Nehemiah 13 English Standard Version Nehemiah's Final Reforms 13 On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, 2 for they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them—yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. 3 As soon as the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent. 4 Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah, 5 prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests. 6 While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king. And after some time I asked leave of the king 7 and came to Jerusalem, and I then discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. 8 And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. 9 Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense. 10 I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each to his field. 11 So I confronted the officials and said, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered them together and set them in their stations. 12 Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses. 13 And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouses Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites, and as their assistant Hanan the son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah, for they were considered reliable, and their duty was to distribute to their brothers. 14 Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service. 15 In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them on the day when they sold food. 16 Tyrians also, who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah, in Jerusalem itself! 17 Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day? 18 Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.” 19 As soon as it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, that no load might be brought in on the Sabbath day. 20 Then the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice. 21 But I warned them and said to them, “Why do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath. 22 Then I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come and guard the gates, to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love. 23 In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24 And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people. 25 And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. 26 Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. 27 Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?” 28 And one of the sons of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I chased him from me. 29 Remember them, O my God, because they have desecrated the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites. 30 Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work; 31 and I provided for the wood offering at appointed times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good. This is it! The final chapter in the book of Nehemiah! Once again, the people commemorate a special day with the reading of the Law of the LORD. Each time they read it; they are convicted about something new. Before, they were convicted about their intermarriage with forbidden people, but now they have heard that they are not to allow the Ammonites or Moabites into the assembly of God (they are not to be welcomed as citizens and they are to be denied access to the altar of the LORD--first when it was at the Tabernacle, then at Solomon's Temple, and now at the Second Temple). We know the LORD made an exception in this rule for Ruth who forsook her identity as a Moabite to follow Naomi and take care of her, and she married Boaz and became the father of Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David, king of Israel. However, the people see that they have let those who are still clinging to their identity as pagans and enemies of God, those who tried to destroy the people of God through sexual sin and idolatry as they were entering the promised Land, and have never ceased their campaign to try to kill God's people and take the Land He had promised to them, into the assembly against the command of the LORD. Upon hearing this command, the Israelites separated themselves from all people of foreign descent.
How far had the disobedience gone against this specific command? Well, Eliab the priest, who was over the chambers (probably storerooms) of the house of God, and who was related to Tobiah through marriage, built living quarters for Tobiah in one of the rooms that was supposed to be used for storing the tithes and offerings. Tobiah belonged to one of the forbidden, foreign peoples--he was an Ammonite (see Nehemiah 2:10). Not only had they let him into the Temple, but they had let him live in the Temple. They had built the wall, but then invited the enemy to come live among them within the most precious, sacred, and holy place in the city. Because of this rebellion, the provisions that were to be provided to the priests and the Levites were not there (that was the purpose of the storeroom that had been cleared out for Tobiah to live in). Of course, Nehemiah was angry when he heard about this, and he threw Tobiah out and cleansed the storeroom, and brought everything back in that was supposed to be stored there. Nehemiah also found out that the contributions to the priests and the Levites were being withheld from them, so Nehemiah confronted the officials who were supposed to be overseeing this. Nehemiah made each of the officials go to their designated collection stations, and all of Judah was ordered to bring in the tithes and offerings that were commanded of them so that the house of the LORD and those working in His service would not be neglected. Then treasurers were appointed over the storehouses to make sure that the appropriate tithes and offerings had been collected--unfortunately when people's hearts fail to do what is right willingly, the law has to step in and make a bureaucratic system to make sure people are doing what they are supposed to do and enforce the laws the people should be obeying (I would assume the treasurers were about the equivalent of IRS agents and were probably not liked very much--however, they were not there to scam and cheat the people like the Roman tax collectors later). Nehemiah did everything he could to appoint people of good character to these positions and he asked the LORD to see and remember that it was his intention to make sure that the LORD and His servants (the priests, the Levites, the musicians, the doorkeepers, and the other Temple servants) were all taken care of and provided for. Next came the issue of working on the Sabbath day--what was to be a death-penalty offense. There were people working their winepresses and people bringing all kinds of loads of goods and wares to the gates of Jerusalem to be sold (and for them to buy and trade with others who were at the gates to do business). Nehemiah confronted the officials behind this and reminded them that it was because of their failure to observe the LORD's Sabbaths that they were sent into Exile. Did they want to go back into exile again? That seemed to be the direction they were headed in if they did not repent and put an end to this wickedness of profaning the Sabbath day. Nehemiah used his authority as governor to enforce the Sabbath by commanding that from twilight on the beginning of the Sabbath (what we would call Friday evening) to dusk at the end of the Sabbath (what we would call Saturday evening), the gates of the city would be closed, barred, and secured by an armed guard. The merchants still tried to gain entry and encamped outside the city gates, but Nehemiah told them to go away and stop camping outside the walls unless they wanted Nehemiah (the governor) to arrest them and prosecute them for violating the Sabbath day (again, it was a death penalty offense not only for the Jews, but for all who lived in the Land, as they all knew of this Law, just the Gentiles chose to disobey it because they did not worship the LORD or obey His commandments). The Levites were told to consecrate themselves and come forward to be gatekeepers to enforce the Sabbath day. They were zealous for the LORD and His Sabbath, and they should not let anyone through the city gates to do business on the Sabbath. Even after all the other times that we have seen Nehemia take up the issue of being married to descendants of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab, there were still Jews with wives from these foreign nations who had children with these women, and the children spoke the language of Ashdod, Ammon, or Moab (meaning they probably also were culturally like the people of these nations, and probably worshiped their gods and goddesses). If they could not speak the language of the people of Judah, there was no way for them to understand the Law of the LORD that was read to them year after year, nor could they understand the laws and reforms being instituted by Nehemiah or the other government officials. Nehemiah confronted these men, and while I don't know that I agree with his tactics of beating some of them and pulling out the hair of others (something that would not only be painful, but would publicly shame them), I get that Nehemiah is passionate about getting the people to swear to obey the LORD so that they don't come under even greater judgment. However, I see Nehemiah unwilling to enforce the death penalty in cases of high-handed rebellion as was his duty and responsibility. This certainly would have put the fear of the LORD into the people that were casually and flippantly rebelling against the LORD and His commands. Maybe he felt there were too few people, and he couldn't afford to execute any of them for these offenses. Maybe he thought they hadn't been told or warned enough times? I don't really know. All I know is by this point they have been told at least three times and have sworn oaths that they seem to not intend to keep at least three times (which is another death-penalty offense). Nehemiah reminded the people that marrying foreign women and having children with them was what was the downfall of King Solomon. His heart became so ensnared by these relationships that he built places for his wives to worship their foreign gods so that every grove and high place was turned into a place of idolatrous worship, and he led the people of Israel into spiritual bondage that they were just now starting to escape from. Nehemiah never wanted to see them return to that time of spiritual darkness. One of the sons of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite--the other main enemy of Nehemiah in this book. Nehemiah chased this man away from him as well, for he was angry that even the priesthood and the Levites were polluted by these evil men. Nehemiah did everything he could as governor to cleanse the city and the people and to bring about reforms that would keep the Law before the people and would encourage them to obey it and would use the power of the government to enforce the Law when the people did not willingly obey it. He made sure that the priests and the Levites were taken care of, and that the priests and Levites had their schedules so they knew when to serve so that nothing would go undone or be overlooked--even something as simple as making sure wood was gathered for the fire on the altar so that the fire would never go out was taken care of by way of a schedule, and Nehemiah made sure the people made the offerings of firstfruits of their fields, vineyards, groves, flocks, herds, wine, oil, and spices. He did his best to govern the people as a theocracy even though they were still subjects of a pagan king, and the spiritual leaders who should have been the examples for the people to follow were corrupt themselves. In all this, Nehemiah asks the LORD to remember him favorably and to remember the words and deeds of his enemies in the day of their judgment. With that act of laying everything in the hands of the LORD, he "signs off," and we assume that the returns back to the king and his previous position. This book may have even been his official report to the king. There's one more book during this period of the Persian Empire, and that's Esther. I was hoping to get to it during the Feast of Purim, but I missed it by a little bit (that feast just ended). However, the message of that book is still timely for what is going on in current events. It is a unique book in that the name of the LORD is not mentioned even once in the entire book, yet His fingerprints are all over it as we see Him orchestrating events in a way that His sovereignty is undeniable. We'll take a look at that book next. Comments are closed.
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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