Now when the wall was built, and I had set up the doors, and the gatekeepers and the singers and the Levites were appointed, I put my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the governor of the fortress, in charge of Jerusalem; for he was a faithful man, and feared God above many. I said to them, “Don’t let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot; and while they stand guard, let them shut the doors, and you bar them: and appoint watches of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, everyone in his watch, with everyone near his house.”
Now the city was wide and large; but the people were few therein, and the houses were not built.
My God put into my heart to gather together the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, that they might be listed by genealogy. I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up at the first, and I found this written in it:
These are the children of the province who went up out of the captivity of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and who returned to Jerusalem and to Judah, everyone to his city,
who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:
The children of Parosh: two thousand one hundred seventy-two.
The children of Shephatiah: three hundred seventy-two.
The children of Arah: six hundred fifty-two.
The children of Pahathmoab, of the children of Jeshua and Joab: two thousand eight hundred eighteen.
The children of Elam: one thousand two hundred fifty-four.
The children of Zattu: eight hundred forty-five.
The children of Zaccai: seven hundred sixty.
The children of Binnui: six hundred forty-eight.
The children of Bebai: six hundred twenty-eight.
The children of Azgad: two thousand three hundred twenty-two.
The children of Adonikam: six hundred sixty-seven.
The children of Bigvai: two thousand sixty-seven.
The children of Adin: six hundred fifty-five.
The children of Ater: of Hezekiah, ninety-eight.
The children of Hashum: three hundred twenty-eight.
The children of Bezai: three hundred twenty-four.
The children of Hariph: one hundred twelve.
The children of Gibeon: ninety-five.
The men of Bethlehem and Netophah: one hundred eighty-eight.
The men of Anathoth: one hundred twenty-eight.
The men of Beth Azmaveth: forty-two.
The men of Kiriath Jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth: seven hundred forty-three.
The men of Ramah and Geba: six hundred twenty-one.
The men of Michmas: one hundred twenty-two.
The men of Bethel and Ai: one hundred twenty-three.
The men of the other Nebo: fifty-two.
The children of the other Elam: one thousand two hundred fifty-four.
The children of Harim: three hundred twenty.
The children of Jericho: three hundred forty-five.
The children of Lod, Hadid, and Ono: seven hundred twenty-one.
The children of Senaah: three thousand nine hundred thirty.
The priests: The children of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua: nine hundred seventy-three.
The children of Immer: one thousand fifty-two.
The children of Pashhur: one thousand two hundred forty-seven.
The children of Harim: one thousand seventeen.
The Levites: the children of Jeshua, of Kadmiel, of the children of Hodevah: seventy-four.
The singers: the children of Asaph: one hundred forty-eight.
The gatekeepers: the children of Shallum, the children of Ater, the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub, the children of Hatita, the children of Shobai: one hundred thirty-eight.
The temple servants: the children of Ziha, the children of Hasupha, the children of Tabbaoth, the children of Keros, the children of Sia, the children of Padon, the children of Lebana, the children of Hagaba, the children of Salmai, the children of Hanan, the children of Giddel, the children of Gahar, the children of Reaiah, the children of Rezin, the children of Nekoda, the children of Gazzam, the children of Uzza, the children of Paseah. The children of Besai, the children of Meunim, the children of Nephushesim, the children of Bakbuk, the children of Hakupha, the children of Harhur, the children of Bazlith, the children of Mehida, the children of Harsha, the children of Barkos, the children of Sisera, the children of Temah, the children of Neziah, and the children of Hatipha.
The children of Solomon’s servants: the children of Sotai, the children of Sophereth, the children of Perida, the children of Jaala, the children of Darkon, the children of Giddel, the children of Shephatiah, the children of Hattil, the children of Pochereth Hazzebaim, and the children of Amon. All the temple servants and the children of Solomon’s servants were three hundred ninety-two.
These were those who went up from Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer; but they could not show their fathers’ houses, nor their offspring, whether they were of Israel:
The children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the children of Nekoda: six hundred forty-two.
Of the priests: the children of Hobaiah, the children of Hakkoz, the children of Barzillai, who took a wife of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called after their name.
These searched for their genealogical records, but couldn’t find them. Therefore they were deemed disqualified and removed from the priesthood. The governor told that they should not eat of the most holy things until a priest stood up to minister with Urim and Thummim.
The whole assembly together was forty-two thousand three hundred sixty, in addition to their male servants and their female servants, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty-seven. They had two hundred forty-five singing men and singing women. Their horses were seven hundred thirty-six; their mules, two hundred forty-five; their camels, four hundred thirty-five; their donkeys, six thousand seven hundred twenty.
Some from among the heads of fathers’ households gave to the work. The governor gave to the treasury one thousand darics of gold, fifty basins, and five hundred thirty priests’ garments. Some of the heads of fathers’ households gave into the treasury of the work twenty thousand darics of gold, and two thousand two hundred minas of silver. That which the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand darics of gold, plus two thousand minas of silver, and sixty-seven priests’ garments.
So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants, and all Israel, lived in their cities. When the seventh month had come, the children of Israel were in their cities.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3, 6, 7, 11, 25, 33, 43, 46, 65, 70, 71, 73 Hebrew, hold them, meaning, till the bars were put…
Hebrew, hold them, meaning, till the bars were put in.
To wit, they that are mentioned, verse 2.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–6 Neh 7:1 Now it came to pass, when the…
Neh 7:1 Now it came to pass, when the wall was built, and I had set up the doors, and the porters and the singers and the Levites were appointed,
Ver. 1. When the wall was built] For better defence of the city. Moenia a munienda urbo dicuntur.
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And I had set up the doors] We may not take this expression for a vain glorious haec ego feci, I have made this, such as was that of Nebuchadnezzar, Dan 4:30, boasting as if he (and not Ninus) had built Babel, when he enlarged it only, and built the palace; or that of Augustus, Urbem ego lateritiam inveni, marmoream reliqui. I found the city of clay but I left it of marble. We read of one Lampadius, a nobleman in Rome, who per omnia civitatis membra, through all parts of the city, where other great men had bestowed cost in building, he would set up his own name (not as a repairer of the work either, but) as the chief builder. Trajan the emperor also is said to have been sick of this disease; and was therefore called by way of jeer, Wallweed, Herba parietina. But good Nehemiah was none such; he was humiliter sublimis, et sublimiter humilis, as Cyprian phraseth it; that is, humbly lofty, and loftily humble; humble in heart, and yet high in worth and works, as Nazianzen saith of Athanasius, υψηλος τοις εργοις, ταπεινος δε τω φρονηματι.
And the Levites were appointed] viz. To their several services in the temple (as David had distributed them), after that they had been otherwise employed about the building.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 70 i.e. When I had taken order that the Levites…
i.e. When I had taken order that the Levites should be summoned from all places to celebrate the dedication of the wall, as it was done, Neh 12:27.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 5 God saith concerning his church (Isa 62:6), I have…
God saith concerning his church (Isa 62:6), I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem! This is Nehemiah's care here; for dead walls, without living watchmen, are but a poor defence to a city.
I. He appointed the porters, singers, and Levites, in their places to their work. This is meant of their work in general, which was to attend the temple service; it had been neglected in some degree, but now was revived. God's worship is the defence of a place, and his ministers, when they mind their duty, are watchmen on the walls. Or, in particular, he ordered them to be ready against the wall was to be dedicated, that they might perform that service in an orderly and solemn manner; and the dedication of it was its strength. That is likely to be beneficial to us which is devoted to God.
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II. He appointed two governors or consuls, to whom he committed the care of the city, and gave them in charge to provide for the public peace and safety. Hanani, his brother, who came to him with the tidings of the desolations of Jerusalem, was one, a man of approved integrity and affection to his country; the other was Hananiah, who had been ruler of the palace: for he that has approved himself faithful in less shall be entrusted with more. Of this Hananiah it is said that he was a faithful man and one that feared God above many, Neh 7:2. Note, 1. Among those who fear God truly there are some who fear him greatly, and excel others in the expressions and instances of that fear; and they are worthy a double portion of that honour which is due to those that fear the Lord, Psa 15:4. There were many in Jerusalem that feared God, but this good man was more eminent for religion and serious godliness than any. 2. Those that fear God must evidence it by their being faithful to all men and universally conscientious. 3. God's Jerusalem is then likely to flourish when those rule in it, and have charge of it, who excel in virtue, and are eminent both for godliness and honesty. It is supposed, by some, that Nehemiah was now about to return to the Persian court to have his commission renewed, and that he left these two worthy men in charge with the affairs of the city in his absence. Good governors, when and where they cannot act themselves, must be very careful whom they depute.
III. He gave orders about the shutting of the gates and the guarding of the walls, Neh 7:3, Neh 7:4. See here, 1. What the present state of Jerusalem was. The city, in compass, was large and great. The walls enclosed the same ground as formerly; but much of it lay waste, for the houses were not built, few at least in comparison with what had been; so that Nehemiah walled the city in faith, and with an eye to that promise of the replenishing of it which God had lately made by the prophet, Zac 8:3, etc. Though the people were now few, he believed they would be multiplied, and therefore built the walls so as to make room for them; had he not depended upon this he might have thought walls without a city as great a reproach as a city without walls. 2. What was the care of Nehemiah for it. He ordered the rulers of the city themselves, (1.) To stand by, and see the city-gates shut up and barred every night; for in vain had they a wall if they were careless of their gates. (2.) To take care that they should not be opened in the morning till they could see that all was clear and quiet. (3.) To set sentinels upon the walls, or elsewhere, at convenient distances, who should, in case of the approach of the enemy, give timely notice to the city of the danger; and, as it came to their turn to watch, they must post themselves over against their own houses, because of them, it might be presumed, they would be in a particular manner careful. The public safety depends upon every one's particular care to guard himself and his own family against sin, that common enemy. It is every one's interest to watch, but many understand not their own interest; it is therefore incumbent upon magistrates to appoint watches. And as this people had lately found God with them in their building (else they would have built in vain), so now that the wall was built, no doubt, they were made sensible that except the Lord kept the city the watchman waked but in vain, Psa 127:1.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 70, 71, 72 Now it came to pass, when the wall was…
Now it came to pass, when the wall was built, and I had set up the doors,.... Which was not done when Sanballat sent his first letter, but now was, Neh 6:1,
and the porters and the singers, and the Levites were appointed; not to attend the doors of the gates of the wall, but to return to their service in the temple, who had been employed in one thing or another, while the wall and gates were building and repairing; see Neh 3:17.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 7 Nehemiah appoints persons to keep the city, ver. 1-4.…
Nehemiah appoints persons to keep the city, ver. 1-4. Reviews the people, ver. 5-7.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 19, 33, 34, 54, 68, 69, 70, 71, 73 Nehemiah makes use of proper precautions in guarding the…
CHAPTER VII
Nehemiah makes use of proper precautions in guarding the city
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gates, 1-4.
He proposes to reckon the people according to their genealogies;
and finds a register of those who came out of Babylon, with
Zerubbabel, 5-7.
A transcript of the register, 8-10.
Account of those who came from other provinces; and of priests
who, because they could not show their register, were put away
from the priesthood as polluted, 61-65.
The sum total of the congregation: of their men-servants and
maid-servants; singing men and women; horses, mules, camels, and
asses, 66-69.
The sums given by different persons for the work, 70-72.
All betake themselves to their several cities, 73.
NOTES ON CHAP. VII
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 70, 73 Neh 7:1-2. And the Levites were appointed — When…
Neh 7:1-2. And the Levites were appointed — When I had given orders that the Levites should be summoned from all places to celebrate the dedication of the wall, as was done, Neh 12:27. I gave my brother Hanani — Of whom see Neh 1:1-2. And Hananiah, the ruler of the palace — Of Nehemiah’s court, justly called a palace, because he lived in great splendour, like a viceroy, though it was wholly at his own cost. Charge over Jerusalem — To preserve its peace and safety, and to take particular care of shutting the gates of the city. For he was a faithful man — Namely, Hananiah, last mentioned: for it was needless to say any thing in commendation of Hanani, who had shown his piety and zeal for God and his country in taking a tedious journey from Jerusalem to Shushan, to inform Nehemiah of the sad state of Jerusalem, and to implore his helping hand to relieve it, chap. 1. And feared God above many — More than most men did, or above the common pitch of piety. This is added as the ground and reason, both why he was faithful, and why Nehemiah put such confidence in him, because he knew that the fear of God would keep him from yielding to those temptations to perfidiousness which he was likely to meet with when Nehemiah was departed, and against which a man destitute of God’s fear had no sufficient defence. Thus Nehemiah chose magistrates and officers, not out of any partial and carnal respects to his own kindred, or acquaintance, or favourites, but from true piety and prudence, fixing on such as were most fit for, and would be most faithful in their employments.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 70 Since the watch of the temple had hitherto been…
Since the watch of the temple had hitherto been kept by porters, singers, and Levites 1 Chr. 26:1-19, so now the watch of the entire city was committed to men of the same three classes, their experience pointing them out as the most suitable persons.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 18, 33, 43, 65, 68, 69, 70 House: "the citadel;" (Tigurin) "palace." (Vatable) --- The Septuagint…
House: "the citadel;" (Tigurin) "palace." (Vatable) --- The Septuagint retain the original, Beria, (Haydock) which signifies a palace, (Pagnin) concerning which Nehemias had spoken, chap. ii. 8. (Menochius) --- But as it was not yet built, the house, being placed alone, more properly signifies the temple. We read of Zacharias and Jehiel, who occupied the same post (Calmet) as Hananias, 2 Paralipomenon xxxv. 8. (Haydock) He was next to Eliasib, the high priest. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 1Now [And] it came to pass when the wall…
Neh_7:1-73
1Now [And] it came to pass when the wall was built, and I had set up the doors, and the porters and the singers and the Levites were appointed, 2that I gave my brother Hanani and Hananiah the ruler of the palace, charge over Jerusalem, for he was [as] a faithful man, and feared God above [i.e. more than] many. 3And I said unto them, Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun be hot; and while [until] they stand by, let them shut the doors and bar them: and appoint watches of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, every one in his watch, and every 4one to be over against his house. Now [And] the city was large [broad on both hands] and great; but the people were few therein, and the houses were not builded. 5And my God put into my heart to gather [and I gathered] together the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, that they might be reckoned by genealogy. And I found a register of the genealogy of them which came up at the first, and found 6written therein. These are the children [sons] of the province, that went up out of the captivity of those that had been carried away [of the carrying away], whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and [who] came again to Jerusalem and to Judah every one unto his city; 7who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah. The number, I say, of the 8men of the people of Israel was this; The children [sons—so everywhere in this list] of Parosh, two thousand a hundred seventy and two. 9The children of She-phatiah, three hundred seventy and two. 10The children of Arah, six hundred fifty and two. 11The children of Pahath-moab, of the children of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand and eight hundred and eighteen. 12The children of Elam, a thousand two hundred fifty and four. 13The children of Zattu, eight hundred forty and five. 14The children of Zaccai, seven hundred and three-score. 15The children of Binnui, six hundred forty and eight.
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16The children of Bebai, six hundred twenty and eight. 17The children of Azgad, two thousand three hundred twenty and two. 18The children of Adonikam, six hundred three score and seven. 19The children of Bigvai, two thousand three-score 20and seven. 21The children of Adin, six hundred fifty and five. The children of Ater of Hezekiah, ninety and eight. 22The children of Hashum, three hundred twenty and eight. 23The children of Bezai, three hundred twenty and four. 24The children of Hariph, a hundred and twelve. 25The children of Gibeon, ninety and five. 26The men of Bethlehem and Netophah, a hundred four-score and eight. 27The men of Anathoth, a hundred twenty and eight. 28The men of Beth-azmaveth, forty and two. 29The men of Kirjath-jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred forty and three. 30The men of Ramah and Gaba, six hundred twenty and 31one. The men of Michmas, a hundred and twenty and two. 32The men of Beth-el and Ai, a hundred twenty and three. 33The men of the other Nebo, fifty and two. 34The children of the other Elam, a thousand two hundred fifty and four. 35The children of Harim, three hundred and twenty. 36The children of Jericho, three hundred forty and five. 37The children of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred twenty and one. 38The children of Senaah, three thousand nine hundred and thirty.
39The priests: The children of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua, nine hundred 40seventy and three. 41The children of Immer, a thousand fifty and two. The children of Pashur, a thousand two hundred forty and seven. 42The children of Harim, a thousand and seventeen.
43The Levites: The children of Jeshua. of Kadmiel, and of the children of Hodevah, seventy and four.
44The singers: The children of Asaph, a hundred forty and eight.
45The porters: The children of Shallum, the children of Ater, the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub, the children of Hatita, the children of Shobai, a hundred thirty and eight.
46The Nethinim: The children of Ziha, the children of Hashupha, the children of Tabbaoth, 47the children of Keros, the children of Sia, the children of Padon, 48the children of Lebana, the children of Hagaba, the children of Shalmai, 49the children of Hanan, the children of Giddel, 50the children of Gahar, the children of Reaiah, 51the children of Rezin, the children of Nekoda, the children of Gazzam, 52the children of Uzza, the children of Phaseah, the children of Besai, 53the children of Meunim, the children of Nephishesim, the children of Bakbuk, 54the children of Hakupha, the children of Harhur, the children of Bazlith, the children of Mehida, 55the children of Harsha, the children of Barkos, the children of Sisera, 56the children of Tamah, the children of Neziah, the children of Hatipha.
57The children of Solomon’s servants: The children of Sotai, the children of Sophereth, 58the children of Perida, the children of Jaala, the children of Darkon, 59the children of Giddel, the children of Shephatiah, the children of Hattil, the 60children of Pochereth of Zebaim, the children of Amon. All the Nethinim and 61the children of Solomon’s servants, were three hundred ninety and two. And these were they which went up also from Tel-melah, Tel-haresha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer: but they could not show their father’s house, nor their seed, whether they were of Israel. 62The children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the children of Nekoda, six hundred forty and two.
63And of the priests: The children of Habaiah, the children of Koz, the children of Barzillai, which took one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite to wife, and was called after their name. 64These sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but it was not found: therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood. 65And the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and Thummim.
66The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and 67three-score. Besides their man-servants and their maid-servants, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven: and they had two hundred forty and five singing men and singing women. 68Their horses, seven hundred thirty 69and six: their mules, two hundred forty and five: their camels, four hundred thirty and five: six thousand seven hundred and twenty asses.
70And some of the chief of the fathers gave unto the work. The Tirshatha gave to the treasure a thousand drams of gold, fifty basins, five hundred and thirty 71priests’ garments. And some of the chief of the fathers gave to the treasure of the work twenty thousand drams of gold, and two thousand and two hundred pounds 72of silver. And that which the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand drams of gold, and two thousand pounds of silver, and three-score and seven priests’ garments. 73So the priests, and the Levites, and the porters, and the singers, and some of the people, and the Nethinim, and all Israel, dwelt in their cities; and when the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their cities.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
1 Neh_7:3. יָגִיפוּ for יִסָּגְרוּ, ἅπαξ λεγόμενον. The Targum Jonathan on 2Ki_4:4, וְסָגַרְתְּ הַדֶּלֶת is וְתַגִתפִין דָּשָׁא.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The Ordering of the City
Neh_7:1. The setting up of the doors on the gates is anticipated in the description in chap. 3 (See Neh_3:1; Neh_3:3; Neh_3:6; Neh_3:13-15.) It occurred after the wall was completed. (Comp. Neh_6:1). The porters and the singers and the Levites (comp. Neh_12:45-47). For the temple-porters in David’s time, see the accounts in 1Ch_9:17-27; 1Ch_26:1-19. The Korhites or descendants of Korah, who were porters, were also singers, to whom are inscribed so many psalms. All of these porters and singers were Levites. Hence the threefold titles might not indicate distinct classes, but we might read it as a hendiatris “the Levitical singing porters.” Yet from the later portions of this book (Neh_10:28; Neh_11:15-19) we may gather that the singers and porters formed two distinct guilds, separate from one another and separate from the other Levites. Hence the three terms here represent three bodies of men. It is probable that the opening and shutting of the temple-gates were made with song. Perhaps some of the psalms inscribed to the Bene-Korah were so used.
Nehemiah seems to have set these Levitical porters at all the city gates, perhaps to give a more religious aspect to his work of defending Jerusalem.
Neh_7:2. Hanani.—See Neh_1:2. Hananiah’s position as ruler of the palace (sar habbirah) was probably the old office of the monarchy (’al habbayith) which Eliakim held (2Ki_18:37) and which Jotham held while Uzziah still lived (‘al beth-hammelek,2Ch_26:21). See note on Neh_2:8. The old office was probably retained and its incumbent acted as vizier or prime officer to the governor. Nehemiah probably contemplated temporary returns to Persia, and therefore consolidated the government in this way, putting faithful men in the highest positions.
Neh_7:3. While they stand by.—Rather, until they stand by. The command is, not to open the gates till high day, and not even then, unless the guard is ready to stand by and defend them.
The watchers were stationed throughout the city. These were formed of the inhabitants generally.
Neh_7:4. The houses were not builded.—A general expression. The city was full of waste places.
Neh_7:6. Here begins a copy of the list of Zerubbabel’s company of ninety years before. See Ezra 2. It continues through this chapter. Verses 6 and 7 form the title of the list. Province.—Judea was now a province of the Persian empire.
That went up out of the captivity of those that had been carried away whom Nebuchadnezzar,etc.—Rather, that went up from exile, the captives whom Nebuchadnezzar, etc.
Neh_7:7. Nehemiah.—Not the Nehemiah of this book. Azariah.—In Ezra 2. SeraiahRaamiah.—In Ezra 2, Reelaiah. Nahamani.—Not mentioned in Ezra 2, Perhaps a mistaken repetition of Nehemiah. Mispereth.—In Ezra 2, Mizpar. Nehum.—In Ezra 2, Rehum.
Neh_7:10. The 652 of this verse is 775 in Ezra 2.
Neh_7:11. The 2818 of this verse is 2812 in Ezra 2.
Neh_7:13. The 845 of this verse is 945 in Ezra 2.
Neh_7:15. Binnui.—In Ezra 2 Bani. The 648 of this verse is 642 in Ezra 2.
Neh_7:16. The 628 of this verse is 623 in Ezra 2.
Neh_7:17. The 2322 of this verse is 1222 in Ezra 2.
Neh_7:18. The 667 of this verse is 666 in Ezra 2.
Neh_7:19. The 2067 of this verse is 2056 in Ezra 2.
Neh_7:20. The 655 of this verse is 454 in Ezra 2.
Neh_7:22. The 328 of this verse is 223 in Ezra 2.
Neh_7:23. The 324 of this verse is 323 in Ezra 2.
Neh_7:24. Hariph.—In Ezra 2 Jorah.
Neh_7:25. Gibeon.—In Ezra 2 Gibbar.
Neh_7:26. The 188 of this verse is 179 in Ezra 2, and divided into two parts. At this verse, when “children” changes to “men,” the names of towns (instead of those of fathers) begin.
Neh_7:28. Beth-azmaveth. In Ezra 2 Azmaveth.
Neh_7:32. The 123 of this verse is 223 in Ezra 2
Neh_7:33. The other Nebo (Nebo A‘her). In Ezra 2 Nebo simply.
Neh_7:34. The word “children” resumed, but the names of fathers are resumed for two verses only.
Neh_7:37. The 721 of this verse is 725 in Ezra 2.
Neh_7:38. The 3930 of this verse is 3630 in Ezra 2. In Ezra we find “the children of Magbish a hundred fifty and six,” which is omitted in this copy of Nehemiah.
Neh_7:43. Hodevah.—In Ezra 2 Hodaviah.
Neh_7:44. The 148 of this verse is 128 in Ezra 2.
Neh_7:45. The 138 of this verse is 139 in Ezra 2.
Neh_7:46. Hashupha.—Heb. Hasupha.
Neh_7:47. Sia.—In Ezra 2 Siaha.
Neh_7:48. In Ezra we find “the children of Akkub, the children of Hagab,” which is here omitted. Shalmai.—Heb. Salmai.
Neh_7:52. In Ezra we find “the children of Asnah,” which is here omitted. Nephishesim.—In Ezra 2 Nephusim (K’ri).
Neh_7:54. Bazlith.—In Ezra 2 Bazluth.
Neh_7:57. Perida.—In Ezra 2 Peruda.
Neh_7:59. Amon.—In Ezra 2 Ami.
Neh_7:60. Thirty-five families of Nethinim were represented, and ten of Solomon’s servants. Hence there was an average of less than nine to each family.
For the Nethinim see on Neh_3:26.
Solomon’s servants were doubtless those whom Solomon enslaved of the Canaanites. (See 1Ki_9:20-21). Their descendants were probably regarded as engrafted into Israel, as were the Gibeonites.
Neh_7:61. Addon.—In Ezra 2 Addan.
Neh_7:62. The 642 of this verse is 652 in Ezra 2.
Neh_7:65. The Tirshatha.—This title is given expressly to Nehemiah in Neh_8:9, but in this list of those who came with Zerubbabel nearly a century before, it, of course, cannot refer to Nehemiah, unless we suppose that both in Ezra’s list and in this of Nehemiah’s there had been interpolated in the original record this 65th verse, to show a decision made by Nehemiah in his time. If that be the case, which is perfectly possible, then the latter part of the 70th verse is also an interpolation of Nehemiah to show his gifts to the work of separation in his time. If we do not accept this explanation, we must believe that Zerubbabel was the Tirshatha of Nehemiah 7, and Ezra 2 Fuerst derives the word from tarash, and supposes this root means “to fear,” or “to reverence,” and refers Teresh (Est_2:21) to the same. But may it not be from the more common root yarash (to possess)? The Persian torsh (revere) is in favor of the former. It is used as synonymous with pe‘hah (governor). See Neh_12:26.
Till there stood up a priest with Urim and Thummim.—This seems to be a circumlocution for “forever.” The Urim and Thummim (whatever they were) were connected with the High-priest’s breastplate (Exo_28:30) and with the oracular response of God on application by the High-priest (comp. Num_27:21 and 1Sa_28:6). When these responses ceased or when the Urim and Thummim were lost, we cannot tell. We hear nothing of them after David’s reign. The prophets seem to have taken their place. The Urim and Thummim being absent, there was no authority in Israel to determine the priestly status of these unregistered ones.
Neh_7:66. The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore.—The numbers given in this chapter, up to this verse, amount to only 31,089. In Ezra 2 the amount is 29,818. If we add to the former sum the number of servants given in Neh_7:67, we have only 38,671, or 3,689 less than the gross amount of this verse. We have noted the omission in this list of four families. The differences in the numbers of the two lists also show how liable are numbers to be changed in transcription. The grand total, being the same in both lists, is probably correct.
Neh_7:67. Singing men and singing women,meshorerim umeshoreroth. Comp. Ecc_2:8. These were probably a guild of servants, dating from Solomon’s day.
Neh_7:70. The work of restoration. The Tirshatha.—See on Neh_7:65.
Neh_7:71. The repetition of the chief of the fathers seems to support the view of the Tirshatha sentence being an interpolation by Nehemiah. The 20,000 drams of gold here is 61,000 in Ezra 2, and the 2200 pounds here are 5000 pounds there, but if we add the people’s gift of Neh_7:72 (not found in Ezra) we have here 40,000 and 4200 against 61,000 and 5000 there. So the sixty-seven priests’ garments here are one hundred there. See remark on numbers in Neh_7:66.
The children of Israel were in their cities.—This seems to be the real ending of the quotation from the old register of Zerubbabel’s day, and then Nehemiah’s narration begins again, using almost the same words as Ezra’s concerning the first migration. In Ezra it is wayyeasphu ha’am ke is h e‘hadh, and in Nehemiah it is wayyeasphu khol ha’am ke is h e‘hadh. This likeness was doubtless designed.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL
1. The walls were not to be substitutes for, but encouragements of, watchfulness. A perfect system of opening, shutting, barring and guarding the gates was to follow the successful up-building of the city-bulwark. Faithful men were to be put into the highest positions, and a larger number of Jews were to be induced to dwell in Jerusalem in order to its defence. The order, security and growth of Jerusalem, as the city of the Great King, Jehovah of Israel, formed the undivided aim of the son of Hachaliah.
2. The genealogies occupied an important place in Israel. They contained the certificate of church-membership for each Israelite. They also contained the claims to official dignity that belonged to priest and Levite. The family-idea thus received a marked emphasis in God’s redemptive government—an emphasis which is echoed by Malachi (Mal_4:6) and the angel that appeared to Zacharias (Luk_1:17). The appearance of the Nethinim in the genealogies is a forcible illustration of the impartial grace of God. That grace which would bring in all the Gentiles as children was foretokened by the brotherly position of the Nethinim (of Gentile blood) among the people of God, the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
3. Those priests whose names were not in the lists were counted the same as polluted, that is, not simply as having a blemish (see Lev_21:17-21), for such priests could eat of the holy things, but as having an uncleanness (see Lev_22:3-6), which prevented all contact with holy objects. This shows the prominence of externals in the Jewish religion—a necessary prominence where the externals had a precise spiritual significance. For, after all, it was the spiritual truth which was the basis of such exactness, and by no means the mere intrinsic value of externals.
4. The entire number of Jews who returned in Cyrus’ day to Jerusalem was small—about 50,000, out of millions. Piety, patriotism and desire for change were three motives at work in the 50,000. But what a vast mass were unmoved by any of these motives, and were well satisfied with their exile! Some, however, like Daniel, remained from high and holy motives. The Jewish people is a remnant.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The Lord, on His side, appoints watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem, who must allow themselves no rest day or night, and must not even give the Lord Himself any rest until He fortifies Jerusalem, and makes it for a praise in the earth. Isa_62:6-7. But now, when Jerusalem is scantily rebuilt, Nehemiah appoints watchmen, who shall guard the city and its gates. The first thing necessary for the congregation is praying hearts, whose petitions shall not slacken until the Lord is persuaded; these the Lord Himself must give. But when the prayers have been granted care must be taken for the preservation and using of that which has been granted. That the congregation itself must see to. And that they themselves can and must watch, that they must remain separated from the world, and that they will be secured in the maintenance of their peculiarity and independence, is their honor and joy. 2. There are always two tasks in the congregation, or church, of the Lord. As there are always enemies remaining (so long as the kingdom is not of God and of His Christ), who cannot endure the spread of the blessing, which might proceed from the church, who would much rather indeed win its possessions and gifts, and would wish to make it like the world, so these enemies, especially then, when the powers of life are most active in it, come out to attack it most energetically, and fall upon its representatives most sharply in word and deed, therefore it must always have some to keep watch, to protect it, and fight the enemy. But again: so long as everything is in embryo, and the conclusion has not been reached, and there are yet those to be found capable of receiving and becoming participants in the goods and gifts of the church and in the salvation of the Lord, that is, those who can and will enter the congregation of the Lord, and increase and extend the Lord’s kingdom, therefore, just on this account, such are necessary as will be engaged in the winning and reception of new members to the kingdom, who understand the situation, and can point out the spot where they also can build. 3. As Jerusalem, in Nehemiah’s time, extended far on both sides, and was scantily populated, so also the city of God in all times has had space for new additions to its population. For, in truth, the rich possessions which God has prepared in His church for mankind, would only then be sufficiently turned to profit when every one called man should enjoy them, and it were itself full and sufficiently built out, and all had entered in. For that God, who has made all things for Himself, and for that Lord who has redeemed all, the totality alone, from which none is lost, forms a sufficiently great people.—Bede: Præcepit autem Nehemias, ne aperiantur portæ Hierusalem usque ad calorem solis, hoc est toto tempore noctis, ne videlicet aut obtectus tenebris hostis erumpat, aut certe aliquis incautus exiens ab hoste captus pereat. Quod etiam in hujus sæculi nocte tota custodes animarum debent solerter agere, ne observantia piæ conversationis neglecta diabolus aut cohortem fidelium perturbaturus subintret aut de ipsorum numero fidelium quempiam perditurus rapiat. Apparente autem sole justitiæ et clarescente luce futuræ beatitudinis jam non opus erit claustris continentiæ; quia nec adversariis ultra dabitur facultas impugnandi sive tentandi fideles, utpote sempiterna cum suo principe ultione damnatis. Unde in Apocalypsi sua Joannes de futura ejusdem sanctæ civitatis gloria dicit; et portæ ejus non claudentur per diem; nox enim non erit illic.—Starke: This is the final cause why cities and countries, kingdoms and principalities are founded, and filled with people that God may dwell there, and His church may have a certain shelter. God provides help, protection, and rest for His church, and as human protection is very insignificant, God with His angels is the best watchman.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 39, 70, 71, 73 Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until…
Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun be hot, &c.--In the East it is customary to open the gates of a city at sunrise, and to bar them at sunset--a rule which is very rarely, and not except to persons of authority, infringed upon. Nehemiah recommended that the gates of Jerusalem should not be opened so early; a precaution necessary at a time when the enemy was practising all sorts of dangerous stratagems, to ensure that the inhabitants were all astir and enjoyed the benefit of clear broad daylight for observing the suspicious movements of any enemy. The propriety of regularly barring the gates at sunset was, in this instance, accompanied with the appointment of a number of the people to act as sentinels, each mounting guard in front of his own house.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–5 THE GUARDING OF THE GATES, Neh_7:1-3.
THE GUARDING OF THE GATES, Neh_7:1-3.
1. Porters… singers… Levites were appointed — To what specific service these persons were appointed is not said, but the context clearly indicates that it was to guard the doors and various quarters of the now enclosed and fortified Jerusalem. The appointed work of the porters formerly had been to guard the gates of the temple. They were reckoned by genealogies and separated into various divisions. See 1Ch_9:17-27; 1Ch_26:1-12. The singers had charge of the service of song, (1Ch_6:31,) and “their brethren the Levites were appointed unto all manner of service of the tabernacle of the house of God.” 1Ch_6:48. But amid the special dangers of the time Nehemiah may have seen fit to appoint them all to serve by turns in guarding the newly-fortified city.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 15, 21, 25, 26, 30, 33, 43, 46, 52, 55, 59, 61, 63, 64, 65, 67, 68, 70, 71, 73 Ch. Neh_7:1-5. Nehemiah’s dispositions for the protection of the…
Ch. Neh_7:1-5. Nehemiah’s dispositions for the protection of the City
1. the doors] We saw in Neh_6:1 that this alone remained to be done to complete the walls. Those who were responsible for the doors are mentioned in Neh_3:1; Neh_3:3; Neh_3:6; Neh_3:13-15. Nehemiah’s completion of the great work is celebrated by the son of Sirach, ‘And among the elect was Neemias whose renown is great, who raised up for us the walls that were fallen, and set up the gates and the bars, and raised up our ruins again’ (Sir_49:13).
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the porters and the singers and the Levites] The ‘porters’ were a guild whose ordinary duty it was to guard the entrances and defences of the Temple. In the unsettled state of affairs, when he was in constant expectation of attacks from without, and was conscious of intrigues going on within the walls, Nehemiah entrusted the protection of the whole city to this body of trained ‘police,’ and augmented their force by other available trained bands, i.e. the musicians and the main body of Levites, who assisted the priests in the Temple services. The mention of ‘the Levites’ generally after that of the two special classes is noticeable, but in some measure they were regarded in Nehemiah’s time as distinct, cf. Neh_12:47, Neh_13:5-10. They were already a disciplined and organised set of men. The great majority could apparently be relied on to support the policy of Nehemiah and Ezra. Nehemiah put the keeping of the walls into their hand, with the duty of superintending the watch, and of organising a system of sentinel-work among the citizens themselves (Neh_7:3). The fact that Nehemiah thus trusted these Levites, and Temple servants, indicates that they sympathised with him in his scheme of a religious constitution for the Jews, which would completely exclude the Samaritan and the foreigner.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 5 (1-4) Measures were taken for the security of the…
VII.
(1-4) Measures were taken for the security of the city, now made a complete fortress. The comparative thinness of the population taxed the governor’s resources, and the result appears at a later stage.
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(1) Were appointed.—Placed in charge, probably over all the walls. This was an extraordinary provision, to be explained by the fact that these organised bodies formed a large proportion of the inhabitants. The Levites had usually guarded only the Temple.
(2) Hanani.—Who probably had returned from Susa with his brother.
Hananiah the ruler of the palace.—Commander of the fortress, as in Neh_2:8. He was in the immediate service of the Persian king, but his chief recommendation was his piety, which distinguished him from too many of the other rulers.
(3) Until the sun be hot.—General directions were given that the gates should not be thrown open so early as sunrise; they were to be opened and barred again while the guard was present; and the inhabitants were to be divided for night-watches, part on the walls and part before their own houses.
(4) Large and great.—Literally, broad on both sides, with large unoccupied spaces.
The houses were not builded.—In sufficient numbers to provide the requisite population for the city of God. The emphasis is on the fact that the people were few.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 15, 21, 24, 25, 33, 39, 43, 46, 57, 66, 67, 68, 70, 73 COMPLETION OF THE WORK, AND ARRANGEMENTS FOR GUARDING THE…
COMPLETION OF THE WORK, AND ARRANGEMENTS FOR GUARDING THE GATES. (Neh_7:1-5) The wall and gate-towers being completed, nothing remained but to hang the doors in the gateways, and to arrange for the guard of the gates and the general security of the fortress. Nehemiah speaks here of his having set up the doors (ver. 1); but it appears from Ne 3 that the actual work of so doing was intrusted, like the repairs of the wall, to the various working parties. Eliashib, with his brethren the priests, set up the doors of the sheep gate; (Neh_3:1) the sons of Hassenaah those of the fish gate (ibid. ver. 3), etc. Nehemiah had only the general superintendence, and saw that all was properly executed. But the entire work being at length accomplished, it devolved upon him to make the necessary arrangements for the security of what had now become a first-rate fortress. Accordingly, he seems himself to have assigned the guard of the gates to certain bodies of Levites (ver. 1), as being experienced in the business of keeping watch; after which he committed the task of appointing other guards to his brother Hanani, and to a certain Hananiah, already the commandant of the Birah, or temple tower (ver. 2). They devised a system by which the adult male inhabitants were made to partition the watch of the wall among themselves, each on the part which was nearest to his own house (ver. 3). At the same time, it was ordered, for greater precaution, that all the gates should be closed at night, and none of them opened "until the sun was hot" (ibid. ), i.e. until some hours after sunrise. The city was thus made as secure as the circumstances admitted; but in the course of the arrangements it became clear, at any rate to Nehemiah, that the population of the city was too scanty for its size (ver. 4), and that some steps ought to be taken to augment the number of inhabitants. As a first step, a necessary preliminary before he could lay any definite proposal before the "rulers," the governor thought it necessary to make a census of the entire people (ver. 5). It seems to have been in the course of his preparations for this purpose that he "found a register of the genealogy of them which came up at the first.
The list in vers. 7-69 has been regarded as the result of his own census; but reasons have been already given against this view in the comment upon Ezra; and it would seem to be most probable that we have the actual result of Nehemiah"s census, so far as he thought fit to give it to us, in Neh_11:3-36.
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The porters and the singers and the Levites. The porters and the singers were themselves Levites, but are often distinguished from their brethren, who had no such special office. (see Ezr_2:40-42, 70 7:24 10:23, 24 Neh_7:43-45, 73 10:28, etc.) Nehemiah"s choice of Levites to guard the gates of Jerusalem may seem strange; but we must remember
1. That the priests and Levites formed nearly one half the population of Jerusalem. (Neh_11:6-19 compared with 1Ch_9:9-22)
2. That the office of guarding the temple gates had always been discharged by Levites. (1Ch_9:17-22 1Ch_26:12-19)
Vers. 1-4. Provision for safety and numerical increase.
The wall being completed and the gates set in their places, Nehemiah takes measures for the regular defence of the city, and for increasing its population.
I THE GUARDING OF THE CITY-GATES he assigns to the gatekeepers of the temple, the singers, and the other Levites; "that of the walls," to the general inhabitants in turn, some to keep watch at certain appointed posts, others before their own houses; not only perhaps to be ready to rouse the city and rush to the walls or gates in case of attack from without, but to act as police against thieves or disorderly persons within. Over the whole he placed his brother Hanani, and Hananiah, who, as commander of the citadel, had had experience in managing similar matters. Of the latter he records, in explanation of his choice, that he was a faithful man who feared God more than many.
II THE INCREASE OF THE POPULATION Of the city was a matter of pressing importance; for the ample space within the walls was very sparsely occupied with houses, and thinly inhabited. Before resolving, however, on the steps to be taken, it occurred to Nehemiah (and he regarded the suggestion as from God) to call a general assembly, that he might make a census of the population, as a basis for further measures. The result does not appear until Ne 11.
Lessons:
1. The strength and worth of a community lies in its living members. Walls are useless without men to defend them; a city feeble, though spacious, whose inhabitants are few. So a religious community may extend itself over a wide space, and erect numerous and costly places of worship, without adding to its real strength. Increase of converts should, therefore, be the chief aim of those who seek its good.
2. All the members of a community should be willing and ready to exert themselves for the common good. Each according to his capacity and opportunity. Nor in times of pressure should any refuse to act because the duties assigned him do not belong to his ordinary functions. These porters, singers, and Levites undertook for the protection of Jerusalem duties quite outside their respective offices. It was not a time to stand upon their dignity or rights. For some reason they could best be spared for the work, and they did it.
3. Organisation, including rule and subordination, is essential to the welfare of a community.
4. It is a happy thing when men eminently God-fearing can be found for offices of trust and authority. In secular life such men are invaluable. In the Church essential.
HOMILIES BY J.S. EXELL. Vers. 1-4. Moral guardianship.
I THE THINGS IN THE CHURCH WHICH NEED TO BE GUARDED. "Charge over Jerusalem" (ver. 2).
1. The doctrines of the Church.
2. The members of the Church.
3. The temporal interests of the Church.
4. The work of the Church.
5. The reputation of the Church.
6. The civil privileges of the Church.
7. The discipline of the Church.
This defence is needed because infidelity, slander, bigotry, and laxity threaten to lay waste the Church.
II THE MEN WHO SHOULD BE THE GUARDIANS OF THE CHURCH. "For he was a faithful man, and feared God above many" (ver. 2).
1. They must be duly appointed. "And the porters and the singers and the Levites were appointed." "That I gave" (ver. 2).
2. They must be truly sympathetic. The men who had helped to rebuild the city would be the most likely to defend it.
3. They must be wisely cautious. "Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun be hot" (ver. 3).
4. They must be sufficiently numerous. "And appoint watches of the inhabitants of Jerusalem" (ver. 3).
5. They must he eminently pious. "And feared God above many" (ver. 2).
6. There is a sense in which all good men ought to be guardians of the Church.
III THE WAY IN WHICH THE CHURCH MAY BEST BE GUARDED.
1. By having regard to the Church in times of special danger. "Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun be hot" (ver. 3). The Church stands in need of watchful care during the night of error and sin; then its gates must not be opened.
2. By having regard to the Church at points where it is most liable to attack. "Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened.
3. By having regard to mutual co-operation amongst the watchers.
4. By putting our trust in God to supply the necessary lack and imperfection of human vigilance. E.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1-5 (for rest see Ezra 2). Israel within the walls.
In less than two months, notwithstanding the undisguised hostility of the Samaritans, and the covert disloyalty of some of the inhabitants, the sacred city was surrounded with a wall of protection; and with supreme satisfaction and profound thankfulness the gates were closed and the doors were shut. Jerusalem was secure. But Nehemiah was not the man to settle down into passive complacency. The accomplishment of one duty meant the undertaking of another. His conduct suggests
I THE NEED OF THE HUMAN (AND SPIRITUAL) ELEMENT TO GIVE WORTH TO THE MATERIAL (vers. 1, 2, 3). It was well indeed to have the wall, but that was worthless without men to guard it. Immediately the circle was complete and the "doors were set up," the three classes of porters, singers, and Levites were appointed (ver. 1). Charge of the city was given to two capable and trustworthy men (ver. 2), and directions were given that the gates should not be opened till long after sunrise, "till the sun was hot," and not until the watches were all on guard, every man in his place (ver. 3). Behind the stone wall were to be the living men, quick of eye, strong of arm, bold of heart. Not a little reliance on the bulwark they had raised, but much more on the steadfastness and alertness of the patriots within them. It is well, indeed, to have the "new and beautiful" sanctuary, the well-appointed" schools and classrooms; but these will avail us nothing if within them there be not
(1) minds alight with redeeming truth,
(2) hearts aglow with holy love,
(3) souls aflame with fervent zeal.
II THE DESIRABLENESS OF DOING RIGHT THINGS RELIGIOUSLY (vers. 1, 5). With the porters were associated "the singers and the Levites" (ver. 1). "It is probable that the opening and shutting of the temple gates was made with song." If with song, certainly with sacred song. Thus the manual labour of opening and shutting the city gates was associated with men of a sacred office, and with words and sounds of devotion. We read also (ver. 5) how "God put it into the heart" of Nehemiah to gather the people, and take a census. This thought, which in another and less godly man would have been complacently referred to his own sagacity, is ascribed by him to Divine instigation. As servants of God, it is not only needful to do the right things, but to do them in a religious spirit. The secular is to be most intimately associated with the sacred. Things done with ordinary prudence, in daily occupation, are to be done as unto Christ. "Whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, plant or build, buy or sell, read or write, work or play, we must do all, realising that the power to do them is from him, and endeavouring to please him in all things rightly because religiously.
III THE PLACE OF SPECIAL PIETY (ver. 2). "I gave... Hananiah... charge over Jerusalem: for he was a faithful man, and feared God above many." The best place for those who are eminently godly men is not the cloister or chamber, but the more influential posts in the kingdom. They who most honour God in their heart honour him most and serve him best when they occupy busy and important spheres. Piety, wisely employed, and powerful, in the chamber of commerce or in the House of Commons, is at least as pleasing to God as piety in the house of prayer; but to be at its best at either it should be found sometimes at both.
IV THE SPACIOUSNESS OF THE CITY OF GOD (ver. 4). "The city was large and great: but the people were few.
1. There is ample room within the Church of Christ for the multitudes outside. Many are within its walls, but "yet there is room;" we must go out and "compel them to come in," with a persuasiveness that will not be denied.
2. there is building to be done within the Church. "The houses were not builded." There is much room for edification within its walls. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 67, 72 Now it came to pass, when the wall was…
Neh_7:1-7
Now it came to pass, when the wall was built.
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The guardian of the holy city
I. His care for Jerusalems protection. It is a beneficent law of our nature that the more true affection is exercised it increases in strength, and knits the heart to its object in firmer bonds. This beautiful law, of the growth of affection by its exercise, is still more exemplified in the labour of love for Christs name sake, and for the promotion of His truth in the earth. Thus it was that the suffering and sacrifice which Nehemiah had endured for Jerusalem bound him to it by stronger ties, and drew him to seek its good with deepening affection. He had wept over its desolation in the night; he had toiled, through many days, for its restoration; and, when its walls were now rebuilt, how could he but cherish a tender solicitude, lest any danger should befall the home of his heart? Was it not enough to fill him with sorrowful apprehension that false men were within the walls of Zion, and that, under the name of Israelites, they were ready to betray the dearest interests of their nation into the hands of the heathen? Then, as strong walls are no sufficient protection without faithful watchmen, he set apart true men, to keep guard in the common danger.
1. We remark the character of the men to whom he committed this high trust. I gave my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the ruler of the palace, charge over Jerusalem. My brother Hanani. The expression of fraternal relation is simple and dignified, but warm and affectionate. The brothers heart speaks the word, and utters in it a brothers love, glowing with a brothers pride, over one so dear, ready to help in a work so Divine. It is deeply interesting to observe how often, in the procedure of grace, God hallows the social affections, by grafting on their stock a Divine love; and how large a portion of the inspired history of the religious life is a record of kindred dear in the same households, united in the same faith, walking together to the better country. Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Joseph, Moses and Aaron, James and John, Martha and her sister Mary, and Lazarus, with many more revered names in Scripture story, united in the bonds of nature and also of grace, prove how true God is to His promise--I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. Hananiah, the other patriot, here entrusted with charge over the holy city, receives this high encomium, He was a faithful man, and feared God above many. There was special need for this superior fidelity and piety in the watchmen of Zion then; and the same necessity demands such graces still in all who have charge in the Church of God.
2. We notice the nature of the charges given to these faithful men. Walls and gates are set around the city of God, not to foster indolence, but to aid active defence, and by this means to secure the guardian care of Omnipotence. This Divine help is ever sure to those who are willing by Gods grace to help themselves, and who stand on their watchtower, in the attitude of vigilance. This is an operation of faith, and an effect of that wisdom that is from above. Sound principles of truth are believed, not for the purpose of lying in the mind as a dead letter, or to be in themselves a certain defence against danger, but they are embraced to be used as a shield in times of assault, to be applied to the practical conduct; and if they are loosely held, the enemy will break through them to wound the heart, as surely as these foes of Jerusalem would have entered it by the gates or walls, had these been unguarded. The word is, Take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand. Faith everywhere sets on this enterprise its indubitable seal. The city, we are told, was large and great; but the people were few within, and the houses were not builded. It was reared in the sure confidence of a future increase, according to the promise, Jerusalem shall be inhabited, as towns without walls, for the multitude of men and cattle therein. In like manner, everything devised and done for the kingdom of Christ may be planned on the largest scale, to accord with the amplitude of the purpose of grace. There is room in the heart of God for all sinners of mankind, would they but trust His love.
II. His effort for Jerusalems purity. In a work of God, the completion of one service to His honour makes way for the commencement of another. A holy heart feels no desire to rest in complacency after the labour of one enterprise is finished, as if enough were done for a while to come.
1. We remark in this the means he adopts to secure the purity of Jerusalem. He owns, with grateful humility, the Divine source of all his plans of wisdom for the good of Jerusalem. My God put into mine heart. All holy desires, all good counsels, all just works are from God; and it is right to ascribe to Him the glory of these precious gifts. The great thinkers of the world--the men whose vocation it is to exercise thought for the instruction of others--are under paramount obligation to give honour to the Father of lights for every grand or good idea He discovers to their mind. God is specially the author of all gracious purposes in the hearts of His children, and of every good counsel for the advancement of His kingdom. It is in this frame of exultant gratitude to the Lord for all good counsels that Nehemiah says, My God put into mine heart to gather together the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, that they might be reckoned by genealogy. Recent events, no doubt, suggested reasons for making sure who belonged to the tribes of Israel; and God, by opening His servants mind to the force of these reasons, rendered the path of duty plain. False men had lately appeared in the congregation of the Lord, claiming a place in it, who were not of it, but were proving traitors to its dearest interests. At this time, then, when much depended on the possession of a true heart in the children of Zion, the heads and people of Judah were convened, that all might be reckoned by genealogy.
2. We notice the fidelity Nehemiah evinces to secure the purity of Jerusalem. Many went up to the holy city who could not show their fathers house, whether they belonged to Israel or no. Some of them would prove in their conduct they were the people of God; but they could not as yet produce evidence of their genealogy as the seed of Jacob. In like manner, want of assurance of personal salvation bars the way of no sinner in applying to Christ; and if any follow on to seek Him, He will in no wise cast them out, though they may not be able for the present to express their sure hope of eternal life. Some at this time in Jerusalem were friends of Zion, of this description, truly belonging to Israel in spirit, but unable, meanwhile, to prove their relation. But others were there of a different class, and, perhaps, also of a different character. Some of the priests sought their register among those who were reckoned by genealogy, but it was not found. (verse 64). In the fidelity, therefore, of these patriots to purify from alloy the congregation of the Lord, we have an example for the imitation of the universal Church of Christ. Purity of communion in a Church is essential to its healthful condition, and to its success in spreading religion in the world. A diseased member in the natural body may gradually destroy the vital functions of the entire frame; and so, in the mystical body of Christ, one member unsound in heart will impair the spiritual action of the whole, just as one Achan in the camp occasioned the defeat of all the army of Israel. This register, used by the servant of God to ascertain who were the children of Zion, may suggest to us the joyous assurance that God knows all His true Israel, and will take means, in due time, to make them known. Oh! what a privilege to find Tour name in the Lambs book of life in that day! On the other hand, what a dismay to discover then it is not there! (W. Ritchie.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 EXPLANATORY NOTES.] “The second section of this book (chaps.…
EXPLANATORY NOTES.] “The second section of this book (chaps. 7–12:43) furnishes a description of the further efforts of Nehemiah to increase and insure the prosperity of the community in Judah and Jerusalem: first, by securing Jerusalem from hostile attacks; then, by seeking to increase the population of the city; and, lastly, by endeavouring to bring the domestic and civil life of the people into conformity with the precepts of the law, and thus to furnish the necessary moral and religious basis for the due development of the covenant people.”—Keil. It is generally supposed that Nehemiah’s return to Persia must be inserted after Neh_12:43; the remainder of the book narrating his later reforms. Bishop Hervey, however, suggests that the work stopped immediately after the events narrated in Neh_6:16-19, and that chapter 7 goes on to relate the measures adopted by Nehemiah upon his return with fresh powers.
Neh_7:1-3. The watching of the city provided for.
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Neh_7:1. Porters … singers … Levites were appointed] In olden time each had a separate work. The porters guarded the gates of the temple. They were reckoned by genealogies, and separated into various divisions (see 1Ch_9:17-27; 1Ch_26:1-19). The singers had charge of the service of song (1Ch_6:31), and “their brethren the Levites were appointed unto all manner of service of the tabernacle of the house of God” (1Ch_6:48). “Under the present extraordinary circumstances Nehemiah committed also to these two organized corporations the task of keeping watch over the walls and gates of the city, and placed them under the command of his brother Hanani and of Hananiah, the ruler of the citadel. This is expressed by the words (Neh_7:2), ‘I gave Hanani … and Hananiah … charge over Jerusalem.’ ”—Keil.
Neh_7:2. The ruler of the palace] The marshal or chamberlain of the vice-regal court which Nehemiah had maintained in Jerusalem.—Jamieson.
Neh_7:3. Let not the gates be opened until the sun be hot] In the East it is customary to open the gates of a city at sunrise, and to bar them at sunset—a rule which is very rarely, and not except to persons of authority, infringed. Nehemiah recommended that the gates of Jerusalem should not be opened until broad day. An earlier opening might expose the city to a sudden surprise. By day the special guard were to watch; by night the inhabitants.
Neh_7:4. The city was large and great, &c.] Broad on both sides regarded from the centre. After the fashion of Oriental towns, the houses standing apart, with gardens and orchards intervening.
Neh_7:5-69. Genealogy of those who came at the first out of Babylon] “Nehemiah discovered a register of the first detachment who had come under the care of Zerubbabel. It is transcribed in the following verses, and differs in some few particulars from that given in Ezra 2; but the discrepancy is sufficiently accounted for from the different circumstances in which the two registers were taken—that of Ezra having been made up at Babylon, while that of Nehemiah was drawn out in Judæa, after the walls of Jerusalem had been rebuilt. The lapse of so many years might well be expected to make a difference appear in the catalogue, through death or other causes; in particular, one person being, according to Jewish custom, called by different names. Thus Hariph (Neh_7:24) is the same as Jorah (Ezr_2:18), Sia (Neh_7:47) the same as Siaha (Ezr_2:44), &c. Besides other purposes to which this genealogy of the nobles, rulers, and people was subservient, one leading object contemplated by it was to ascertain with accuracy the parties to whom the duty legally belonged of ministering at the altar, and conducting the various services of the temple; and for guiding to exact information in this important point of inquiry the possession of the old register of Zerubbabel was invaluable.”—Jamieson.
Neh_7:39-42. The priests] Only four of the courses returned from the captivity,
Neh_7:43. The Levites] “Assistants of the priests in Divine worship.”—Keil.
Neh_7:44. The singers] Only sons of Asaph returned.
Neh_7:45. The porters] Door-keepers.—Keil.
Neh_7:46-56. The Nethinims] See on chap. Neh_3:26;
Neh_7:57-60. Solomon’s servants] “Doubtless those whom Solomon enslaved of the Canaanites (see 1Ki_9:20-21). Their descendants were probably regarded as engrafted into Israel, as were the Gibeonites.”—Crosby.
Neh_7:70.] “With Neh_7:69 the register ends, and the thread of Nehemiah’s history is resumed. He was the Tirshatha or governor, and the liberality displayed by him and some of the leading men for the suitable equipment of the ministers of religion forms the subject of the remaining portion of the chapter. Their donations consisted principally in garments. In the East a present of garments, or of any article of use, is conformable to the prevailing sentiments and customs of society.” Drams of gold] i. e. darics. A daric was a gold coin of ancient Persia, worth £1 5s.
Neh_7:71. Pound of silver] i. e. mina (sixty shekels, or £9).
Neh_7:73. So … all Israel dwelt in their cities] “The utility of these genealogical registers was thus found in guiding to a knowledge of the cities and localities in each tribe to which every family anciently belonged.”—Jamieson.
HOMILETICAL CONTENTS OF CHAPTER 7
Neh_7:1-3, Finished Work.
Neh_7:2. The Best Testimonial.
Neh_7:4. The Spaciousness and Emptiness of the City of God.
Neh_7:5. Family Traditions.
Neh_7:70-72. The Enthusiasm of Generosity.
Neh_7:73. Toilers Resting.
FINISHED WORK
Neh_7:1-3. Now it came to pass, when the wall was built, and I had set up the doors, and the porters and the singers and the Levites were appointed, that I gave my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the ruler of the palace, charge over Jerusalem: for he was a faithful man, and feared God above many. And I said unto them, Let not the gates of Jerusalem, be opened until the sun be hot; and while they stand by, let them shut the doors, and bar them: and appoint watches of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, every one in his watch, and every one to be over against his house.
THE narrative has traced the progress of the work—its inception, its difficulties, its opponents; now the last stone has been lifted into its place, and Nehemiah looks upon his finished work. This is fitting; it is beautiful, but withal uncommon. “God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good.” And the evening fell upon a finished world. “Father, the hour is come. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” And when the darkness at the crucifixion rolled away, the sun looked upon a finished redemption. Of John the Baptist and Paul the Apostle it is written, they “finished their course,” as if there were no incompleteness of character or tasks left undone. Uncommon!
I. Every man has some work to do. It is well surely, it is needful certainly, that we be reminded that business is a sacred thing, and that duty is a bow set in the firmament that is above every one of us. Right and wrong are not theological terms to be accurately defined in Christian pulpits, and spasmodically sought on holy days. The word work has all but infinite meanings. It was fitting that the man who perhaps more than any other in our country has taught the sacredness of work should have a medal struck in his honour when he reached the patriarchal age of eighty. That in us which is best and truest says that the man whom we delight to honour is he who can widen our conception of duty, who can cherish in us the faith that this is God’s world, not the devil’s world, and that life is more important than death. To live in this spirit is no child’s play. A merchant who strives to conduct a large business on Christian principles, who endeavours to divest himself of the prejudices of habit and the customs of those around him, will soon discover that the commonplace “honesty is the best policy” is not true in the first and most obvious interpretation which is put upon it. Let any one of us try to take up the petty details of each day’s work and ennoble them by the spirit in which they are done, and it shall not be easy. But be it remembered that, after all, the formation of his character is a man’s true work. Every work should bear relation to the one indispensable thing, “meetness to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.”
II. Few men leave their tasks complete. Finished work—that suggests unfinished work. Nehemiah, the rebuilder of Jerusalem, reminds us of David, the projector of Jerusalem. There is much of human feeling in those words of David in which he refers to his unpermitted purpose. Shortly before his death—at that period of life when men become prophetic—he assembled the chiefs of the people, and said, “I had in mine heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God, and had made ready for the building: but God said unto me, Thou shalt not build a house for my name. Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and my courts” (1 Chronicles 28). Much work is planned but never executed; more is begun which is not completed. There were brave men before Agamemnon, only no poet arose to sing their deeds. He who, sitting in the hull of some forest tree, first struck out upon the sea was one of the bravest men who ever lived, but his name those who heard it have not transmitted. Yet the art of ship-building had its birth in that man’s brain. There is an element of sadness in the fact that David only gathered the materials to build the temple. The idea of that temple floated in his mind, lay concealed there; grew slowly, as all great things grow. Even the pattern was partly conceived. Nothing was wanting but a Divine permission, and that was withheld. David was happy in that the work was entrusted to his son Solomon. For that man is honoured who conceives a noble project, and sees his children rise up to carry it out. When in this best and truest sense is fulfilled the old promise that after the fathers shall come up the children, it is well. Such a man may well take a farewell of the world, and say, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.” Perhaps that man is happier who, like Nehemiah, lives to complete his own work. One hardly knows. Of one thing we may be certain—this is the exception, the other is the rule. There are few cemeteries in which you will not find a broken column; broken not by accident, or stress of weather, but by the sculptor’s hammer, to indicate that the life of him who sleeps beneath was snapped asunder, his purposes suddenly hindered. As, however, God does not work without a purpose and a plan, there must be, there is, a meaning in this. The world is a huge clock-work. Each man is a part of and necessary to the whole. The individual is insignificant. His work is partial. Division of labour is necessary. One man’s skill needful to all men’s well-being. One country has what another lacks. Life is a series of beginnings. A human life is little more than a beginning. Threescore years and ten are too few in which to accomplish much. “No day without a line” was a motto of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Most men might imitate a famous carver, who when he exhibited his work wrote underneath, “Lysippus has something more to add to this.” In the artist’s mind the picture is perfect, on his canvas the picture is incomplete. It is only in a relative sense, only with mental reserve and understood apology, that any man can say of himself, “I have finished the work.” The story of our joint work is pictured in the history of our cathedrals. Norman barons, pious queens, monks of a long-forgotten age, and bishops of to-day have prayed and begged, toiled and given, to make them what they are. This is the conclusion of the whole matter. We work for eternity. We are strangers and sojourners, as all our fathers were.
III. He that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. His work may not abide. Nehemiah’s did. A builder’s work is lasting. All necessary work is not. The eloquence of Chalmers will one day be only a memory; the bridges of Brunel and Stephenson will tell their tale to many generations. But the influence of Chalmers will abide. Your task may not be permanent; it has in it some permanent element. What is greater than the work? The man who does it. An invading army may destroy Nehemiah’s wall, but not the memory of Nehemiah’s character. The temple of David and Solomon is destroyed, but the Church has preserved their songs and copied their example in building a house for the Lord. They abide for ever. Let us do our work reliant on Him who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.
ILLUSTRATIVE POEM:—
SOMETHING LEFT UNDONE.
“Labour with what zeal we will,
Something still remains undone,
Something uncompleted still
Waits the rising of the sun.
By the bedside, on the stair,
At the threshold, near the gates,
With its menace or its prayer,
Like a mendicant it waits;
Waits, and will not go away;
Waits, and will not be gainsaid;
By the cares of yesterday
Each to-day is heavier made;
Till at length the burden seems
Greater than our strength can bear,
Heavy as the weight of dreams,
Pressing on us everywhere.
And we stand from day to day,
Like the dwarfs of times gone by,
Who, as Northern legends say,
On their shoulders held the sky.”—Longfellow.
THE BEST TESTIMONIAL
Neh_7:2. I gave my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the ruler of the palace, charge over Jerusalem: for he was a faithful man, and feared God above many.
The obscure men and women of the Bible furnish a study as interesting as it is practically inexhaustible. Who was Hanani? A brother of Nehemiah, who took a journey to Susa to visit his brethren (Neh_1:2). Who was Hananiah? Ruler of the palace at Jerusalem. No further biographic facts are discoverable. “Apelles approved in Christ” (Rom_16:10). Approved in Christ; what character lies behind that commendation! But how little of the private history of Apelles can investigation furnish. So with Paul’s friends in general. Nehemiah and Hanani. Two brothers whose paths diverged. They started in life together: one scaled the heights until he stood on the steps to the throne; the other moved in the quiet vales of lowly life. Both retained allegiance to the God of their fathers; both maintained loyalty to conscience; and each reverenced the other. A not too common thing—a brother’s testimony to a brother’s virtue. For though the description of a faithful God-fearing man grammatically applies to Hananiah, it is equally applicable in fact to Hanani. He preferred Jerusalem above his chief joy. A prophet is often without honour in his own country. “A man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” To be “sympathetic with the loads we see on others, forgetful of our own,” argues no small degree of saintliness. Nehemiah honoured himself by honouring Hanani and Hananiah.
I. A true man’s relation to God. “Hananiah feared God above many.” Religious reverence, a fear that hath not torment, was the basis of his character. “The God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac” was Jacob’s description of his God. Old Testament “fear” melts into New Testament “faith and love.” Patriarchs and prophets lived under the constraining influence of “the fear of God;” apostles and martyrs felt the sweet reasonableness of “the love of Christ.” The phrase is changed, but not the substance. Life hath its centre not in self, but in God. Selfishness is the most ignoble motive of action. All true life begins with God. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is the ladder between the earth on which we stand and the heaven in which God dwells. Christ came not to destroy. He expounded, illumined, fulfilled the descriptions of religious life he found already. Do not take old-time reverence out of your holy fear of God whilst you infuse into it more of the warmth of love and trust. Our God is more fully revealed to us; but their God is our God for ever. “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling,” urges the Psalmist; “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” counsels the Apostle.
II. A true man’s relation to his fellows. “Hananiah, a faithful man.” Firm, stable, enduring; a trustworthy man. In a judge this is integrity; in a witness, truth. “Fear” and “faithfulness” are inseparable. Our modern equivalents are profession and practice, creed and conduct The path reveals the purpose, the life confirms the lip. “Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” Faulty conduct does not adorn a faultless creed. Notable devotion in church must be supported by noteworthy uprightness in business. If the temple of our character rests upon pillars of dishonesty, its rottenness and instability will soon appear. If the first table of commandments be written in the chancel, the second table must be suspended in the counting-house. “Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.” Only thus can you sanctify him in your lives. A Christian man ought to be able to show a bold front to the world. Let him strive ever to keep a conscience void of offence toward men as well as toward God. If the laws of trade are not compatible with the laws of God, so much the worse for the laws of trade. You may bend if you will, but alas if you cringe because you must! You must forgive your enemies, you must not fear them. Men of the world seal the lips of (so-called) Christian men when these show inconsistencies in life. Would you reprove sin? Then your daily life must rebuke it. Do you desire to maintain the character of a God-fearing man? The penalty you must pay is to deserve the character of a faithful man. “He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”
III. A true man’s reward in this world. “I gave Hananiah charge over Jerusalem.” Loyalty and royalty are not far apart. Those who will rule must learn to obey. Hananiah had been “faithful over a few things,” he was now to be made “ruler over many things.” No vote of thanks for what he had done. No testimonial raised. Simply higher work and more of it. Capacity creates responsibility. Power demands performance. “To him that hath shall be given.”
Application.
1. Graduate in the school of Christ. There is no limit to your knowledge except your power of acquirement. Do not be content with conventional standards of devotion. Obey conscience, worship duty, fear God above many. Thus did Hananiah.
2. Enter the sacred hierarchy of those who look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Look for virtues in your brethren. Be not like those who, “seeing many things, observe not.” Some flowers grow in the shade. Many men like Hanani and Hananiah are hidden until some Nehemiah discovers them. Recognize and reverence goodness wherever you find it. Say not, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” “Are not his mother and his sisters with us?” Thank God for what the man is, and aid the purpose of God by placing the man where he should be. Thus did Nehemiah.
ILLUSTRATION
“ ‘He was a faithful man, and feared God above many.’ It is said of Obadiah that he feared the Lord greatly. Every saint fears the Lord, but every saint does not greatly fear him. Oh, there are but few Obadiahs in the world, I mean among the saints on earth. As Paul said of Timothy, ‘I have none “like-minded,” ’ so it may be said of some concerning the fear of the Lord; they have scarce a fellow. Hananiah had got, as to the exercise of and growth in this grace, the start of many of his brethren. He ‘feared God above many.’ Now, then, seeing this grace admits of degrees, and is in some stronger, and in some weaker, let us be all awakened, as to other graces, so to this grace also: that like as you abound in everything, in faith, in utterance, in knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.”—Bunyan.
THE SPACIOUSNESS AND EMPTINESS OF THE CITY OF GOD
Neh_7:4. Now the city was large and great: but the people were few therein, and the houses were not builded
The spaciousness and emptiness of the city of God! This phrase suggests God’s doing and man’s misdoing. “With his sword and with his bow” David the warrior-king captured the city; with his wealth he endowed it; to Solomon his son he committed its keeping. Under the hand of Solomon it grew; the great of other nations came to behold its magnificence; silver was as plentiful as stone and cedar trees as numerous as sycamores: it was “the city of the great king.” When Nehemiah came it was almost a silent city, as a city of the dead. “The entire number of Jews who returned in Cyrus’ day to Jerusalem was small—about 50,000 out of millions. Piety, patriotism, and desire for change were three motives at work in the 50,000. But what a vast mass were unmoved by any of these motives, and were well satisfied with their exile! Some, however, like Daniel, remained from high and holy motives. The Jewish people is a remnant.”—Crosby.
I. The spaciousness of the city of God. “The Church on earth is called a city. How beautiful the orders, laws, and privileges thereof! God her king dwells in her; angels and ministers are her watchmen and guard; believers are her free CITIZENS, entitled to all the fulness of God; his salvation, providential preservation, and system of sacred government are her walls (Isa_62:12). She is called a great city because of her extent, and the vast number of her members (Rev_21:10); a holy city because of the holiness of her Founder, laws, ordinances, and members, and end of erection (Rev_11:2); and the city of God because he planned, built, peopled, rules, protects, and dwells in her (Heb_12:22).” “Heaven is represented as a city, a city with twelve foundations, a holy city. What glory, order, safety, and happiness are there enjoyed by the multitudes of saints! how perfect and durable their state of felicity! and all of it founded on the purchase of Christ! None but holy persons do ever enter it, nor is aught but holiness ever practised therein (Heb_11:10; Heb_11:16).”—Wood. The Church was made for man. What pages of history have been blurred and blotted in the strife to narrow the entrance; to make the Church for man a Church for men. Not from Rome only, from the east and the west, from the north and the south they have come who would limit the rights of men and monopolize the city of God. A city; a kingdom. Whose city? who is the king? “All the ends of the earth,” “all nations,” “sinners,” these are the catchwords of Old and New Testament teaching. The works of men are contracted; the creations of God are broad, limitless. The quiet star-lit sky, how suggestive of boundless space. The all-embracing atmosphere, how emblematic of an all-seeing and all-interested Presence. Everywhere is the only limit that can be assigned to God; to every one the only limit to the offer of his great gifts. “According to his glorious riches he shall supply all your need.” “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” This city is destined to grow. The Church is blessed first inwardly and then outwardly. Religion deepened within her pale, then extension. In the history of the first Church there are the “notes” of the Church’s life before the announcement of the Church’s increase (Act_2:42-47). The Holy Ghost first fell on the assembled disciples, then there were added three thousand souls. The doctrine of justification by faith dawns upon a Luther, and a Reformation follows. The brotherhood of man arrests Wilberforce—“bows the tall soul as by wind”—and the slave-trade is doomed; its extinction is thenceforward only a question of time.
“The golden side of Heaven’s great shield is faith,
The silver reason.”
The gospel has an element of Divinity in the comprehensive way in which it claims all our service and the service of all. None are exempted. None are allowed to do partial fealty. “Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.”
II. The emptiness of the city of God. “Are there few that be saved?” Do you waive that question of curiosity? “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” Take heed to thyself. “Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought; but that we receive a full reward.” Leave the future, busy thyself with the practical, pressing present. Now at any rate “few” enough are saved. In any civilized Christian city the population divides into two classes—the churchgoing and non-churchgoing. If all were disposed to attend Church, they could not. Christian and heathen countries. All are not “soldiers of Christ.” What then? Despair? Nay, work, pray, wait. We see not as yet all things put under Christ. But “he must reign.” And we understand a Divine must.
“Let the echo fly
The spacious earth around”
The Church has done much; the world needs her to do more. Success has followed missionary effort at home and abroad. A kneeling Church has risen strong in the Lord and in the power of his might to lengthen her cords, strengthen her stakes, and multiply her converts. “As Jerusalem, in Nehemiah’s time, extended far on both sides, and was scantily populated, so also the city of God in all times has had space for new additions to its population. For, in truth, the rich possessions which God has prepared in his Church for mankind would only then be sufficiently turned to profit when every one called man should enjoy them, and it were itself full and sufficiently built out and all had entered in. For that God, who has made all things for himself, and for that Lord who has redeemed all, the totality alone, from which none is lost, forms a sufficiently great people.”—Schultz. The time is coming when the nations shall stretch out their hands unto God, the kingdoms of the earth sing praises unto the Lord. Right shall be predominant when at his name every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that he is Lord. The rest is vision. “I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.” “I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”
FAMILY TRADITIONS
Neh_7:5. And my God put into mine heart to gather together the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, that they might be reckoned by genealogy. And I found a register of the genealogy of them which came up at the first.
When, in Biblical sense, we speak of a family, we may mean a household, a kindred, a division of a tribe, a nation, or the whole family of God in heaven and on earth. “The genealogies occupied an important place in Israel. They contained the certificate of Church-membership for each Israelite. They also contained the claims to official dignity that belonged to priest and Levite. The family-idea thus received a marked emphasis in God’s redemptive government—an emphasis which is echoed by Malachi (Mal_4:6) and the angel that appeared to Zacharias (Luk_1:17). The appearance of the Nethinim in the genealogies is a forcible illustration of the impartial grace of God. That grace which would bring in all the Gentiles as children was foretokened by the brotherly position of the Nethinim (of Gentile blood) among the people of God—the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”—Crosby. The genealogy was the story of their lives from year to year.
I. The family-idea. The corrective of individualism. A natural barrier against selfishness. Father, mother, brother, sister suggest unity in diversity. Differences without disagreement. “There are the two opposite poles of masculine and feminine, which contain within them the entire of our humanity—which together, not separately, make up the whole of man. Then there are the diversities in the degrees and kinds of affection. For when we speak of family affection, we must remember that it is made up of many diversities. There is nothing more different than the love which the sister bears towards the brother, compared with that which the brother bears towards the sister. The affection which a man bears towards his father is quite distinct from that which he feels towards his mother; it is something quite different towards his sister; totally diverse, again, towards his brother. And then there are diversities of character. First the mature wisdom and stern integrity of the father; then the exuberant tenderness of the mother. And then one is brave and enthusiastic, another thoughtful, and another tender. One is remarkable for being full of rich humour; another is sad, mournful, even melancholy. Again, besides these, there are diversities of condition in life. First, there is the heir, sustaining the name and honour of the family; then, perchance, the soldier, in whose career all the anxiety and solicitude of the family is centred; then the man of business, to whom they look up, trusting his advice, expecting his counsel; lastly, perhaps, there is the invalid, from the very cradle trembling between life and death, drawing out all the sympathies and anxieties of each member of the family, and so uniting them all more closely from their having one common point of sympathy and solicitude.”—F. W. Robertson. “Of all the mysteries in the universe, I hardly know of any which is more wonderful than the kind of relationship existing between all of us and our parents. The universal consent of mankind sustains the authority of my conscience, and declares that I—I alone—must be held responsible for whatever evil I commit, and that I am to be praised if I do well. And yet nothing can be plainer than that it is easy or difficult for me to do well, according as my father and my mother, my grandfather and my grandmother, and I know not how far back I may go, were, or were not, temperate, virtuous, upright, good people. As there is this singular and most mysterious relationship between my moral life and the moral life of my parents, there is a relationship equally intimate between my physical and intellectual life and theirs. My voice, the length and shape of my limbs, my height, the colour of my hair, the strength and clearness of my sight, the soundness of my brain, my muscular vigour, whatever constitutes my weakness or my power, was largely determined for me by what my parents were.”—R. W. Dale. The mysteries of life are not so much abroad as at home. The miracle is not in some seldom, far-off event, but in life’s daily scenes—noon and night, birth and death, the daily bread, the nightly guardianship. Home, family, a sacred centre, a heaven-made bond.
“Where’er I roam, whatever realms to see,
My heart, untravelled, fondly turns to thee.”
II. Family history. We are heirs of all the yesterdays. An unpayable debt owed to the past. The poets describe virtues more to be valued than “Norman blood.” Men prize “Norman blood” notwithstanding. The Jew, “the pilgrim of commerce,” turned homeward with a peculiar ardour of affection. The chosen people. All others Gentiles. Cosmopolitanism a modern idea. “My name and the name of my fathers.” Jacob. “My fathers’ God.” Moses. “I am not better than my fathers.” Elijah, “l am a sojourner as all my fathers were.” David. “O thou God of my fathers.” Daniel. “I worship the God of my fathers.” Paul. The thought which the dying Wesley phrased ran through Hebrew history as a “family tradition”—“The best of all is, God is with us.” Their familiar description of God was “the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.” The “family tradition” that links us with some event in history is good; the “family tradition” that tells of deeds of heroism and acts of unselfishness is better. Not who we are, but what we are, the pre-eminent consideration.
“My boast is not that I deduce my birth
From loins enthroned, and rulers of the earth;
But higher far my proud pretensions rise—
The son of parents passed into the skies.”
The idea of the family is unity; the history of the family suggests continuance. “No separation can ever break that fellowship of common love which exists in a home. Its members may be sundered by unknown seas, yet the bands of a common affection and sympathy unite them still. So is the fellowship of the Christian brotherhood unbroken by death. It extends to heaven, and unites it with earth—the whole family in heaven and earth named in Christ.”—E. L. Hull. There is no past. The ages are inseparably linked together. “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” So it shall be with us. Christ hath brought life and immortality to light. We shall stand in the presence of those who were dead, but are alive again and live for evermore. “In my Father’s house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” The dead will not return to us, but we shall go to them.
THE ENTHUSIASM OF GENEROSITY
Neh_7:70-72. And some of the chief of the fathers gave unto the work. The Tirshatha gave to the treasure a thousand drams of gold, five basons, five hundred and thirty priestsʼ garments. And some of the chief of the fathers gave to the treasure of the work twenty thousand drams of gold, and two thousand and two hundred pound of silver. And that which the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand drams of gold, and two thousand pound of silver, and threescore and seven priestsʼ garments.
This scene reminds us of two similar ones in Hebrew history. Shortly before his death David the king gathered the people together, and by his example and entreaty caused the princes and people to offer willingly (1 Chronicles 29). Even the abundance of the offerings is less marked than the willing spirit of the offerers. “I know, my God, that thou triest the heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of mine heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy thy people, which are present here, to offer willingly unto thee. O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee.” Joash gave order to repair the temple with “all the money that cometh into any man’s heart to bring into the house of the Lord.” “And all the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in and cast into the chest, until they had made an end. And they gathered money in abundance” (2 Kings 12; 2 Chronicles 24). The Jew and the Friend have received honourable mention for their generosity to the poor of their confraternity. The Jew has distinguished himself in his devotion to his temple. The pilgrim of commerce has cast some of his commercial gains into the treasury of God.
I. Claimants. The cause of God is the cause of humanity. The Church a republican institution. “The rich and poor meet together.” “The poor shall never cease out of the land.” “The poor ye have always with you.” Moses and Jesus, Old Testament and New, recognize what they do not explain—poverty. The Communion Service takes special cognizance of the poor. The offertory sentences cite the golden rule, the laws of analogy, the behests of God. It is fitting, it is beautiful that at the feast of love, love should take shape and colour, that a body should be prepared for it. “All ye are brethren.” How far-reaching are these simple sayings of Jesus Christ. The cause of God—let not that well-known phrase lose its sharpness by use and familiarity. The cause of God is the cause of righteousness, the cause of the weak and oppressed, the cause of the widow and orphan, the cause of the slave and aboriginal, the cause of those who in every clime sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
II. The generous spirit. Motive decides action. “The true measure of sacrifice is not the greatness of the outward act, but the perfectness of the inward motive. We like to do a thing which seems to be a great dedication, and which flatters our self-love by its greatness, partly because it is far easier to do a great thing which does not necessitate self-surrender, than a small thing that does. It is the all—the very heart of the man—that God asks for; the outward form of the sacrifice is of little worth. It is not the great outward act, but the perfect yielding of the soul, which constitutes the sacrifice which God will not despise.”—E. L. Hull. “The motive and measure.” How much shall I give to God? A tithe? “Am I a Jew?” Is the world still in its cradle? Is Christianity a set of rules or a great principle? How much owest thou unto thy Lord? “Freely ye have received, freely give.” Do not ask, “How little can I give?” Inquire rather how much thou hast received. “In the light of the judgment day” it will be well to be “blameless as the steward of God.” When the omniscient Searcher of all hearts pronounces his verdict, blessed will be the man whom he describes as “that faithful and wise steward.” Hold your possessions in trust. When need arises and ability be given, cast your uncounted coins into the treasury. “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and look, what he layeth out, it shall be paid him again.” “There is that scattereth and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.” “Not getting, but giving, is the way to wealth.”
ILLUSTRATIVE POEM:—
“Abon Ben Adhem—may his tribe increase!—
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw amid the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An Angel writing in a book of gold:
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, And to the vision in the room he said,
‘What writest thou?’ The vision raised its head,
And with a voice made of all sweet accord,
Replied. ‘The names of them that love the Lord.’
‘And is mine one?’ said Abon. ‘Nay, not so,’
Replied the Angel. Abon spoke more low,
But cheerily still, and said, ‘I pray thee, then,
Write me as one who loves his fellow-men.’
The Angel wrote and vanished. The next night
He came again with a great wakening light;
He showed the names whom love of God had blest,
And, lo, Ben Adhem’s name led all the rest.”
Leigh Hunt.
TOILERS RESTING
Neh_7:73. So the priests, and the Levites, and the porters, and the singers, and some of the people, and the Nethinims, and all Israel, dwelt in their cities; and when the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their cities.
Wall built. Reformations about to begin. A breathing-time.
I. Rest after labour. The great human heart of Jesus speaks in Mar_6:31 : “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile.” More dramatic when we see him weeping tears of friendship by the grave of Lazarus, or tears of regret over the city of Jerusalem. But not more human than this anxiety for his disciples. The people needed teaching and healing, but the disciples needed rest. The circumstances were these. They had been through the cities preaching and healing. Returning to their Lord, “they told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught.” He orders them to cross the lake and be beyond the tide of human population. After the miracle of feeding he himself “departed into a mountain to pray. And when even was come, he was alone.” Putting side by side his precept and example, we have his recorded convictions on the necessity and importance of leisure and loneliness—the needs—be for rest. Body and mind require it. Rest and sleep are Nature’s great restorers. Never more than in this day. “One great danger in our time is that every man is so active; every man has so much to think about and to do. Nothing moves slowly. If we had the refashioning of the year, we would make it twenty-four months. If we had the refashioning of the day, we would make it forty-eight hours. If we had our own refashioning, we would kindle in ourselves a fire that would burn forty-eight hours without replenishing. Intensity of life, over-wrought occupation comes from the very social, political, and commercial conditions in which we live. And, as if this were not enough, we try, by strong stimulus, to wind up the flagging nerve, worn out by too much excitement. We want, in that way, to make twelve hours do the work of twenty-four.”—H. W. Beecher. One of the penalties we pay for high civilization. The too common history of men in relation to whom work has induced insanity and insanity suicide. Earlier rest would have ministered to many a man’s mind in the incipient stages of disease. Moral development retarded by the whirl of business; by the incessant anxiety to make both ends meet. “The cares of this world” and “the deceitfulness of riches” are both harmful. All a Christian’s time must not be devoted to others. The sanctuary is necessary. Labour is commendable. But leisure is invaluable. Leisure to remind ourselves that we are immortal, that there is a God for us; leisure for personal examination, contrite confession, private prayer, inward resolve; leisure for physical renewal, mental culture, spiritual advancement. “In these hours of rest and retirement many gentle qualities will spring up which find no place in life; only as flowers and grass find place on a pavement, growing up between the stones. There is many a man whose ordinary life is hard as a stone, and whose taste or culture shows itself only as it steals out through the joints where stone meets stone. It is a piteous thing that men should be so hard; and the habit of being by one’s self, the habit of rest and inspection, gives some opportunity for the development of the finer traits of character, which, after all, go far toward making the beauty of holiness in man spring up and bear appropriate fruit.”—H. W. Beecher.
II. Rest before labour. Rest not an end, but a means to an end. The corrective and reward of toil. The true reward of anything consists in having done it more than in its consequences or in men’s appreciation of it. All who labour may enjoy the earthly paradise of rest. But only when it is the preparation for renewed toil. The life of leisure which some sigh for is not desirable. None more wretched than those who have nothing to do. Work was not imposed as a curse. God put the first man into paradise “to dress it and to keep it.” It is expressly noted that “there was not a man to till the ground.” Work is as old as the creation. Noble too. God imposed it. The curse consisted in the toil and its fruitlessness. “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.” The naturalness of work is seen in the recurrence of day and night. Weary we lie down to rest. Sleep recruits the wasted energies of body; the mind recuperates itself. The morning calls us forth to labour. “Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.” All work and no play is a curse indeed. All play and no work is not a blessing. “I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day.” So Christ spake. And he gives three reasons for this. It is the accomplishment of his Father’s purpose. “He sent me.” It is in imitation of his Father. “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” The opportunity for work will soon be past. “The night cometh, when no man can work.” Speaking of his disciples to the end of time, he said, “As the Father sent me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world.” “Labourers together with God” is our appellation. Rest is for a while; work is for life. We find Christ in the city, in the temple, in all the haunts of men. But he soon leaves. His choice seems to be where Nature can speak to him—on the mountain, in the desert, by the sea. He is grander there than when compelled to battle with prejudices. He drank at the pure fount of Nature. So must we. Amongst men we get dwarfed, discontented, disgusted. Meanness, selfishness, the grinding of the weak by the strong, the lip profession belied by the life—all this shakes our faith in goodness. No man can always live in a crowd. We are led by popular opinion, deceived by glitter and show. We shall be superficial in much the same proportion as we neglect solitary converse with ourselves. Too much looking within may be dangerous. That danger is remote. Our danger lies in being strangers to ourselves—looking upward, outward, and onward, but not inward. It is sometimes good for a man to be alone. Some experiences only come to us in solitude. We shall die alone. Friends may smooth our pillow and soothe our pain by their tender ministries of affection; but in the depths of the soul we shall be alone. To every one death is an undiscovered land. Alone in death we must be. And yet not alone. “The Father is with me.” Beyond, the labour that does not fatigue, the service that is perfect freedom. “They serve him day and night in his temple.” “They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.” “They rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.”
ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 7
CITIES
The classification of the human race into dwellers in towns and nomade wanderers (Gen_4:20; Gen_4:22) seems to be intimated by the etymological sense of the Hebrew words Ar or Ir, and Kirjath, viz., as places of security against an enemy, distinguished from the unwalled village or hamlet, whose resistance is more easily overcome by the marauding tribes of the desert. This distinction is found actually existing in countries, as Persia and Arabia, in which the tent-dwellers are found, like the Rechabites, almost side by side with the dwellers in cities, sometimes even sojourning within them, but not amalgamated with the inhabitants, and in general making the desert their home, and, unlike the Rechabites, robbery their undissembled occupation. The earliest notice in Scripture of city-building is of Enoch by Cain, in the land of his “exile” (Gen_4:17). After the confusion of tongues, the descendants of Nimrod founded Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar; and Asshur, a branch from the same stock, built Nineveh, Rehoboth-by-the-river, Calah, and Resen, the last being “a great city.” A subsequent passage mentions Sidon, Gaza, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Lasha as cities of the Canaanites, but without implying for them antiquity equal to that of Nineveh and the rest (Gen_10:10-12; Gen_10:19; Gen_11:3; Gen_11:9; Gen_36:37). Cities existed in Syria prior to the time of Abraham, who himself came from “Ur,” the “city” of the Chaldæans. The earliest description of a city, properly so called, is that of Sodom (Gen_19:1-22); but it is certain that from very early times cities existed on the sites of Jerusalem, Hebron, and Damascus. The last, said to be the oldest city in the world, must, from its unrivalled situation, have always commanded a congregated population. Hebron is said to have been built seven years before Zoan (Tanis) in Egypt, and is thus the only Syrian town which presents the elements of a date for its foundation. Even before the time of Abraham there were cities in Egypt (Gen_12:14-15; Num_13:22). The Israelites, during their sojourn there, were employed in building or fortifying the “treasure cities” of Pithom and Raamses; but their pastoral habits make it unlikely that they should build, still less fortify, cities of their own in Goshen. Meanwhile the settled inhabitants of Syria on both sides of the Jordan had grown in power and in number of “fenced cities.” In the kingdom of Sihon are many names of cities preserved to the present day; and in the kingdom of Og, in Bashan, were sixty “great cities” with walls and brazen bars, besides unwalled villages; and also twenty-three cities in Gilead, which were occupied and perhaps partly rebuilt or fortified by the tribes on the east of Jordan. On the west of Jordan, whilst thirty-one “royal” cities are enumerated (Joshua 12) in the district assigned to Judah, one hundred and twenty-five cities with villages are reckoned. But from some of these the possessors were not expelled till a late period, and Jerusalem itself was not captured till the time of David (2Sa_5:6-9). From this time the Hebrews became a city-dwelling and agricultural rather than a pastoral people. David enlarged Jerusalem, and Solomon, besides embellishing his capital, also built or rebuilt Tadmor, Palmyra, Gezer, Bethhoron, Hazor, and Megiddo, besides store-cities. Collections of houses in Syria for social habitation may be classed under three heads:
(1) cities,
(2) towns with citadels or towers for resort and defence,
(3) unwalled villages. The cities may be assumed to have been in almost all cases “fenced cities,” i. e. possessing a wall with towers and gates; and that as a mark of conquest was to break down a portion, at least, of the city wall of the captured place, so the first care of the defenders, as of the Jews after their return from captivity, was to rebuild the fortifications. But around the city, especially in peaceable times, lay undefended suburbs, to which the privileges of the city extended. The city thus became the citadel, while the population overflowed into the suburbs. The absence of walls, as indicating security in peaceable times, combined with populousness, as was the case in the flourishing period of Egypt, is illustrated by the prophet Zechariah (Neh_2:4). According to Eastern custom, special cities were appointed to furnish special supplies for the service of the state: cities of store, for chariots, for horsemen, for building purposes, for provision for the royal table. Special governors for these and their surrounding districts were appointed by David and by Solomon. To this practice our Lord alludes in his parable of the pounds, and it agrees with the theory of Hindoo government, which was to be conducted by lords of single townships, of 10, 100, or 1000 towns. To the Levites cities were assigned, distributed throughout the country, together with a certain amount of suburban ground, and out of these thirteen were specially reserved fur the family of Aaron. The internal government of Jewish cities was vested before the captivity in a council of elders with judges, who were required to be priests: Josephus says seven judges with two Levites as officers. Under the kings a president or governor appears to have been appointed, and judges were sent out on circuit, who referred matters of doubt to a council composed of priests, Levites, and elders at Jerusalem. After the captivity Ezra made similar arrangements for the appointment of judges. In the time of Josephus there appear to have been councils in the provincial towns, with presidents in each, under the directions of the great council at Jerusalem. In many Eastern cities much space is occupied by gardens, and thus the size of the city is much increased. The vast extent of Nineveh and Babylon may thus be in part accounted for. In most Oriental cities the streets are extremely narrow. It seems likely that the immense concourse which resorted to Jerusalem at the feasts would induce wider streets than in other cities. Herod built in Antioch a wide street paved with stone, and having covered ways on each side. Agrippa II. paved Jerusalem with white stone. The straight street of Damascus is still clearly defined and recognizable. We cannot determine whether the internal commerce of Jewish cities was carried on as now, by means of bazaars, but we read of the bakers’ street (Jer_37:21), and Josephus speaks of the wool market, the hardware market, a place of blacksmiths’ shops, and the clothes market at Jerusalem. The open spaces near the gates of towns were in ancient times, as they are still, used as places of assembly by the elders, of holding courts by kings and judges, and of general resort by citizens. They were also used as places of public exposure by way of punishment. Prisons were under the kingly government within the royal precinct. Great pains were taken to supply both Jerusalem and other cities with water, both by tanks and cisterns for rainwater, and by reservoirs supplied by aqueducts from distant springs. Such was the fountain of Gihon, the aqueduct of Hezekiah, and of Solomon, of which last water is still conveyed from near Bethlehem to Jerusalem. Josephus also mentions an attempt made by Pilate to bring water to Jerusalem. Burial-places, except in special cases, were outside the city.—Rev. H. W. Phillott, M. A., in ‘Smith’s Bible Dictionary
GENEALOGIES
Genealogy, literally the act or art of the γενεαλόγος, i. e. of him who treats of birth and family, and reckons descents and generations. Hence by an easy transition it is often (like ἱστορια) used of the document itself in which such series of generations is set down. In Hebrew the term for a genealogy or pedigree is “the book of the generations;” and because the oldest histories were usually drawn up on a genealogical basis, the expression often extended to the whole history, as is the case with the Gospel of St. Matthew, where “the book of the generation of Jesus Christ” includes the whole history contained in that Gospel. So Gen_2:4, “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth,” seems to be the title of the history which follows. Gen_5:1; Gen_6:9; Gen_10:1; Gen_11:10; Gen_11:27; Gen_25:12; Gen_25:19; Gen_36:1; Gen_36:9; Gen_37:2, are other examples of the same usage, and these passages seem to mark the existence of separate histories from which the book of Genesis was compiled. Nor is this genealogical form of history peculiar to the Hebrews, or the Semitic races. The earliest Greek histories were also genealogies.… The frequent use of the patronymic in Greek, the stories of particular races, the lists of priests, and kings, and conquerors at the games preserved at Sparta, Olympia, and elsewhere; the hereditary monarchies and priesthoods; the division, as old as Homer, into tribes, fratriæ, and γένη, and the existence of the tribe, the gens, and the familia among the Romans; the Celtic clans, the Saxon families using a common patronymic, and their royal genealogies running back to the Teutonic gods, these are among the many instances that may be cited to prove the strong family and genealogical instinct of the ancient world. Coming nearer to the Israelites, it will be enough to allude to the hereditary principle and the vast genealogical records of the Egyptians as regards their kings and priests, and to the passion for genealogies among the Arabs, mentioned by Layard and others, in order to show that the attention paid by the Jews to genealogies is in entire accordance with the manners and tendencies of their contemporaries. In their case, however, it was heightened by several peculiar circumstances. The promise of the land of Canaan to the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob successively, and the separation of the Israelites from the Gentile world; the expectation of Messiah as to spring from the tribe of Judah; the exclusively hereditary priesthood of Aaron with its dignity and emoluments; the long succession of kings in the line of David; and the whole division and occupation of the land upon genealogical principles by the tribes, families, and houses of fathers, gave a deeper importance to the science of genealogy among the Jews than perhaps any other nation. We have already noted the evidence of the existence of family memoirs even before the Flood, to which we are probably indebted for the genealogies in Gen_4:5; and Genesis 10, 11, &c. indicate the continuance of the same system in the times between the Flood and Abraham. But with Jacob, the founder of the nation, the system of reckoning by genealogies was much further developed.… According to these genealogical divisions the Israelites pitched their tents and marched, and offered their gifts and offerings, and chose the spies. According to the same they cast the lots by which the troubler of Israel, Achan, was discovered, as later those by which Saul was called to the throne. Above all, according to these divisions the whole land of Canaan was parcelled out amongst them. But now of necessity that took place which always has taken place with respect to such genealogical arrangements, viz., that by marriage, or servitude, or incorporation as friends and allies, persons not strictly belonging by birth to such or such a family or tribe were yet reckoned in the census as belonging to them. The tribe of Levi was probably the only one which had no admixture of foreign blood. In many of the Scripture genealogies, as, e. g., those of Caleb, Joab, Segub, and the sons of Rephaiah, &c., in 1Ch_3:21, it is quite clear that birth was not the ground of their incorporation into their respective tribes. However, birth was, and continued to be throughout their whole national course, the foundation of all the Jewish organization, and the reigns of the more active kings and rulers were marked by attention to genealogical operations.… But, however tradition may have preserved for a while true genealogies, or imagination and pride have coined fictitious ones, after the destruction of Jerusalem it may be safely affirmed that the Jewish genealogical system then came to an end. Just notions of the nature of the Jewish genealogical records are of great importance with a view to the right interpretation of Scripture. Let it only be remembered that these records have respect to political and territorial divisions, as much as to strictly genealogical descent, and it will at once be seen how erroneous a conclusion it may be that all who are called “sons” of such or such a patriarch, or chief father, must necessarily be his very children.… The sequence of generations may represent the succession to such or such an inheritance or headship of tribe or family, rather than the relationship of father and son … As regards the chronological use of the Scripture genealogies, great caution is necessary in using them as measures of time. What seems necessary to make them trustworthy measures of time is, either that they should have special internal marks of being complete, such as where the mother as well as the father is named, or some historical circumstance defines the several relationships, or that there should be several genealogies, all giving the same number of generations within the same termini. As an indication of the carefulness with which the Jews kept their pedigrees, it is worth while to notice the recurrence of the same name, or modifications of the same name, such as Tobias, Tobit, Nathan, Mattatha, and even of names of the same signification, in the same family. The Jewish genealogies have two forms, one giving the generations in a descending, the other in an ascending scale. Females are named when there is anything remarkable about them, or when any right or property is transmitted through them. The genealogical lists of names are peculiarly liable to corruptions of the text. The Bible genealogies give an unbroken descent of the house of David from the creation to the time of Christ. The registers at Jerusalem must have supplied the same to the priestly and many other families. They also inform us of the origin of most of the nations of the earth, and carry the genealogy of the Edomitish sovereigns down to about the time of Saul. Viewed as a whole, it is a genealogical collection of surpassing interest and accuracy.—Rev. Lord A. Hervey, in ‘Smith’s Bible Dictionary.’
SENTENCES FROM OLD WRITERS
I. The wall completed (Neh_7:1). “Nehemiah was not vain-glorious. He was humbly lofty, and loftily humble; humble in heart, and yet high in worth and works.” “Those that have a hand in building the spiritual Jerusalem shall be surely crowned and chronicled.” “There must be no straining courtesy who shall begin to build, nor must men fear for their forwardness to be styled seraphical and singular.” “Not priests and Levites only, but the great men in every country, yea, and the country people too, must work at God’s building. Every one must be active in his own sphere; not live to himself, but help to bear the burdens of Church and commonwealth.” “All God’s work is honourable.” “Let us learn at these good men’s examples to be bold and constant in well-doing, and not to fear every brag and blast of wind. Let us be as a lusty horse, that goeth through the street, and careth not for the barking of every cur that leapeth forth as though he would bite him; so let us not be afraid of the barking curs, nor look backward, but go on forth, not changing with every tide; and the mighty Lord will strengthen our weakness with good success to finish his building; for so have all good men done from the beginning.”
II. Hanani and Hananiah (Neh_7:2). “Hanani was a gracious man according to his name, and zealous for his country, which indeed is a man’s self.” “An honest man of good credit, and more earnest in religion and love to his country than others, because his name is put down in writing, and the others are not.” “Hananiah was a man of truth, faithfulness, or firmness; a sure man, and such as one might safely confide in.” “He feared God. No wonder, therefore, that he was faithful to men. God’s holy fear is the ground of all goodness and fidelity. Hence Jethro, in his well-qualified ruler, places the fear of God in the midst of the other graces, as the heart in the body, for conveying life to all the parts, or as a dram of musk, perfuming the whole box of ointment (Exo_18:21).” “Nothing maketh a man so good a patriot as the true fear of God.” “Take away piety, and fidelity is gone.” “He cannot be faithful to me (said a king) that is unfaithful to God.” “Religion is the foundation of all true fidelity and loyalty to king and country. Hence that close connection, Fear God, honour the king (1Pe_2:17).” “Hananiah feared God above many. This is a singular praise, and by every man to be sought after, to be eminent and exemplary, taller than the rest by the head and shoulders, full of all goodness, filled with all knowledge (Rom_15:14), able and active in every good word and work.” “That is a low and unworthy strain in some, to labour after no more grace than will keep life and soul together, that is, soul and hell asunder.” “God would have his people to be discontentedly contented with the measures they have received, and to be still adding (2Pe_1:5) and advancing (Php_3:14), aspiring to perfection, till they come unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ (Eph_4:13).”
III. The city guard (Neh_7:3). “Set thou watches. He speaketh to the two Hananis, and bids each of them, whose turn it was, see to the well-doing of it. Xenophon saith of Cyrus, that when he gave anything in command he never said, ‘Let some one do this,’ but, ‘Do thou this.’ ”
IV. An inspired man (Neh_7:5). “No man ever grew to be greatly good without a Divine instinct.” “Every good motion in him, and whatever he thought of that was conducive to the good and welfare of Jerusalem, Nehemiah always ascribed it to God.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 A List of those who returned from Babylon with…
A List of those who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel
2. Hanani] after carrying information to Nehemiah respecting the condition of Jerusalem (Neh_1:2), he must have returned with him to Judaea.
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3. Until the sun be hot] By this time the mass of the citizens would be astir. While they stand by] RV 'while they (i.e. the sentries) stand on guard.'
4. The houses were not builded] i.e. the area of the city was not yet fully occupied with buildings.
5. Reckoned by genealogy] It was proposed to take a census of all the persons of Jewish descent, with a view to transferring part of the country population to the capital. Particulars derived from such a census appear in Neh_11:4. Here, however, the subject is for a time dropped, and the register that follows relates to the period of Zerubbabel (Neh_7:7).
7-73. The names here enumerated are repeated, with certain small differences, from the list contained in Ezra 2.
70. Basons] used in connexion with the sacrifices. Five hundred and thirty priests' garments] For this should perhaps be substituted 'five hundred pounds of silver and thirty priests' garments,' a change which would make the quantities named in Neh_7:70-72 approximate closely to those given in Ezr_2:69.
73. And when the seventh month came] These words in RV are connected with the subject of Nehemiah 8, the seventh month (Tishri) being probably the one immediately following the sixth (Elul) mentioned in Ezr_6:15.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv2, 7, 65, 73 (See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
feared
(See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. Provisions made for the defense of the city…
CHAPTER 7
1. Provisions made for the defense of the city (Neh 7:1-4)
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2. The genealogy (Neh 7:5-65)
3. Their whole number (Neh 7:66-69)
4. The gifts for the work (Neh 7:70-73)
Neh 7:1-4. The wall had been finished and the doors set up. Porters, singers and the Levites were appointed, and Nehemiah gave to his brother Hanani and Hananiah, the ruler of the castle, charge over Jerusalem. The porters were gate keepers. These gate keepers are named in Ezr 2:42, and here in this chapter in verse 45. Their duty was to open the gates and bar them at night. Nehemiah’s instructions are given in the text, “Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun be hot; and while they stand by, let them shut the doors, and bar them: and appoint watches of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, every one in his watch, and every one to be over against his house.” The city was carefully guarded. Every one who entered the city had to do so in broad daylight, and a system of watches was established for the purpose of watching the gates of the city day and night. It seems the Hebrews before the exile, and some time after, had three night watches of four hours each. Later, at the time our Lord was on earth, they had four night watches (Mar 13:35). It was wisdom to guard the entrances to the city so as to keep out those who had no right to enter. As there were many enemies who might sneak in and do harm, this scrutiny and these watches were of great importance and necessity.
This caution exercised by Nehemiah in regard to watching those who entered the gates gives a lesson concerning the Church. The New Testament teaches the same caution as to those who are to be admitted to Christian fellowship, and those who are to be refused. Unregenerated persons have no right in a true church or assembly, nor any one whose life is not right, nor who holds doctrines contrary to the faith delivered unto the saints. “If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds” (2Jn 1:10-11). But if even in the Apostolic days “certain men crept in unawares,” as Jude writes (Jud 1:4) how much greater is this evil in these Laodicean days.
Neh 7:5-65. This chapter corresponds to the second chapter in Ezra; the annotations given there need not be repeated here. But we notice Nehemiah’s statement, “My God put it into my heart.” As a godly man, he acknowledges the hand of the Lord and His guidance.
Neh 7:66-69. The number of the whole congregation is given as 42,360. If we turn to Ezr 2:64 we find the same statement. There are differences between these two lists which prove that they are not identical.
Neh 7:70-73. The gifts for the work are mentioned more fully by Nehemiah. See Ezra’s record, chapter 2:68-70. The amounts in both records do not agree, and it is generally charged that it is due to different traditions, or copyists’ errors. But there is no real discrepancy. Ezra mentions what some of the chiefs of the fathers offered. Nehemiah records what he himself gave (Tirshatha is Nehemiah’s Persian title as governor) besides the chiefs and the rest of the people.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 70 The Charge of the City
The Charge of the City
v. 1. Now it came to pass, when the wail was built and I had set up the doors, completing everything as it had been planned, and the porters and the singers and the Levite. were appointed, the Levites who had charge of the gates and those who were entrusted with the liturgical part of the Temple service being distinguished from those who assisted the priests in the sacrificial worship, as David had ordered, 1Ch 9:17-27; 1Ch 26:1-19,
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v. 2. that I gave my brother Hansni, and Rananiah, the ruler of the palace, this office being held after the end of the monarchy, Cf 2Ki 18:37; 2Ch 26:21, in the form of prime minister to the governor, charge over Jerusalem; for he was a faithful man and feared God above many, his faithfulness being an outflow of his fear of God, a tact which caused Nehemiah to place such confidence in him, for he was sure that this fact would keep Hananiah from the temptations to treachery and unfaithfulness which were likely to come to him.
v. 3. And I said unto them, Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun be hot, the custom being to open them at sunrise, when the enemies might still take advantage of the shadows to attempt an attack; and while they stand by, that is, the members of the guard, ready to defend the gates, let them shut the doors and bar them, this being done at sunset; and appoint watches of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, men living throughout the city, every one in his watch, and every one to be over against his house, mounting guard, as sentinel, near his own property, in order to prevent any gathering of people that may have entered into the city for the purpose of starting a riot.
v. 4. Now, the city was large and great, but the people were few therein, and the houses were not builded, that is, its area was very great in proportion to its population, which explains the necessity of the measures adopted by Nehemiah before returning to Shushan, as he had promised the Persian king, Neh 2:6. Nehemiah took every precaution to insure the safety of the city during his absence. The Church of Christ is also the city of God and His holy habitation. The ministers of the Church therefore must be diligent in their office as watchmen and defenders of Zion, lest the enemies take advantage of some oversight in its defense.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 11, 15, 19, 23, 27, 31, 35, 39, 43, 46, 50, 53, 57, 61, 64, 66, 68, 70, 73 When the wall was finished
When the wall was finished
This can be stated in active form. AT: "When we had finished the wall" (See: Active or Passive)
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I had set up the doors in place
This was done with help. AT: "I and others hung the doors" (See: Synecdoche)
the gatekeepers and singers and Levites had been appointed
This can be stated in active form. Possible meanings are: 1) Nehemiah appointed them. AT: "I assigned the gatekeepers and singers and Levites to their tasks" or 2) Someone else appointed them. AT: "they assigned the gatekeepers and singers and Levites to their tasks" (See: Active or Passive)
gatekeepers
people assigned to each gate, responsible to control access to the city or temple, as well as to open and close the gates at times and for reasons set by the administrator
singers
vocal musicians who led in worship, in processions, and ceremonies, producing music and chants that emphasized and enhanced the occasion
Hanani ... Hananiah
These are names of men. (See: How to Translate Names)
I gave my brother Hanani charge
"I gave the order for my brother Hanani to be the manager"
who had oversight of the fortress
"who was in charge of the fortress"
feared God more than many
"feared God more than many other people"
translationWords
Levi
appoint
brother
Jerusalem
faithful
fear
God
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 39, 60, 61, 65, 66, 70, 73 7:1 the wall was finished: The actual dedication of…
7:1 the wall was finished: The actual dedication of the wall is reported in 12:27-34. • The Levites usually assisted with caring for the Temple area, including guarding its gates.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.