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Nehemiah
Chapter Twelve
Nehemiah 12
Chapter Contents
The priests and Levites that returned. (1-26) The
dedication of the wall. (27-43) The officers of the temple settled. (44-47)
Commentary on Nehemiah 12:1-26
(Read Nehemiah 12:1-26)
It is a debt we owe to faithful ministers
to remember
our guides
who have spoken to us the word of God. It is good to know what our
godly predecessors were
that we may learn what we should be.
Commentary on Nehemiah 12:27-43
(Read Nehemiah 12:27-43)
All our cities
all our houses
must have holiness to the
Lord written upon them. The believer should undertake nothing which he does not
dedicate to the Lord. We are concerned to cleanse our hands
and purify our
hearts
when any work for God is to pass through them. Those that would be
employed to sanctify others
must sanctify themselves
and set themselves apart
for God. To those who are sanctified
all their creature-comforts and
enjoyments are made holy. The people greatly rejoiced. All that share in public
mercies
ought to join in public thanksgivings.
Commentary on Nehemiah 12:44-47
(Read Nehemiah 12:44-47)
When the solemnities of a thanksgiving day leave such
impressions on ministers and people
that both are more careful and cheerful in
doing their duty
they are indeed acceptable to the Lord
and turn to good
account. And whatever we do
must be purified by the blood of sprinkling
and
by the grace of the Holy Spirit
or it cannot be acceptable to God.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on
Nehemiah》
Nehemiah 12
Verse 1
[1] Now
these are the priests and the Levites that went up with Zerubbabel the son of
Shealtiel
and Jeshua: Seraiah
Jeremiah
Ezra
Priests —
The chief of the priests
the heads of those twenty four courses which David
appointed by divine direction
1 Chronicles 24:1-19. And whereas there were
twenty four
and here but twenty-two
and verse 12
etc. only twenty
the reason of this
difference may be
because two of the twenty four courses were extinct in
Babylon
and two of the persons here named
verse 2
5
Hattush
and Maadiah
may be omitted in the
account of the posterity of these
verse 12
etc. because they had no posterity.
Ezra —
Either this was another Ezra
or if it were the same mentioned Ezra 7:1
he lived to a great age; which may
well be supposed
considering his great sobriety
and his great piety to which
God promised long life
and withal the special providence of God continuing him
so long in such a season
wherein the church of God did greatly need his help
and counsel.
Verse 8
[8] Moreover the Levites: Jeshua
Binnui
Kadmiel
Sherebiah
Judah
and
Mattaniah
which was over the thanksgiving
he and his brethren.
Moreover
… — He
was to see
that the psalms of thanksgiving were continually sung in the
temple
in due time and manner.
Verse 10
[10] And
Jeshua begat Joiakim
Joiakim also begat Eliashib
and Eliashib begat Joiada
Jeshua —
Here follows a catalogue of the Jewish high-priests; which was the more
necessary
because their times were now to be measured
not by the years of
their kings as formerly
but by their high-priests.
Verse 12
[12] And
in the days of Joiakim were priests
the chief of the fathers: of Seraiah
Meraiah; of Jeremiah
Hananiah;
Priests - As their fathers were priests in
the days of Joshua
so in the days of Joiakim the son of Joshua
the sons of
those persons executed the priesthood in their father's steads
some of their
fathers probably being yet living
and many of them dead.
Verse 22
[22] The Levites in the days of Eliashib
Joiada
and Johanan
and Jaddua
were
recorded chief of the fathers: also the priests
to the reign of Darius the
Persian.
Darius —
Darius Noehus; and so this Jaddua might be father to him who was in the days of
Darius Codomanus
and of Alexander the Great.
Verse 27
[27] And
at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites out of all
their places
to bring them to Jerusalem
to keep the dedication with gladness
both with thanksgivings
and with singing
with cymbals
psalteries
and with
harps.
The wall — Of
the city itself
which is here dedicated to God
and to his honour and service
not only upon a general account
by which we ought to devote ourselves
and all
that is ours
to God; but upon a more special ground
because this was a place
which God himself had chosen
and sanctified by his temple and gracious
presence
and therefore did of right belong to him; whence it is often called
the holy city. And they restored it to God by this dedication
withal imploring
the presence
and favour
and blessing of to this city by solemn prayers
and
praises
and sacrifices
wherewith this dedication was accompanied.
Places — To
which they were now retired after that great and general assembly
Nehemiah 8:1 etc.
Verse 30
[30] And
the priests and the Levites purified themselves
and purified the people
and
the gates
and the wall.
Purified themselves —
They that would be instrumental to sanctify others
must sanctify themselves
and set themselves apart for God
with purity of mind and sincerity of
intention.
Verse 31
[31] Then
I brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall
and appointed two great
companies of them that gave thanks
whereof one went on the right hand upon the
wall toward the dung gate:
Princes —
And half of the people with them.
The wall —
For the wall was broad and strong
and so ordered that men might conveniently
walk upon it.
Right hand —
Towards the south and east.
Verse 39
[39] And
from above the gate of Ephraim
and above the old gate
and above the fish
gate
and the tower of Hananeel
and the tower of Meah
even unto the sheep
gate: and they stood still in the prison gate.
Stood still —
Waiting
as also their brethren did
that they might go together in due order
into God's house
there to perfect the solemnity.
Verse 43
[43] Also
that day they offered great sacrifices
and rejoiced: for God had made them
rejoice with great joy: the wives also and the children rejoiced: so that the
joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.
The children rejoiced — And their hosanna's were not despised
but are recorded to their praise.
All that share in public mercies
ought to join in public thanksgivings.
Verse 44
[44] And
at that time were some appointed over the chambers for the treasures
for the
offerings
for the firstfruits
and for the tithes
to gather into them out of
the fields of the cities the portions of the law for the priests and Levites:
for Judah rejoiced for the priests and for the Levites that waited.
Rejoiced —
For the eminent gifts and graces which they observed in many of them: for the
great benefit which they had now received by their ministry: and for the
competent provision which hereby was made for them
that so they might wholly
wait upon their office. The sure way for ministers to gain an interest
in the
affections of their people
is to wait on their ministry
to spend their whole
time
and thought
and strength therein.
Verse 45
[45] And
both the singers and the porters kept the ward of their God
and the ward of
the purification
according to the commandment of David
and of Solomon his
son.
The ward — That
ward
or charge
which God had prescribed to them. And in particular the charge
of purification
of taking care that no unclean person or thing should enter
into the house or courts of the Lord.
Verse 47
[47] And
all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel
and in the days of Nehemiah
gave the
portions of the singers and the porters
every day his portion: and they
sanctified holy things unto the Levites; and the Levites sanctified them unto
the children of Aaron.
Sanctified —
They set apart the first-fruits and tithes from their own share
and devoted
them to the use of the Levites. And so did the Levites by the tithe of the
tithes. Thus they all conscientiously paid their dues
and did not profane
those things which God had sanctified
nor take them into their own common use.
When what is contributed for the support of religion
is given with an eye to
God
it is sanctified
and will cause the blessing to rest upon the house
and
all that is therein.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Nehemiah》
12 Chapter 12
Verses 1-28
Were written in the book of the chronicles.
A book
I. A book unites
the ages. Brings the past into the present; borrows the future to give the
present significance. The “sceptred spirits of history” rule us still. With
books the poorest enters the highest society: the loneliest need not be solitary.
II. A book reveals
life’s importance. It gives permanence to thought. Life is a writing.
III. A book silently
anticipates the judgment. A record may be appealed to: “Is this thy handwriting?” God’s “Book of
Remembrance.” (J. Parker
D. D.)
Books
“The commerce of books
” says our gossiping Montaigne “has the
constancy and facility of its service for its own share: it goes side by side with me in my whole
course
and everywhere is assisting to me: it comforts me in my age and solitude; it eases me of a
troublesome weight of idleness
and delivers me at all times from a company that
I dislike: and it
blunts the point of griefs
if they are not extreme
and have not got an entire
possession of my soul . . . books do not mutiny to see that I have only
recourse to them for want of other more real
natural
and lively conveniences;
they always receive me with the same kindness.”
Verse 24
According to the Commandment Of David the man of God.
Posthumous influence
A man’s influence after he is dead. He is still present
with his people.
I. By his will.
“The commandment of David.” The grip of the dead is on our fields and churches
our schools and hospitals.
II. By his
writings. Immortality of genius. David’s psalms. Solomon’s proverbs. The
writings of Shakespeare
Milton
Bunyan
and many others.
III. By his example.
“David the man of God.” For good or evil a man lives. For good or evil his
deeds will live after him. “The memory of the just is blessed.” (Homiletic
Commentary.)
Verses
27-43
And
at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem.
The dedication
of the wall
In
this dedication--
I. It was designed to offer thanks to God for the completion of a
good work.
II. It was intended to set apart the holy city for its sacred ends.
III. It was desired to invoke the Divine blessing and guardianship on
the city of God.
IV. It is beautiful to observe how fully the domestic affections are
cherished and displayed. “The wives also and the children rejoiced.” (W.
Ritchie.)
Verse 30
And
the priests and the Levites purified themselves
and purified the people.
Beginning at the
right place
I. A pure church may make a sound commonwealth. “They purified
themselves.” Like priest
like people. Cleric and laie act and react on each
other.” Be ye clean
that bear the vessels of the Lord.” Eli’s sons. Uzzah may
not sustain the ark.
II. To a pure people all things are pure. “They purified the people
and the gates and the wall.” Citizens and city; sanctuary and house; God’s work
and their own.
All things are sacred;
The eye of God is on them
all
And hallows all.”
Jesus
revealed God in the minutest. Peter’s vision. The present preparatory. “I think
our fathers had a better
grander
a diviner idea even of common life than we
have when they spoke of the trades and professions of men as being their
calling. There is a great thought in this word. It makes all the men
streets
shops
and warehouses to me as I walk along Divine objects. I feel that I am in
a Divine place when I think of the men about me as following their calling. I
feel that there is a God above men; that there is a God in human society; a God
in the shops and counting-houses of London
touching and teaching every human
being; and that every man is occupying the place
and putting his hand to the
work to which God has called him. Sometimes you may see a man at a certain calling
which is but preparatory. He is meant for something else. Providence opens the
way
and he goes up higher and does another thing. God has given us a spiritual
vocation--a Divine calling in Christ Jesus--and we are to walk worthy of that
vocation here
doing all worldly things in a spiritual manner
preparatory to a
higher calling which shall come one day
when we shall enter upon other forms
of duty and service
to which the present inferior forms of duty and service
faithfully fulfilled shall gradually prepare and fit us. (T. Binney.)
Verse 43
Also that day they offered
great sacrifices
and rejoiced.
A great rejoicing
A great rejoicing as it
should be.
I. Associated
with the bites of religion.
II. The
outcome of a great deliverance. From captivity to freedom: heathen surroundings to heaven-chosen city
and Divinely-built temple. The memory of God’s great goodness should awaken
joy--a joy that all may share. “The wives also and the children rejoiced.”
III. The
preparation for strong adhesion to a great cause. Sacred festivals not an end
but a means to an end. (Homiletic Commentary.)
True joy
I. Its
right. The God who has given us life wishes also that it shall move joyfully;
the God who always anew overwhelms us with favours wishes that they should
fulfil their mission; that is
make us happy
in the end holy.
II. Its
occasion. God’s grace
which has strengthened
protected
assured
and elevated
our lower or higher life.
III. Its
kind. It raises itself to God
is a joy in Him; that is
becomes s service to
God and our neighbours. (Dr. Schultz.)
The joy of Christian work
Notice--
I. That
great sacrifices always precede great joy. God’s best gifts never increase by
saving
but by scattering. The sea is in a constant state of evaporation. The
mist rises
there are clouds above the hills
there are streams running into
the valleys
there is life and greenness everywhere. There are some men who do
not believe in evaporation. They believe in getting all they can and keeping
all they get. But they are never joyful There is no joy in selfishness. It is
against the great law of God
the law of sacrifice by His own Son. What is the
meaning of these sacrifices mentioned in the text?
1. The
sin-offering. This shadowed the great sacrifice. Morality alone will not save
any man
and if you will only admit sin
you admit half the Bible
and the rest
has to do with God’s way of getting rid of it.
2. The
burnt-offering. This means that we give ourselves up to God entirely; and the
happiest men I have met in my life have been men who have handed the keys of
every room in their soul up to Christ
without keeping one closed to hide a
loved sin.
3. The
peace-offering. This was a peculiar offering in Israel. It was a free-will
offering. When a man brought the peace-offering
God gave him a feast there and
then in his house. A part of the offering was given back to the offerer. This
peace-offering is very much like your contributions to-day. You can keep your
offerings
but if you do God will keep the feast from you. We in Wales have two
sermons in one service very often
and the collection comes before the second
sermon. I have watched a man drop the smallest coin into the plate from a
richly gloved hand. I have seen a poor old woman unwrapping a two-shilling
piece from a paper
from another paper
from a third paper
in which she had
wrapped it in order to keep it for the collection. And I have watched them
through the second sermon. The tears of joy are coursing down the wrinkled face
of the poor Christian woman
but the man who dropped his miserly coin is as dry
as Gilboa. It is a remarkable fact that the Almighty never accepted a wild
animal as an offering in the olden time. A man was always obliged to offer
something he had taken trouble with: the fruit of his own garden
the fruit of
his own farm
or from his own flock. I have heard a man say sometimes
“If I
succeed in this speculation now
I will give to the cause of Christ.” Ah! that
is a wild hare.
II. Great
work for God brings great joy from God. Charles Kingsley has said that every
man ought to thank God every morning because he has something to do that must
be done that day. Work is the greatest blessing. I was once struck down with
complete nervous prostration
and a medical man told me that I must do nothing
for a twelvemonth
and that was the hardest work I ever did in my life--to do
nothing. I see gentlemen come up along the Menai Straits in their yachts
fighting the tempest. On they come like sailors on the ocean-wave
because it
is easier to do that than to do nothing. You may see the room in which Louis
XVI. worked as a common blacksmith
because it was easier to do that than to do
nothing. Prisoners have come to the gaoler many a time
when confined in a room
to do nothing
asking him for permission to pick oakum
or anything rather than
do nothing. It is possible to do the most common work to God
to Christ
and
when every one will do his work to Christ
that is the time when this world
will be full of happiness and song. There is joy in serving Christ. Just think
for instance
of the erection of a place of worship: what an investment it is to contribute
towards that.
III. This
religion of great sacrifice and great joy will tell on our families. “The wives
also and the children rejoiced.” Joyful religion repeats itself to others.
Parents should let their children see that they value religion.
1. By
making sacrifices for it.
2. By
letting them see that they are most anxious for them to become decided
Christians.
IV. That
the religion of great sacrifices and great joy will be heard of afar off. “Then
joy was heard afar off.” It is the names of self-sacrificers that
live--Abraham--Abraham Lincoln--Florence Nightingale--Jesus
the Redeemer of
the world. (E. Herber Evans
D. D.)
Sacrifice
a condition of
joy
The principle of sacrifice
stands at the very threshold of the ever-fascinating study of life
and is
found at every turn of the bewildering maze which marks life’s upward pathway
of struggle and survival. In merely physical processes
as well as in many
vital functions of vegetable and animal life
there are clear foreshadowings of
the part which sacrifice plays in the great tragedy of existence. The primitive
rock
when subjected to the disintegrating action of the atmospheric agents
yields up its characteristic compactness
and crumbles into soil
which
in
turn
surrenders its richness to promote the welfare of multitudinous forms of
vegetable growth. In the lower species of animal life the death of the parent
is the essential condition of the life of the offspring
and in the higher
grades of creatures there is invariably a parental sacrifice in favour of the
well-being of the progeny. Notwithstanding that these functions are nothing
more than compulsory obedience to the stern mandates of nature
Mr. Herbert
Spencer calls them acts of unconscious sacrifice
and so distinguishes them
from those voluntary surrenders of self which spring from love to others
and
which
strictly speaking
can only be termed sacrifice. The helpless infant
survives merely on account of the care which the maternal love lavishes upon
it. Let the attention of others be withdrawn
and the child must perish. It
lives by the sacrifices which others make for it. The bond of family life is
kept intact by a succession of beautiful deeds
springing from the ever-growing
tendency to sacrifice the immediate interests of self to promote the good of
others. The capacity to enjoy purely egoistic pleasures is heightened by ministering
to the wants of others. Indulged selfishness
by producing satiety
defeats
itself. But a nobler truth than that is this--that the deepest satisfactions
and most lasting joys of life are
blossoms on the tree whose roots derive nutriment from the soil
of sacrifice. (S. S. Chronicle.)
Verses 45-47
And both the singers.
Thanks-giving and thanks-living
We have here the effects of the joy that was at the dedication of
the wall.
I. The ministers
were more careful than they had been of their work. Ii. The people were more
careful than they had been of the maintenance of their ministers. The surest
way for ministers to recommend themselves to their people
and gain an interest
in their affections
is to wait on their ministry
to be humble and
industrious
and to mind their business; when these did so
the people thought
nothing too much for them to encourage them.
1. Care is here taken for the collecting of their dues.
2. Care is taken that
being gathered in
it might be duly paid out.
(Matthew Henry.)
For in the days of David
and Asaph of old.
The good old times
I. Nothing is
necessarily good because it is old. “Hast thou marked the old way which wicked
men have trodden?” Habit
education
tradition
prejudice
play an important
part in history.
II. That which is
old is presumptively valuable. Good lasts. Truth is as old as the hills.
Application:
Prove all things. Despise nothing. The present is a huge borrower from the dead
past. (Homiletic Commentary.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》