23. SCHEME OF THE BOOK. I. Before the wall-building (chaps. i., ii.). 1. Nehemiah's sadness (chap. i.). 2. Nehemiah's request of the king (chap. ii. 1-8). 3. Nehemiah's journey (chap. ii. 9-11). 4. Nehemiah's inspection and counsel (chap. ii. 12-20). II. The wall-building (chap. iii.-xii. 43). 1. The stations (chap. iii.). 2. The opposition from without (chap. iv.). 6. The genealogy (chap. vii. 5-73). 7. The law-reading on the first of Tisri (chap. viii. 1-12). 8. The preparations for the feast of tabernacles (chap. viii. 13-16). 9. The feast of tabernacles (chap. viii. 17, 18). 10. The extraordinary fast (chaps. ix., x.). 11. The distribution of inhabitants (chap. xi.). III. After the wall building. 1. Levitical apportionments (chap. xii. 44–47). 2. The separation of the Erev (mixed multitude-chap. xiii. 1-3). * * * 3. Nehemiah's reforms twelve years later (chap. xiii. 4-31). THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAН. 1 CHAPTER I. 1–11. THE words [history] of Nehemiah, the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year [of Artaxerxes], as I was in Shushan 2 the palace [the citadel of Susa], that Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped [the Jews, the delivered ones], which were left [over] of the captivity, and con3 cerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me, The remnant [the left-over ones] that are left [over] of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are 4 burned with fire. And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted,' and prayed before the God of hea5 ven, and said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God that keepeth covenant and mercy [i. e. the merciful covenant] for them that love him 6 and observe his commandments: Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayst hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now [to-day], day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and father's house have sinned. We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou 8 commandedst thy servant Moses. Remember, I beseech thee the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad 9 among the nations: but if ye turn unto me and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have 10 chosen to set my name there. Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom 11 thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand. O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man [i. e. Artaxerxes]. For I was the king's cup-bearer. 7 my TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 1 Ver. 4. D. Here and in 2 Sam. xii. 23 the participle. Here the auxiliary verb expressed. After D' supply D, as in Dan. x. 14. 2 Ver. 7. T San Aben Ezra and most of the Jewish commentators count this a Chaldaism as in Dan. vi. 23, 4 (22, 23). In Gen. vi. 12 אֲרֵי חַבִּילוּ כָּל בִּשְׁרָא is translated by Onkelos כִּי־הִשְׁחִית כָּל־בָּשָׂר T: The meaning of "act corruptly" is, however, found in Job xxxiv. 31. It may be an early Aramaic signifi cation. EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. The Tidings from Jerusalem. Ver. 1. The title of the book is contained in its first four (Hebrew) words, Divre Nehemyah Ben Hachalyah,* i. e., The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hachaliah.-Even the prophets sometimes begin their books in this way (see Jer. i. 1, and Amos i. 1), although with them the Devar Yehovah (the Word of the Lord) finds its place soon after. The absence of the Devar Yehovah here is nothing against the inspired character of the book. Its presence in the prophets is simply a token of their prophetic character, as they speak to the people directly in God's name with a special message. In the historical books, even in the Pentateuch, the sacred foundation of them all, this phrase very naturally is not found. Here, as in 1 Chron. xxix. 29, and elsewhere, "the words of" are really "the words about," or "the history of." In Jer. i. 1, Amos. i. 1, etc., they have the literal meaning. (Dathe rightly "historia Nehemiah"). (For the name and history of Nehemiah, see the Introduction). designated is therefore parts of B. C. 446 and Athenæus (xii. 8) says, Knbñvai rà Σovoá φησιν 'Αριστόβουλος καὶ Χάρης διὰ τὴν ὡραιότητα του τόπου· σοῦσον γὰρ εἶναι τῇ Ελλήνων (? Ελυaiwv) owvŋ тò kрívov. So Steph. Byzant, Lovoa, ἀπὸ τῶν κρίνων, ἃ πολλὰ ἐν τῇ χώρα πεφύκει εκείνη. If this be true we must accord it a Shemitic ori- The starting-point of Nehemiah's words (or history) is in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, in Shushan the palace. Chisleu was the ninth month, Abib or Nisan (in which the passover fell) being the first. Chisleu would thus answer to parts of November and December. Josephus makes it (Xaoleù) the same as the Macedonian Apellæus (Ant. xii. 7, 6), gin, which is against other evidence. which was the second month of the Macedonian may be a Turanian or an Aryan word, whose year, whose first month Dius began at the autumShushan" (Shemit. for lily) has nal equinox. Apellæus would thus be from the deceived the old writers. Susa was the court's latter part of October to the latter part of No-principal residence, Ecbatana or Persepolis being vember. Josephus was probably satisfied in visited for the summer only, and Babylon being identifying the two months of Chisleu and Apel- sometimes occupied in the depth of winter. læus, to find some portion of time belonging Ver. 2. Nehemiah is informed of the sad conequally to both. They certainly did not coin-dition of Jerusalem and the colony of Jews in cide throughout. Chisleu is not likely to be a Persian monthname, as has been conjectured. The Behistun inscription gives us eight Persian month-names, to wit., Bagayadish, Viyaklına, Garmapada, Atriyatiya, Anamaka, Thuravahara, Thaigarchish and Adukanish. It is true that in all but the first of these battles are recorded as occurring, so that they are not probably winter months. Yet the style of the names would scarcely warrant us in supposing that Chisleu would be in such a list. As Chisleu appears on a Palmyrene inscription (Chaslul), it may be of Syrian origin. This month-name occurs in the Hebrew only after the captivity, to wit, in this place and in Zech. vii. 1. Fuerst suggests Chesil (OrionMars) as the base of the name, the name being brought from Babylonia by the exiles; but the name is found in the Assyrian, as are the other (so-supposed) Persian month-names of the Jews, which is strong presumptive evidence of their Shemitic origin. The "twentieth year" is, as in chap. ii. 1, the twentieth year of Artaxerxes (Heb. Arta'hshasta), who reigned from B. C. 465 to 425. The year The Hebrew is transliterated for the benefit of the English reader. likeness to Judea by Hanani and others. His words are Nehemiah asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. Heb. happelétah asher nisharu min hashshevi (lit. "the deliverance which were left over from the captivity"). The abstract is used as a concrete collective noun. Although the greater part of the Jews preferred to live in the land to which their ancestors had been carried captive, yet to the pious heart those who returned to the old country were recognized as the "deliverance," or the "delivered ones," "escaped ones." The journey from Jerusalem to Susa by Tadmor or by Tiphsah is over a thousand miles long, and at the usual rate of Oriental travelling would take at least 45 days. With the natural causes to retard so long a journey, we may safely call it a two months' travel. Ezra, with his caravan, was four months on his journey from Babylon to Jerusalem (Ezra vii. 9). Ver. 3. Nehemiah's informers tell him that the remnant (han-nisharim, "the left-over ones") in the province are in great affliction (the general word for adversity) and reproach (the word explaining the cause of the adversity). They were the objects of scorn and contemptuous treatment from the neighboring peoples. The wall of Jerusalem they also represent as broken down and its gates burned. Nebuchadnezzar had broken down the walls a hundred and forty-two years before (2 Kings xxv. 10) and the attempt to rebuild them had been stopped by the Pseudo-Smerdis (the Artaxerxes of Ezra iv. 7) seventy-six years before this embassy to Nehemiah. After that, in the reign of Darius Hystaspes, the temple had been finished, but the walls seem not to have been touched. The burnt gates were also, doubtless, the old wreck from Nebuchadnezzar's time. There is no reason for supposing that the walls had been rebuilt, and again destroyed. Hanani and the men of Judah add to their statement of the affliction and reproach of the province that the walls still remain in their old ruined condition. Ver. 4. Nehemiah's prayer. The tidings brought by Hanani and the others deeply moved Nehemiah, and led him to a special season of humiliation and prayer. His grief was doubtless increased at the thought that all this evil existed in spite of Ezra's work, for Ezra had gone to Jerusalem thirteen years before. He sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed. That is, he withdrew from his court duties, and spent a period of retirement (comp. Ps. cxxxvii. 1 for the phrase "sat down and wept") in most sincere sorrow, which compelled his fasting and prayer, as its godly manifestations. The phrase God of heaven (Elohe hash-shamayim) is supposed by some to be only found with the writers of the Babylonish or post-Babylonish period, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the author of the 136th Psalm, but we find it in Gen. xxiv. 3, 7, and in Jonah i. 9. The style is repeated in Rev. xi, 13 and xvi. 11 (ó dεòç Tov ovρavov). It was a natural epithet to distinguish Jehovah from the gods of earth, formed of earthly substances. The phrase cannot properly be called Persian, as the reference in Jonah proves. Moreover, it does not occur in the long Behistun inscription. If it was used by the later Persians, it is as likely to have been taken from the Jews as vice versa. זין works, but of adhering faith. See its explanation in John vi. 28, 29, where the work of God is a sincere faith. The essence of faith is love, whose definition is given in 2 John 6. "The great and terrible God" is a phrase borrowed from Deut. vii. 21, and "that keepethobserve his commandments" is from the 9th verse of the same chapter. The Pentateuch has furnished much of the religious phraseology of the nation in all ages. (Comp. Dan. ix. 4.) Ver. 6. After this address to Jehovah as the awe-inspiring and yet covenant-keeping God, he asks God to hear him as the representative of his nation. The phrase, let thine ear be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear, is peculiar. It is derived from Solomon's prayer (1 Kings viii. 29, 52), and has reference, doubtless, to the greater attention paid by the ear when the eyes are opened towards the source of the sound. Now, day and night.-Lit. to-day, day and night. His prayer was oft repeated in the course of these days of separation and mourning at hours of the night, as well as at the usual hours of daily prayer. Which we have sinned.— Nehemiah has a clear sense of his identification with his people in sin as in misery. Both I and my father's house have sinned.-From this mention of his father's house we have a strong reason to believe that Nehemiah was of the royal house of Judah. It is hard to understand his special mention of his father's house, unless it had been a conspicuous family in the nation. (See the Introduction.) Ver. 7. The commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments.-Heb.: eth-hammitzoth weth-hahukkim weth-hammishpatim. It is almost impossible to draw the distinction between the meanings of these three words. They were probably used in the fulness of the legal style. Commandment, statute and judgment are the nearest English equivalents, but here they are all subjected to the verb corresponding to the first noun ("command"), and we must thus loosely refer them to the various forms of the divine commandments. The 119th Psalm seems to use these words as synonymous. (See on ch. ix. 13, 14.) Ver. 8. Remember, I beseech thee, the word.-After the confession of sin comes the plea of God's promise. See Deut. iv. 25–31, xxx. 1-10. Not the words, but the spirit of the promise, is given. Ver. 11. Who desire to fear thy name.— The name of God is His expression in His word or work. The declaration of a desire to fear God is a modest assertion of a true fear of God, but with a consciousness of its imperfection. This Ver. 5. Terrible is awe-inspiring, , the Ni- man=King Artaxerxes.-Nearness to God enaphal participle of 7 (to tremble). That keepbles Nehemiah to think of the "great king" as only a man. The "this" does not indicate that ech covenant and mercy.-Lit. That keepeth he was in the king's presence when he prayed, the covenant and mercy, by hendiadys for "the but that he was brought into close relations with covenant of mercy," or "the merciful covenant" the king. For I was the king's cup-bearer. established in the world's Messiah, but centrally-The position of cup-bearer to the king was an and typically in the Israelitish system. Ob- exalted one (comp. Gen. xl. 21). Rab-shakeh serve his commandments-or keep his com- (the name given to one of Sennacherib's envoys mandments; the same verb as before. God keeps to Hezekiah, 2 Kings xviii. 17) means "chief the covenant for them who keep His command-cup-bearer." The monuments of Egypt, Assyments. This is not a doctrine of meritorious ria, and Persia show the high rank of the cup bearer. Nehemiah's high position as cup-bearer preserved or selected, that they should strive is an additional argument for his relationship to for a better future. 3) What it finds the hardthe royal family of Judah, for the Oriental de-est to bear: that its country and people are in spots loved to have men of royal blood to wait distress, and even in reproach, and that they upon them. (See Dan. i. 3.) This phrase, "for are wanting in power to protect the goods conI was the king's cup-bearer," is added as expla-fided to them. natory of the allusion to the king. HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL. 1. The interest of Nehemiah in the forlorn condition of Jerusalem had a deep religious character. Patriotism and piety were closely related in a people whose land had been the scene of a theocracy, and in a man of Nehemiah's character the piety is conspicuous in every impulse of his patriotism. It is sad to reflect that when such opportunity for a return to the Holy Land had been given by Cyrus, that only 50,000 Jews availed themselves of it, out of, probably, an aggregate of millions. The manner in which the affairs of the Jewish province dragged from Cyrus' day to the time of Nehemiah, a period of nearly a hundred years, was not due only or chiefly to the opposition of local enemies, supported by the Persian government, but had its chief cause in the apathy and self-seeking of the Jewish people. Nehemiah's piety is thus no type of the religious condition of the Jews of his day, but is a conspicuous exception to the general state of his people. 2. Fasting, with the exception of that on the day of atonement, was with the Jews (before tradition supplanted God's word) left to the suggestion of the occasion. It grew out of a deep grief or an anxious foreboding. Nehemiah's fast, continuing for several days, must have been not a total abstention from food, but a withdrawal from all pleasurable forms of eating, his sorrow rendering him averse to all indulgence in the pleasures of the palate. 3. The "day and night" prayer of Nehemiah was no "vain repetition," as his wounded spirit and his humble faith gave life to every utterance. He had two facts before him-the greatness of God and the sinfulness of God's chosen people. On these he would graft the return of the people and the mercy of God. Some, like himself, were looking Godward, and had not God promised mercy to such? The favor of the Persian monarch would be the expression of God's grace. 4. The rule of obedience ("if ye turn unto me and keep my commandments, and do them," etc.) is not the way of salvation, but of continued prosperity. The love of God is assumed in his children. Their happiness now depends on their obedience. "If ye love me, keep my commandments." The Jews were in covenant with God. Keeping commandments had not brought them there, but keeping commandments would fill them with the blessings of the covenant. STARKE: In prosperity we should not forget our poor relations or acquaintances, but should ask after them, Gen. xliii. 27. We should make the necessities of the saints our own, and give account of them to others. Rom. xii. 12. Our greatest and final wish: 1) Concerning what we ask; there remains to us, even in prosperity and high position, if indeed we are godly, still one question, that is, concerning the kingdom of God, and its approach, and indeed only this certainty can satisfy us, that it comes continually more to us, to our families and our people; without it nothing is of worth to us, for without it there is no stability. 2) Concerning what we mourn for; that thus far, always so much the opposite of that takes place which should take place in relation to the kingdom of God. 3) Before whom we bear it: before the Lord with mourning, fasting and prayer. STARKE: If the saints of God had great love and yearning for their fatherland, the earthly Jerusalem (Ps. li. 20: cxxxvii. 5), how much greater love and yearning should we have for the heavenly Jerusalem! Heb. xii. 22; xiii. 14. Although a Christian is neither bound to the Jewish nor to the Romish fasts of the present day, still he should practice sobriety. 1 Pet. iv. 8. The judgments of God cannot better be averted than by true humiliation, fervent prayer and honest reformation. Gen. xviii. 23 sq. Vers. 5-11. The nature of the true petition (for Jerusalem, for the Church): 1) It proceeds from true love; is therefore persistent and fervent: Nehemiah prays (ver. 6) day and night for the children of Israel. 2) It rests upon the humble recognition of one's own worthlessness (although standing before God as priest, the petitioner includes himself nevertheless to the inmost with those for whom he prays). 3) It is full of faith, in spite of sin and punishment, on the ground of the divine promise. The foundations for our faith in the time of oppression: 1) God's promise, after the chastisements which we have merited, to allow mercy again to rule. 2) God's former evident proofs of grace, particularly the greatest, that He has freed us by His great power (shining deed), and has made us His servants. 3) God's divine nature itself, which cannot be false to itself, and cannot leave unfinished that which it has begun. STARKE: The knowledge of God through the law and through the gospel must be united,, otherwise the latter makes confident epicurean' and rough people; but the former, hesitating and timid doubters (vers. 4, 5). Neither must we excuse the sins and transgressions of our HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. ancestors. Dan. ix. 16.-Whoever stands in the Vers. 1-4. Genuine patriotism. 1) When and consciousness of the poverty of his spirit does where it is roused: both at a distance and in not exclude himself from sinners, but still althose who, in their prosperity, could easily for-ways humbles himself before God. Dan. ix. 7; get their country and the people to whom they 1 Tim. i. 15; 1 John i. 8. God knows our weakbelong. 2) Concerning what it asks: concern- ness beforehand, and knows that we will stuming the prosperity of those whom the Lord has ble in the future. Matt. xxvi. 31. God's choice |