7. The lay seals end here at forty-four names.
No mixed marriages, and no buying on the sabbath day
Nehemiah 10:28-29
The covenant widens past the sealed names to "The rest of the people," the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers and temple servants (10:28). They "join with their noble brothers" under "a sworn oath to follow the Law of God," so no class stands outside the vow.
Nehemiah 10:28
“THE REST OF THE PEOPLE BOUND THEMSELVES TO OBSERVE IT. Those who were not present at the sealing ratified the covenant by giving their assent, either in words or by lifting up their hands, and bound themselves, by a solemn oath, to walk in God's law, imprecating a curse upon themselves in the event of their violating it.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Nehemiah 10:28
“And the rest of the people - All had, in one or other of the classes which sealed, their representatives; and by their sealing they considered themselves bound.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
join with their noble brothers: The sworn oath answers the sealed document: the leaders set their names to the writing, and the rest of the people bind themselves by swearing. Henry sets the oath beside David's sworn vow in Psalm 119 to keep God's judgments. The vow binds them to the law they already had.
Nehemiah 10:29
“They clave to their brethren - Though they did not sign this instrument, yet they bound themselves under a solemn oath that they would fulfill the conditions of the covenant, and walk according to the law of Moses.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Nehemiah 10:29
“Thus David swore that he would keep God's righteous judgments, Ps. cxix. Our own covenant binds us to this, if not more strongly, yet more sensibly, than we were before bound, and therefore we must not think it needless thus to bind ourselves.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
not give our daughters: The first ordinance names the oldest wound in the book: "We will not give our daughters in marriage to the people of the land". It is the failure Ezra 9 had confessed and the one Nehemiah finds repeated at 13:23-28 within his lifetime. The covenant names its besetting sin first.
Nehemiah 10:30
“And that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons,.... Intermarry with them as they had done, and were prone to do, and even did after this, Neh 13:23.”
1 more voice on this verse
Nehemiah 10:30
“Many of them had been guilty of this, Ezra ix. In our covenants with God we should engage particularly against those sins that we have been most frequently overtaken in and damaged by.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
bring merchandise or any kind of grain: The second ordinance forbids buying from the people of the land "on a Sabbath or holy day", a market Nehemiah shuts at 13:15-22. The verse adds the seventh year, the law of Exodus 23 and Leviticus 25 taken up as a civic duty. Worship and commerce stand under one commandment.
Nehemiah 10:31
“Note, Those that covenant to keep all God's commandments must particularly covenant to keep sabbaths well; for the profanation of them is an inlet to other instances of profaneness. The sabbath is a market day for our souls, but not for our bodies.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Wood, firstfruits, and tithes: we will not forsake the house of our God
Nehemiah 10:32-33
a third of a shekel: The third ordinance funds the temple: "a third of a shekel yearly," less than the half shekel of Exodus 30:11-16. Verse 33 lists what the money buys, "the showbread," and "the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel" (10:33). The whole calendar of worship is underwritten in coin.
Nehemiah 10:32
“Charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel - According to the law, every one above twenty years of age was to give half a shekel to the sanctuary, which was called a ransom for their souls. See Exo 30:11-16. But why is one third of a shekel now promised instead of the half shekel, which the law required?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Nehemiah 10:32
“When Israel was first brought into covenant with God it was done by sacrifice and the sprinkling of blood, Exod. xxiv. But here it was done by the more natural and common way of sealing and subscribing the written articles of the covenant, which bound them to no more than was already their duty.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
for the showbread: Henry counts the charge behind this list: showbread for the table, two lambs every day, four on each Sabbath, and costlier sacrifices at the feasts. The Kohathite Levites prepared the rows of showbread every Sabbath at 1 Chronicles 9:32. The third of a shekel paid for all of it.
cast lots among the priests: The fourth ordinance casts lots "among the priests, Levites, and people for the donation of wood". Clarke notes that the law of Moses names no wood offering and that the temple servants had supplied the wood. The lots spread a duty the old order had assigned to the lowest hands.
Nehemiah 10:34
“Cast the lots - for the wood-offering - There does not appear to have been any wood-offering under the law. It was the business of the Nethinim to procure this; and hence they were called hewers of wood and drawers of water to the congregation.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Nehemiah 10:35-36
the firstfruits of our land: The fifth and sixth ordinances bring "the firstfruits of our land and of every fruit tree" yearly to the house of the LORD (10:35). They bring "the firstborn of our sons and our livestock". Gill records that later teaching narrowed the fruit-tree offering to the seven kinds of Deuteronomy 8:8.
Nehemiah 10:35
“And to bring the firstfruits of our ground,.... Not that they cast lots to do this, but they bound themselves with an oath, according to the law, to do it; this is the first of all the fruits of the earth, Exo 23:19, though Aben Ezra restrains it to the sheaf of the firstfruits, and to the two wave loaves, Lev 23:10, and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees; which, as Aben Ezra observes, their wise men restrain to the seven kinds only mentioned in Deu 8:8.”
the firstborn of our sons: The written law on the firstborn stands at Numbers 18:15-18: every firstborn son was redeemed for five shekels of silver. The firstborn of ox, sheep and goat went on the altar with its meat given to the priests. Both payments fed the priesthood.
Nehemiah 10:36
“Also the first-born - See this law, and the reasons of it, Exo 13:1-13. As by this law the Lord had a right to all the firstborn, instead of these he was pleased to take the tribe of Levi for the whole; and thus the Levites served at the tabernacle and temple, instead of the first-born of all the tribes.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Nehemiah 10:37-39
firstfruits of our dough: The last ordinance brings "the firstfruits of our dough" to the priests, and "A tenth of our produce" to the Levites in every town. The chapter closes on the vow the covenant was written to keep, "we will not neglect the house of our God," which chapter 13 tests.
A priest of Aaron’s line: Henry sets this verse beside Malachi 3:8-10, where the people rob God in tithes and are told to bring the full tithe into the storehouse. At 13:10 the portions for the Levites had not been given, and the Levites had gone back to their fields. The tenth tested the oath.
Nehemiah 10:38
“Tithe of the tithes - The tithes of all the produce of the fields were brought to the Levites; out of these a tenth part was given to the priests. This is what is called the tithe of the tithes. The law for this is found, Num 18:26.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
where the articles of the sanctuary are kept: The storerooms named here held the temple's articles and fed the priests, gatekeepers and singers on duty. When Nehemiah returned and found the Levites unpaid, he asked the officials why the house of God had been neglected, the word of this vow. All Judah then refilled the storerooms at 13:12.
Nehemiah 10:39
“It was a constant charge to provide show-bread for the table, two lambs for the daily offerings, four for the sabbaths, and more, and more costly, sacrifices for other festivals, occasional sin-offerings, and meat-offerings, and drink-offerings for them all.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The patterns in this chapter
How this chapter is built
1 more paragraph on the patterns
The chapter has two halves. Verses 1 to 27 list the names on the sealed document: Nehemiah the governor with Zedekiah, then the priests, the Levites and the leaders of the people. Verses 28 to 39 set out the oath. It opens with the promise to keep the law of Moses and then names the obligations on marriage, the Sabbath, the seventh year, the temple tax, the wood offering, the firstfruits and the tithes. Nehemiah 13 returns to the marriages, the Sabbath and the support of the Levites.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Berean Standard Bible; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. F. Adeney, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther (Expositor's Bible).