Discovery BoxNehemiah 13:1-31
Context13:1 On that day the book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing 1 of the people. They found 2 written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite may ever enter the assembly of God, 13:2 for they had not met the Israelites with food 3 and water, but instead had hired Balaam to curse them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into blessing.) 13:3 When they heard the law, they removed from Israel all who were of mixed ancestry.
13:4 But prior to this time, Eliashib the priest, a relative of Tobiah, had been appointed over the storerooms 4 of the temple of our God. 13:5 He made for himself a large storeroom where previously they had been keeping 5 the grain offering, the incense, and the vessels, along with the tithes of the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil as commanded for the Levites, the singers, the gate keepers, and the offering for the priests.
13:6 During all this time I was not in Jerusalem, 6 for in the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes of Babylon, I had gone back to the king. After some time 7 I had requested leave of the king, 13:7 and I returned to Jerusalem. Then I discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah by supplying him with a storeroom in the courts of the temple of God. 13:8 I was very upset, and I threw all of Tobiah’s household possessions out of the storeroom. 13:9 Then I gave instructions that the storerooms should be purified, and I brought back the equipment 8 of the temple of God, along with the grain offering and the incense.
13:10 I also discovered that the grain offerings for the Levites had not been provided, and that as a result the Levites and the singers who performed this work had all gone off to their fields. 13:11 So I registered a complaint with the leaders, asking “Why is the temple of God neglected?” Then I gathered them and reassigned them to their positions. 9
13:12 Then all of Judah brought the tithe of the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil to the storerooms. 13:13 I gave instructions 10 that Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and a certain Levite named Pedaiah be put in charge of 11 the storerooms, and that Hanan son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah, be their assistant, 12 for they were regarded as trustworthy. It was then their responsibility to oversee the distribution to their colleagues. 13
13:14 Please remember me for this, O my God, and do not wipe out the kindness that I have done for the temple of my God and for its services!
13:15 In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath, bringing in heaps of grain and loading them onto donkeys, along with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, and bringing them to Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them on the day that they sold these provisions. 13:16 The people from Tyre 14 who lived there were bringing fish and all kinds of merchandise and were selling it on the Sabbath to the people of Judah – and in Jerusalem, of all places! 15 13:17 So I registered a complaint with the nobles of Judah, saying to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day? 13:18 Isn’t this the way your ancestors 16 acted, causing our God to bring on them and on this city all this misfortune? And now you are causing even more wrath on Israel, profaning the Sabbath like this!”
13:19 When the evening shadows 17 began to fall on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered 18 the doors to be closed. I further directed that they were not to be opened until after the Sabbath. I positioned 19 some of my young men at the gates so that no load could enter on the Sabbath day. 13:20 The traders and sellers of all kinds of merchandise spent the night outside Jerusalem once or twice. 13:21 But I warned them and said, 20 “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you repeat this, I will forcibly remove you!” 21 From that time on they did not show up on the Sabbath. 22 13:22 Then I directed the Levites to purify themselves and come and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy.
For this please remember me, O my God, and have pity on me in keeping with your great love.
13:23 Also in those days I saw the men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 13:24 Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod (or the language of one of the other peoples mentioned 23 ) and were unable to speak the language of Judah. 13:25 So I entered a complaint with them. I called down a curse on them, and I struck some of the men and pulled out their hair. I had them swear by God saying, “You will not marry off 24 your daughters to their sons, and you will not take any of their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves! 13:26 Was it not because of things like these that King Solomon of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made 25 him king over all Israel. But the foreign wives made even him sin! 13:27 Should we then in your case hear that you do all this great evil, thereby being unfaithful to our God by marrying 26 foreign wives?”
13:28 Now one of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. So I banished him from my sight.
13:29 Please remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, the covenant of the priesthood, 27 and the Levites.
13:30 So I purified them of everything foreign, and I assigned specific 28 duties to the priests and the Levites. 13:31 I also provided for 29 the wood offering at the appointed times and also for the first fruits.
Please remember me for good, O my God.
[13:1] 2 tn Heb “it was found.” The Hebrew verb is passive.
[13:2] 3 tn Heb “bread.” The Hebrew term is generic here, however, referring to more than bread alone.
[13:4] 4 tc The translation reads the plural rather than the singular of the MT.
[13:6] 6 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[13:6] 7 tn Heb “to the end of days.”
[13:9] 8 tn On the usage of this Hebrew word see HALOT 478-79 s.v. כְּלִי.
[13:11] 9 tn Heb “and I stood them on their standing.”
[13:13] 10 tc Probably one should read with the Lucianic Greek recension, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Vulgate וָאֲצַוֶּה (va’atsavveh, “and I commanded”) rather than the rare denominative verb וָאוֹצְרָה (va’otsÿrah, “and I appointed over the storeroom”) of the MT.
[13:13] 12 tn Heb “on their hand.”
[13:16] 14 map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.
[13:16] 15 tn The words “of all places” are not in the Hebrew text but have been supplied in the translation to indicate the emphasis on Jerusalem.
[13:18] 16 tn Heb “your fathers.”
[13:19] 17 tn Heb “the gates of Jerusalem grew dark.”
[13:19] 18 tn Heb “said” (so also in v. 22).
[13:19] 19 tn Heb “caused to stand.”
[13:21] 20 tn The Hebrew text includes the words “to them,” but they have been excluded from the translation for stylistic reasons.
[13:21] 21 tn Heb “I will send a hand on you.”
[13:21] 22 sn This statement contains a great deal of restrained humor. The author clearly takes pleasure in the effectiveness of the measures that he had enacted.
[13:24] 23 tn Heb “people and people.”
[13:27] 26 tn Heb “give a dwelling to.”
[13:29] 27 tc One medieval Hebrew
[13:30] 28 tn Heb “a man in his work.”
[13:31] 29 tn The words “I also provided for” are not included in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.
