Nehemiahchapter 11
36 verses · BSBNehemiah book hub →
Speaks with:1 Chronicles 9×11Nehemiah 12×5Joshua 15×4Nehemiah 11×3Ezra 2×3Genesis 38×3
Summary
Chapter summary
Jerusalem is repopulated by lot. The princes already dwelt there, and one of every ten from the rest was brought in to dwell in 'the holy city,' the nine parts remaining in the other towns. And the people blessed all the men that willingly offered themselves to dwell in Jerusalem. The lists follow: chiefs of Judah and Benjamin who settled there, priests who did the work of the house, Levites, the overseer of the Levites, singers set over the business of the house of God, and porters keeping watch at the gates. Then the villages, from Beer-sheba and Kiriath-arba to the valley of Hinnom, where the rest of the people dwelt.
Context
History · Nehemiah — Nehemiah overview
- A. 1–9 One in ten chosen by lot to live in the holy city
- B. 10–19 Priests, Levites, and the porters keeping watch at the gates
- C. 20–36 The villages of Judah and Benjamin, from Beersheba to Hinnom
The outline
A.One in ten chosen by lot to live in the holy cityvv. 1 to 9
Read vv. 1 to 9 →B.Priests, Levites, and the porters keeping watch at the gatesvv. 10 to 19
Read vv. 10 to 19 →C.The villages of Judah and Benjamin, from Beersheba to Hinnomvv. 20 to 36
Read vv. 20 to 36 →
The world behind this chapter
Nehemiah 11The history
The mechanism is a lottery. The rulers already lived in Jerusalem; for everyone else they cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in the holy city, and the other nine stayed in their towns. Ancient states did move populations into a walled centre to make it viable, and this is a small, voluntary-by-lot version of it.
The cost was real. A family in Jerusalem was away from its fields and its inherited land, in a city with a thin economy and enemies on the borders. That is why the chapter says the people blessed all the men that willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem.
The rest of the chapter is a settlement roster: who lived in the city by clan, how many mighty men of valour, the officers over the temple business, the Levites and gatekeepers, the singers whose maintenance came under the king's own order, and then a list of the villages of Judah and Benjamin where the rest lived — from Beersheba in the south to the valley of Hinnom.
What it meant to them
Cities in the ancient world grew because trade or safety pulled people in. This one had to be stocked on purpose, by lot, by people willing to give up better ground.
Twice in the chapter Jerusalem is called "the holy city." That is the whole argument for moving there. Not opportunity — the temple was in it, and a temple without a town around it was a building.
Sources cited
- K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
- Edwin Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible
- Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament (public domain)
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Nehemiah 11. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.