next chapter
* * *
8.1 The square before the Water Gate, on the east of the city, outside the temple area, where even ritually defiled citizens could be present. They told the scribe Ezra. Though Ezra is plainly the initiator of the teaching of the law (cf. Ezra 7.25), he wants to represent it as a response to the people’s request.
8.2 First day of the seventh month, the new moon day introducing the most important festival month in Israel. This day (Tishri 1) later became New Year’s Day (Rosh Hashanah). All who…understanding, older children.
8.4–8 A narrative parallel to the reading of the “book of the law” in the time of Josiah (2 Chr 34.14–32).
8.4 Mattithiah…Meshullam, a representative group of thirteen laymen lending their authority; cf. the thirteen Levites in v. 7.
8.5 Opened the book, i.e., “unrolled the scroll.”
8.6 Amen, Hebrew for “It is firm, established,” signifying the assent of the listeners.
8.7–8 The Levites apparently moved among the people, ensuring they understood what was read by Ezra. With interpretation, in Hebrew “distinctly” or “with pauses,” perhaps implies translation from Hebrew to Aramaic.
8.9 Nehemiah. This is the only evidence that Ezra and Nehemiah were contemporaries; and since the verb said is singular it seems likely that Nehemiah, who was the governor should be deleted as a mistaken scribal addition. Mourn or weep, in repentance for having disobeyed the law.
8.10 The people should celebrate the new moon festival as they were planning to and send portions to the poor and foreigners (as prescribed in Deut 26.12–13).
8.13–18 The following day a smaller group, the family heads and temple officials in Jerusalem, studied with Ezra the details for exact observance of the next festival, Booths (see note on Ezra 3.4), to begin on the fifteenth of the month. Living for a week in huts commemorated the journeying in the wilderness (Lev 23.42).
8.17 Jeshua, Joshua, Moses’ successor. The Festival of Booths had always been celebrated, as far as we know (Judg 21.19; 1 Sam 1.3; Ezra 3.4); the novelty now was apparently that all Israel could celebrate it together in one place, last possible when they were camped by Gilgal with Joshua (though Josh 5.10 speaks of Passover and not specifically of Booths).
NEHEMIAH 9
National Confession
1Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads.f 2Then those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors. 3They stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the LORD their God for a fourth part of the day, and for another fourth they made confession and worshiped the LORD their God. 4Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani stood on the stairs of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to the LORD their God. 5Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.”
6And Ezra said:g “You are the LORD, you alone; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. To all of them you give life, and the host of heaven worships you. 7You are the LORD, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham; 8and you found his heart faithful before you, and made with him a covenant to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite; and you have fulfilled your promise, for you are righteous.
9“And you saw the distress of our ancestors in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea.h 10You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted insolently against our ancestors. You made a name for yourself, which remains to this day. 11And you divided the sea before them, so that they passed through the sea on dry land, but you threw their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters. 12Moreover, you led them by day with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire, to give them light on the way in which they should go. 13You came down also upon Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments, 14and you made known your holy sabbath to them and gave them commandments and statutes and a law through your servant Moses. 15For their hunger you gave them bread from heaven, and for their thirst you brought water for them out of the rock, and you told them to go in to possess the land that you swore to give them.
16“But they and our ancestors acted presumptuously and stiffened their necks and did not obey your commandments; 17they refused to obey, and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them; but they stiffened their necks and determined to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and you did not forsake them. 18Even when they had cast an image of a calf for themselves and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies, 19you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness; the pillar of cloud that led them in the way did not leave them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night that gave them light on the way by which they should go. 20You gave your good spirit to instruct them, and did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and gave them water for their thirst. 21Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness so that they lacked nothing; their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. 22And you gave them kingdoms and peoples, and allotted to them every corner,i so they took possession of the land of King Sihon of Heshbon and the land of King Og of Bashan. 23You multiplied their descendants like the stars of heaven, and brought them into the land that you had told their ancestors to enter and possess. 24So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings and the peoples of the land, to do with them as they pleased. 25And they captured fortress cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses filled with all sorts of goods, hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive orchards, and fruit trees in abundance; so they ate, and were filled and became fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness.
26“Nevertheless they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their backs and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies. 27Therefore you gave them into the hands of their enemies, who made them suffer. Then in the time of their suffering they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven, and according to your great mercies you gave them saviors who saved them from the hands of their enemies. 28But after they had rest, they again did evil before you, and you abandoned them to the hands of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them; yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you rescued them according to your mercies. 29And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances, by the observance of which a person shall live. They turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey. 30Many years you were patient with them, and warned them by your spirit through your prophets; yet they would not listen. Therefore you handed them over to the peoples of the lands. 31Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.
32“Now therefore, our God—the great and mighty and awesome God, keeping covenant and steadfast love—do not treat lightly all the hardship that has come upon us, upon our kings, our officials, our priests, our prophets, our ancestors, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until today. 33You have been
just in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly; 34our kings, our officials, our priests, and our ancestors have not kept your law or heeded the commandments and the warnings that you gave them. 35Even in their own kingdom, and in the great goodness you bestowed on them, and in the large and rich land that you set before them, they did not serve you and did not turn from their wicked works. 36Here we are, slaves to this day—slaves in the land that you gave to our ancestors to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts. 37Its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins; they have power also over our bodies and over our livestock at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.”
Those Who Signed the Covenant
38a Because of all this we make a firm agreement in writing, and on that sealed document are inscribed the names of our officials, our Levites, and our priests.
next chapter
* * *
a 1 Esdras 9.48 Vg: Heb and the Levites
b Or tabernacles; Heb succoth
c Or tabernacles; Heb succoth
d Or tabernacles; Heb succoth
e Or tabernacles; Heb succoth
f Heb on them
g Gk: Heb lacks And Ezra said
h Or Sea of Reeds
i Meaning of Heb uncertain
9.1–37 Two days later, a day of penitence is held (vv. 1–4), and the prayer of the Levites is reported (vv. 5–37). Strangely, the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) on the tenth has not been mentioned; perhaps the ceremony of the twenty-fourth replaces it, or perhaps the narrative deliberately downgrades cultic activities in favor of an increased annual role for scripture.
9.1 Rituals of mourning are often used to express penitence. Mourners and penitents alike want to depict themselves as being like the dead, so they perform a ritual of fasting from food, wear sackcloth, from which shrouds are made, and put earth on their heads as if they were buried.
9.2 Separated…from all foreigners. This is not the divorcing of foreign wives as in Ezra 9–10, but it reflects the same concern for religious distinctiveness. Though foreigners living in Judea could participate in the festival (Deut 16.14) and were obliged to keep the law (Num 15.15–16), they had no need to confess Israel’s sins as their own.
9.5–37 The Levites first summon the people to Stand up and bless the LORD (v. 5a). Their prayer must then begin with Blessed be your glorious name, addressed to God. The theme of the prayer is Israelite history viewed as a story of apostasy: there has been divine blessing (vv. 6–15), blessing continued despite rebellion (vv. 16–25), and rebellion renewed (vv. 26–31). It concludes with an appeal for deliverance from foreign domination (vv. 32–37, esp. v. 32, do not treat lightly all the hardship…).
9.6 There is no good reason to add to the text And Ezra said, as NRSV does, for the levitical prayer continues from 9.5b.
9.7 See Gen 11.31–12.3.
9.8 See Gen 15.
9.9 See Ex 3.7; 14.10.
9.10 See Deut 4.34; 29.2–3; Ex 18.11.
9.11 See Ex 14.21–23.
9.12 See Ex 13.21; Num 14.14.
9.13 See Ex 19–23.
9.14 See Ex 20.8–11.
9.15 See Ex 16.4; 17.6.
9.17 See Ex 16.2–3; cf. 34.6.
9.18 See Ex 32.4.
9.20 See Num 11.17; 11.6–9; 20.7–11.
9.21 See Deut 2.7; 8.4.
9.22 See Num 21.32–35; Deut 2.24–3.11.
9.23 See Gen 22.17.
9.27 Cf. Judg 2.11–18.
9.29 Cf. Deut 4.1.
9.38–10.39 The pledge of reform is here firmly attached to the prayer of penitence (Because of all this). Historically it seems more likely that it stemmed from the community of Nehemiah (probably following the events of Neh 13) rather than that of Ezra, who is not named in it.
NEHEMIAH 10b
1Upon the sealed document are the names of Nehemiah the governor, son of Hacaliah, and Zedekiah; 2Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, 3Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah, 4Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, 5Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, 6Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, 7Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, 8Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah; these are the priests. 9And the Levites: Jeshua son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel; 10and their associates, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, 11Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah, 12Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, 13Hodiah, Bani, Beninu. 14The leaders of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani, 15Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, 16Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, 17Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur, 18Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai, 19Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, 20Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, 21Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua, 22Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, 23Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub, 24Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek, 25Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, 26Ahiah, Hanan, Anan, 27Malluch, Harim, and Baanah.
Summary of the Covenant
28The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to adhere to the law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, 29join with their kin, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord and his ordinances and his statutes. 30We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons; 31and if the peoples of the land bring in merchandise or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we will not buy it from them on the sabbath or on a holy day; and we will forego the crops of the seventh year and the exaction of every debt.
32We also lay on ourselves the obligation to charge ourselves yearly one-third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God: 33for the rows of bread, the regular grain offering, the regular burnt offering, the sabbaths, the new moons, the appointed festivals, the sacred donations, and the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God. 34We have also cast lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, by ancestral houses, at appointed times, year by year, to burn on the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the law. 35We obligate ourselves to bring the first fruits of our soil and the first fruits of all fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the LORD; 36also to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God, the firstborn of our sons and of our livestock, as it is written in the law, and the firstlings of our herds and of our flocks; 37and to bring the first of our dough, and our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the wine and the oil, to the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and to bring to the Levites the tithes from our soil, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all our rural towns. 38And the priest, the descendant of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive the tithes; and the Levites shall bring up a tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the storehouse. 39For the people of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of grain, wine, and oil to the storerooms where the vessels of the sanctuary are, and where the priests that minister, and the gatekeepers and the singers are. We will not neglect the house of our God.
next chapter
* * *
10.1–27 The priests’ names (vv. 2–8) are probably “course” (or duty roster) names rather than the names of individuals. The laymen’s names (vv. 14–27) often correspond to Ezra 2 and Neh 7, suggesting that individuals signed on behalf of their families.
10.28–39 The people pledge to keep not just pentateuchal law in general, but particular interpretations of it amounting to new laws.
10.28 All who have separated themselves. Cf. Ezra 6.21.
10.30 Cf. Ex 34.11–16; Deut 7.1–4; note on Ezra 9.1–10.44.
10.31 No former sabbath law (e.g., Ex 20.8–11) defined buying food as work. And previously the fallow-year law (Ex 23.10–11), which works to the disadvantage of the farmer, had not been combined with the remission-year law (Deut 15.1–8), which works to the disadva
ntage of the merchant.
10.32 Previously any temple tax had been only occasional (2 Kings 12.4–15), not annual.
10.33 For the temple expenditures, see Num 28–29.
10.34 The law prescribed a continual fire on the altar (Lev 6.8–13), but not how the wood should be collected.
10.35–39 Most of these gifts for the temple personnel are prescribed in various parts of the law, but this is the first time they are all brought together. For first fruits, see Num 18.12–13; for firstborn, see Ex 22.29–30; for the first, or better “choice produce,” manufactured rather than raw, see Num 18.12; for tithes, see Num 18.26–32.
10.38 Priests receive a tenth of the Levites’ income (Num 18.26–28).
NEHEMIAH 11
Population of the City Increased
1Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem; and the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in the holy city Jerusalem, while nine-tenths remained in the other towns. 2And the people blessed all those who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem.
3These are the leaders of the province who lived in Jerusalem; but in the towns of Judah all lived on their property in their towns: Israel, the priests, the Levites, the temple servants, and the descendants of Solomon’s servants. 4And in Jerusalem lived some of the Judahites and of the Benjaminites. Of the Judahites: Athaiah son of Uzziah son of Zechariah son of Amariah son of Shephatiah son of Mahalalel, of the descendants of Perez; 5and Maaseiah son of Baruch son of Col-hozeh son of Hazaiah son of Adaiah son of Joiarib son of Zechariah son of the Shilonite. 6All the descendants of Perez who lived in Jerusalem were four hundred sixty-eight valiant warriors.
HarperCollins Study Bible Page 190
