9.1 After these things had been done. Most probably the account of the reading of the law in Neh 8, and perhaps also that of the penitential service of Neh 9, earlier came between the moment of Ezra’s arrival in Jerusalem and the events of Ezra 9–10. Peoples of the lands, non-Jewish or part-Jewish inhabitants. There were no surviving Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, or Amorites still in Palestine in Ezra’s time. The names come from an old stereotyped list of foreign nations with whom intermarriage was forbidden (esp. in Deut 7.1–4), and they are mentioned here to invoke the ancient law as relevant to the current situation. Marriage with Ammonites and Moabites, though they were recognized as members of the Semitic family of nations, had also been strongly prohibited (Deut 23.3–6), but with Egyptians it was not forbidden (Deut 23.7).
9.2 The holy seed, a phrase from Isa 6.13, with overtones of the language of the blessings to Abraham (e.g., Gen 12.7; 13.14–16; 17.1–8). The exclusivist language expresses a concern with religious rather than simply ethnic identity, but whether that makes it better or worse is a matter of opinion.
9.3 I tore my garment (tunic or undergarment) and my mantle (cloak or outer garment), an act of mourning, a stylized stripping oneself naked as a symbol of death. Pulled hair from my head and beard, a customary modification of the forbidden practice of shaving the head in mourning (Lev 19.27; 21.5).
9.4 All who trembled…Israel, the strict adherents of the law (cf. 10.9; Isa 66.2, 5). Appalled, i.e., dumbfounded, the conventional shocked silence at a time of lamentation (cf. Job 2.12–13; Ezek 26.16). Until the evening sacrifice, until the ninth hour, about 3 PM, an appropriate time for prayer (1 Kings 18.36; Acts 3.1).
9.5 Spread out my hands, palms upward, a gesture of supplication in prayer.
9.7 Utter shame, as is now the case, because as a people the Jews are subject to the Persians.
9.8 A remnant, those of the nation who remain. A stake, lit. “a tent peg,” the rebuilt temple as a guarantee of security and God’s presence. Brighten our eyes, revive our spirits (cf. 1 Sam 14.27).
9.9 Slaves, not literally, but, as Persian subjects, lacking national independence. A wall in Judea and Jerusalem, a metaphor (cf. Ps 80.2) for the protection of the Persian government.
9.11–12 The words quoted by Ezra come mostly from the Pentateuch, so he must regard Moses as a prophet (as does Deut 18.15; 34.10); there are allusions to Deut 7.1; Lev 18.24–30; Deut 18.9; 2 Kings 21.16; Deut 7.3; 23.6; 11.8; 6.11; 1.38–39.
EZRA 10
The People’s Response
1While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children gathered to him out of Israel; the people also wept bitterly. 2Shecaniah son of Jehiel, of the descendants of Elam, addressed Ezra, saying, “We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. 3So now let us make a covenant with our God to send away all these wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law. 4Take action, for it is your duty, and we are with you; be strong, and do it.” 5Then Ezra stood up and made the leading priests, the Levites, and all Israel swear that they would do as had been said. So they swore.
Foreign Wives and Their Children Rejected
6Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God, and went to the chamber of Jehohanan son of Eliashib, where he spent the night.a He did not eat bread or drink water, for he was mourning over the faithlessness of the exiles. 7They made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the returned exiles that they should assemble at Jerusalem, 8and that if any did not come within three days, by order of the officials and the elders all their property should be forfeited, and they themselves banned from the congregation of the exiles.
9Then all the people of Judah and Benjamin assembled at Jerusalem within the three days; it was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month. All the people sat in the open square before the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the heavy rain. 10Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have trespassed and married foreign women, and so increased the guilt of Israel. 11Now make confession to the LORD the God of your ancestors, and do his will; separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.” 12Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, “It is so; we must do as you have said. 13But the people are many, and it is a time of heavy rain; we cannot stand in the open. Nor is this a task for one day or for two, for many of us have transgressed in this matter. 14Let our officials represent the whole assembly, and let all in our towns who have taken foreign wives come at appointed times, and with them the elders and judges of every town, until the fierce wrath of our God on this account is averted from us.” 15Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah opposed this, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levites supported them.
16Then the returned exiles did so. Ezra the priest selected men,b heads of families, according to their families, each of them designated by name. On the first day of the tenth month they sat down to examine the matter. 17By the first day of the first month they had come to the end of all the men who had married foreign women.
18There were found of the descendants of the priests who had married foreign women, of the descendants of Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah. 19They pledged themselves to send away their wives, and their guilt offering was a ram of the flock for their guilt. 20Of the descendants of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah. 21Of the descendants of Harim: Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, and Uzziah. 22Of the descendants of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah.
23Of the Levites: Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah (that is, Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer. 24Of the singers: Eliashib. Of the gatekeepers: Shallum, Telem, and Uri.
25And of Israel: of the descendants of Parosh: Ramiah, Izziah, Malchijah, Mijamin, Eleazar, Hashabiah,c and Benaiah. 26Of the descendants of Elam: Mattaniah, Zechariah, Jehiel, Abdi, Jeremoth, and Elijah. 27Of the descendants of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Jeremoth, Zabad, and Aziza. 28Of the descendants of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, and Athlai. 29Of the descendants of Bani: Meshullam, Malluch, Adaiah, Jashub, Sheal, and Jeremoth. 30Of the descendants of Pahath-moab: Adna, Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui, and Manasseh. 31Of the descendants of Harim: Eliezer, Isshijah, Malchijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon, 32Benjamin, Malluch, and Shemariah. 33Of the descendants of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, and Shimei. 34Of the descendants of Bani: Maadai, Amram, Uel, 35Benaiah, Bedeiah, Cheluhi, 36Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib, 37Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasu. 38Of the descendants of Binnui:d Shimei, 39Shelemiah, Nathan, Adaiah, 40Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai, 41Azarel, Shelemiah, Shemariah, 42Shallum, Amariah, and Joseph. 43Of the descendants of Nebo: Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jaddai, Joel, and Benaiah. 44All these had married foreign women, and they sent them away with their children.e
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a 1 Esdras 9.2: Heb where he went
b 1 Esdras 9.16: Syr: Heb And there were selected Ezra,
c 1 Esdras 9.26 Gk: Heb Malchijah
d Gk: Heb Bani, Binnui
e 1 Esdras 9.36; meaning of Heb uncertain
10.2 Shecaniah son of Jehiel, of…Elam. Strangely, a Jehiel of the family of Elam was among those who had married foreign wives (see 10.26); so, if it is the same Jehiel, Shecaniah would have been advocating his own excommunication!
10.3 To send away, to divorce. According to the law. The law sanctions divorce in the case of a man finding some “uncleanness” in his wife (Deut 24.1–4); apparently the law is here being applied to the case of the (ritual) “uncleanness” of foreign birth. Previously, although the law forbade certain intermarriage, there was no rule about what action should be taken once it had occurred.
10.6 The
chamber. There were rooms in the temple for accommodating priests and Levites when they were on duty. Jehohanan (or Johanan) son of Eliashib, perhaps the high priest, if the high-priestly genealogy of Neh 12.10–11 is rightly seen to have some gaps.
10.7 Assemble at Jerusalem. An assembly of all Israelite males was required in the law for certain festivals (Ex 23.17; Deut 16.16).
10.8 Forfeited, lit. “devoted” to God, and so removed from the owner’s use for secular purposes. Banned, the earliest attestation of excommunication (cf. Jn 9.22; 12.42).
10.9 The ninth month, December, when the heavy winter rains, and sometimes even snow, fall in Jerusalem, which lies 2,000 feet above sea level. The open square, the scene of Ezra’s prayer (v. 1) and perhaps also of his law reading (Neh 8).
10.14 The appointment of a commission to examine the individual cases casts a veneer of propriety and legality over the proceedings, which had, however, been decided on by a popular assembly of which the vast majority had nothing to lose by the decision.
10.15 The opposition may be to the proposal to postpone the investigations, and these four men may be more rigorous, not more liberal, than the majority; the Levite Meshullam may well be Ezra’s companion in 8.16, and Shabbethai ’s name suggests that he came from a strictly religious family (cf. Isa 58.13).
10.16–17 A full three months (from December 29, 458, to March 27, 457 BCE, if the contemporary Persian king was Artaxerxes I; see note on 7.7) were spent on the identification of 113 offenders; it cannot have always been easy to determine the racial status of a woman who was of partly Jewish and partly non-Jewish descent. The list may of course be incomplete: it includes none of the temple servants or of the inhabitants of the towns listed in 2.20–35.
10.44 The narrative can be reasonably expected to have concluded with some such note, but the Hebrew is not intelligible, and the NRSV adopts the parallel in 1 Esd 9.36.
NEHEMIAH
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NEHEMIAH 1
Nehemiah Prays for His People
1The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah. In the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the capital, 2one of my brothers, Hanani, came with certain men from Judah; and I asked them about the Jews that survived, those who had escaped the captivity, and about Jerusalem. 3They replied, “The survivors there in the province who escaped captivity are in great trouble and shame; the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been destroyed by fire.”
4When I heard these words I sat down and wept, and mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5I said, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments; 6let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Both I and my family have sinned. 7We have offended you deeply, failing to keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances that you commanded your servant Moses. 8Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples; 9but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are under the farthest skies, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place at which I have chosen to establish my name.’ 10They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great power and your strong hand. 11O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man!”
At the time, I was cupbearer to the king.
[For introductory material to Nehemiah, see the Introduction to Ezra.]
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1.1–11 Nehemiah, hearing of a recent attack upon Jerusalem, prays for the success of his planned request to the Persian king to be allowed to rebuild the city walls. The narrative is told in the first person and apparently has been only lightly edited from a memoir composed by Nehemiah himself.
1.1 Nehemiah, a Jew who had risen to high office in the Persian administration; see notes on 1.11; 5.14. Chislev, the ninth month, November/December. The twentieth year, apparently of Artaxerxes I (465–424 BCE.), 445. But ch. 2 is dated in the month Nisan (the first month) of the twentieth year; since the month Nisan does not follow Chislev, the year here in v. 1 is apparently an error for “nineteenth,” i.e., 446. Susa, the winter residence of the Persian kings.
1.2 The Jews that survived, apparently those who had never been exiled. Those who had escaped the captivity, those who had returned from exile.
1.3 This cannot refer to the destruction of the city in 587 BCE, since it is presented as fresh news. Perhaps this assault on the city is the result of the military force deployed against Jerusalem, according to Ezra 4.23, in the reign of Artaxerxes.
1.4 Sat down, a customary posture in mourning and fasting (cf. Job 2.8, 13).
1.5–11 Nehemiah’s prayer uses much conventional language, taken especially from Deuteronomy. See esp. Deut 5.31; 7.8, 9, 21; 9.29; 12.11; 30.1–5.
1.6 Confessing. This is a general confession, without reference to any specific sins (in contrast to Ezra’s prayer of Ezra 9).
1.8–9 The word that you commanded. A free summary of Deut 30.1–5.
1.11 This man. Nehemiah has not yet mentioned the name of his sovereign, but God is expected to know, and readers will soon be enlightened. Perhaps Nehemiah’s language gives a hint of how he regards him: he is a mere man. Cupbearer, an important office in the Persian court. As taster of the king’s wine and guard of the royal apartment, he would no doubt have great personal influence on the king’s decisions.
NEHEMIAH 2
Nehemiah Sent to Judah
1In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was served him, I carried the wine and gave it to the king. Now, I had never been sad in his presence before. 2So the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This can only be sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid. 3I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my ancestors’ graves, lies waste, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” 4Then the king said to me, “What do you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5Then I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my ancestors’ graves, so that I may rebuild it.” 6The king said to me (the queen also was sitting beside him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me, and I set him a date. 7Then I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may grant me passage until I arrive in Judah; 8and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, directing him to give me timber to make beams for the gates of the temple fortress, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for the gracious hand of my God was upon me.
9Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River, and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent officers of the army and cavalry with me. 10When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.
Nehemiah’s Inspection of the Walls
11So I came to Jerusalem and was there for three days. 12Then I got up during the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. The only animal I took was the animal I rode. 13I went out by night by the Valley Gate past the Dragon’s Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. 14Then I went
on to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool; but there was no place for the animal I was riding to continue. 15So I went up by way of the valley by night and inspected the wall. Then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. 16The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing; I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest that were to do the work.
Decision to Restore the Walls
17Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer suffer disgrace.” 18I told them that the hand of my God had been gracious upon me, and also the words that the king had spoken to me. Then they said, “Let us start building!” So they committed themselves to the common good. 19But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” 20Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven is the one who will give us success, and we his servants are going to start building; but you have no share or claim or historic right in Jerusalem.”
HarperCollins Study Bible Page 187
