1These are the priests and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra, 2Amariah, Malluch, Hattush, 3Shecaniah, Rehum, Meremoth, 4Iddo, Ginnethoi, Abijah, 5Mijamin, Maadiah, Bilgah, 6Shemaiah, Joiarib, Jedaiah, 7Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah. These were the chiefs of the priests and of their brothers in the days of Jeshua.
8And the Levites: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and Mattaniah, who with his brothers was in charge of the songs of thanksgiving. 9And Bakbukiah and Unni and their brothers stood opposite them in the service. 10And Jeshua was the father of Joiakim, Joiakim the father of Eliashib, Eliashib the father of Joiada, 11Joiada the father of Jonathan, and Jonathan the father of Jaddua.
12And in the days of Joiakim were priests, heads of fathers’ houses: of Seraiah, Meraiah; of Jeremiah, Hananiah; 13of Ezra, Meshullam; of Amariah, Jehohanan; 14of Malluchi, Jonathan; of Shebaniah, Joseph; 15of Harim, Adna; of Meraioth, Helkai; 16of Iddo, Zechariah; of Ginnethon, Meshullam; 17of Abijah, Zichri; of Miniamin, of Moadiah, Piltai; 18of Bilgah, Shammua; of Shemaiah, Jehonathan; 19of Joiarib, Mattenai; of Jedaiah, Uzzi; 20of Sallai, Kallai; of Amok, Eber; 21of Hilkiah, Hashabiah; of Jedaiah, Nethanel.
22In the days of Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan, and Jaddua, the Levites were recorded as heads of fathers’ houses; so too were the priests in the reign of Darius the Persian. 23As for the sons of Levi, their heads of fathers’ houses were written in the Book of the Chronicles until the days of Johanan the son of Eliashib. 24And the chiefs of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua the son of Kadmiel, with their brothers who stood opposite them, to praise and to give thanks, according to the commandment of David the man of God, watch by watch. 25Mattaniah, Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, and Akkub were gatekeepers standing guard at the storehouses of the gates. 26These were in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor and of Ezra, the priest and scribe.
27And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites in all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, with thanksgivings and with singing, with cymbals, harps, and lyres. 28And the sons of the singers gathered together from the district surrounding Jerusalem and from the villages of the Netophathites; 29also from Beth-gilgal and from the region of Geba and Azmaveth, for the singers had built for themselves villages around Jerusalem. 30And the priests and the Levites purified themselves, and they purified the people and the gates and the wall.
31Then I brought the leaders of Judah up onto the wall and appointed two great choirs that gave thanks. One went to the south on the wall to the Dung Gate. 32And after them went Hoshaiah and half of the leaders of Judah, 33and Azariah, Ezra, Meshullam, 34Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah, and Jeremiah, 35and certain of the priests’ sons with trumpets: Zechariah the son of Jonathan, son of Shemaiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Micaiah, son of Zaccur, son of Asaph; 36and his relatives, Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God. And Ezra the scribe went before them. 37At the Fountain Gate they went up straight before them by the stairs of the city of David, at the ascent of the wall, above the house of David, to the Water Gate on the east.
38The other choir of those who gave thanks went to the north, and I followed them with half of the people, on the wall, above the Tower of the Ovens, to the Broad Wall, 39and above the Gate of Ephraim, and by the Gate of Yeshanah,a and by the Fish Gate and the Tower of Hananel and the Tower of the Hundred, to the Sheep Gate; and they came to a halt at the Gate of the Guard. 40So both choirs of those who gave thanks stood in the house of God, and I and half of the officials with me; 41and the priests Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Micaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah, with trumpets; 42and Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malchijah, Elam, and Ezer. And the singers sang with Jezrahiah as their leader. 43And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.
44On that day men were appointed over the storerooms, the contributions, the firstfruits, and the tithes, to gather into them the portions required by the Law for the priests and for the Levites according to the fields of the towns, for Judah rejoiced over the priests and the Levites who ministered. 45And they performed the service of their God and the service of purification, as did the singers and the gatekeepers, according to the command of David and his son Solomon. 46For long ago in the days of David and Asaph there were directors of the singers, and there were songsb of praise and thanksgiving to God. 47And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah gave the daily portions for the singers and the gatekeepers; and they set apart that which was for the Levites; and the Levites set apart that which was for the sons of Aaron.
Did you notice many “in the days of” surrounding the passage about the Dedication of the Wall celebration? What would you make of that arrangement?
We are down to the wire of the last final (hard) questions. If you can answer, share with your peer
This chapter takes us back to the heroes of the past. Zerubbabel led the first return from Babylonian captivity to Jerusalem in 538 BC, almost one hundred years earlier than Nehemiah’s day. Nehemiah is looking back at these men who led that procession. Zerubbabel was an Administrator, and Jeshua was a Priest. They led a company of Israelites back to the city of Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Verse 7 says that they were the leaders of the priests and their associates in the days of Jeshua.
Verses 22-26 give the chronological time when the records that we have just looked at were recorded. The passage does not sound very interesting, but we are told that for the first group, the family heads of the Levites… were recorded in the reign of Darius the Persian. That meant that there was a time when their names were kept as temple records, but they were not actually recorded permanently until the days of Darius the Second. This would put that record somewhere between 423 and 404 BC, somewhat later than Nehemiah. Evidently some later hand added this so that we might know when it was written.
Then there is another mention in verse 23 of the book of the annals, meaning the annals of the kings of Judah. One of them is especially mentioned in the reference to David, the man of God. What a remarkable influence David had! F. B. Meyer says, How long the influence of David has lingered over the world, like the afterglow of a sunset. Yet David had a terrible record of evil in his life. He fell into adultery with Bathsheba and was involved in the murder of her husband. Because his heart was set on God, however, and he took advantage of God’s provision for forgiveness, David is known to history as the man after God’s own heart.
The passage teaches us that we must not forget past heroes, the men and women of fame and glory whom God has used in former days. I have been reading again the writings of some of my early spiritual heroes. I would urge you, on the basis of a passage like this, to read biography! It will bless you. It will challenge you and strengthen you to see how God has used men and women of the past to stand against the temptations and pressures of the world and accomplish much for His glory.
This passage also teaches us that the deeds of God are part of the record of history. That is one of the great advantages of Christianity over all the other religions of the world. Most of them are religious philosophies or simply the musings of men meditating upon various aspects of life. Many of them are a record of visions and dreams of dubious origin. But when you come to the record of the Bible, it is based upon facts. It is not legend, myth, or fiction. It is not a record of philosophies or the inventions of humans. It is made up of historic facts. God grounds these great events in the history of the world itself.
Studying and remembering God-made history can be far more fruitful than dwelling on man-made philosophy. What lessons are we learning from the Bible each day?
This is another passage that has long lists of people’s names. And again, we can see a lot of historical context here and how much thought and detail God has put into each person’s life. As a body of Christ, we all play an important role to the church and God’s kingdom.
I think that the passage reminds us the important of the works of the people in the past for the churches or in this case, for the people of Israel. Although we don’t know who they are, their names are still mentioned as a way to remind the later generations of what they did to the community. Yea and in the same way, I hope that RP is not only a church for the second or third or fourth Vietnamese generations, but also continue to become of multi-cultural generations to worship and serve God everyday
This passage was another long one with many names that are hard to pronounce. But I’m reminded of those that lived a life glorifying God. Im reminded to look upon those that had faced and battled the same struggles and temptations as we have today. I should not remember to learn from them and not skip/glance over a passage that may seem boring or hard to learn anything from.
The passage mentions “in the days of” multiple times and it mentions the names of the leaders. There are so many names blended together that again it almost seems insignificant. However, we know that God does not deem us as insignificant. Rather, it is important to remember our past leaders to see how God has used men and women of the past to overcome trials and glorify His kingdom.
From brother Brian
Day 37: Did you notice many “in the days of” surrounding the passage about the Dedication of the Wall celebration? What would you make of that arrangement?
I cheated and read all of your comments, which were very insightful as always. I have read Ray’s commentaries (after sharing my comments) in the past and at times I don’t agree with him. I “think” he stretches it too much to make things link. May be my mind is too futile to link things like that. Always good to read what others think but just bc they believe it to be that way don’t mean it’s true. (I acknowledge that he’s more well versed and articulate than me so By no means am I trying to discredit him.) But I guess that’s why we are here to read the actual text and share what we see.
Based on your comments, it appears that studying history and remembering all these men who were high priests, governors, leaders etc are of importance. But for me personally, to be honest, I don’t regard them any higher than any of you – believers and brothers in Christ. We are all mortals and sinners so it just puts me to sleep reading these list of names. Also to be frank, I think it takes away from Gods glory. God made this happen so the dedication of the wall to me should be about only praising God and not name dropping all these people.
Yes I see that they brought in the Levites (one of the 12 tribes and assigned to playing and singing like the modern day worship team) to praise God but like I said above, with all the name listing, it takes a lot away from praising God strictly and leave readers confused.
Reading things like this reminds me of our fellow Catholics brothers and sisters. All these names – no wonder they revere other people as well like saints etc. It’s good to understand history so we can learn but there has to be more effective ways than to just list mountains of names. (I also acknowledge and have heard the argument about the listing of a bunch of things whether it be names, places,etc proves the validity of the Bible more bc it shows historical detail).
Father, help me understand you more. I know ultimately you are the author of the Bible as it says in Timothy that “all scripture is inspired by God”. I don’t know why there are so many difficult and troubling verses. One I know that I am not mature enough to understand it and it’s all timing. This also reminds me of the Tower of Babel where perhaps you may always want things to be a mystery so we can be more humble and rely on you and not our own minds. Either way, things like this don’t bother me as they relate to the lesser non central things. More importantly, even though we may fail time and time again, thank you for using us for your glory and sending your Son Jesus to die and rise again to take away our sins!!!! Thank you so much for this group bc without it and these brothers commenting, I would not be here reading Nehemiah and having coffee with you. I apologize for always being so frank but I share this so that my mind can be sharpen by the community. There is always so much to learn! Thank you Father! We love you so much!!