Resource > Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable) >  Nehemiah >  Exposition >  II. THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS chs. 8--13 >  A. The Renewal of the Mosaic Covenant chs. 8-10 > 
3. The renewed commitment of the people ch. 10 
hide text

Nehemiah explained the agreement he previously referred to in 9:38 in this chapter. Conviction of sin (ch. 8) led to confession of sin (ch. 9) and resulted in a covenant with God (ch. 10).

"Nehemiah 10, despite its forbidding portal of 27 verses of proper names, is in reality a small treasure house of post-exilic interpretations of earlier Israelite law."73

 The signers of the document 10:1-27
hide text

The names in verses 2-8 are those of the heads of 21 priestly families (cf. 12:12-21). Verses 9-13 record the names of 17 Levites. Then the writer gave the names of 44 heads of other leading families (vv. 14-27).

 The pledge to keep the Law 10:28-39
hide text

The rest of the restoration community joined those who signed their names pledging to obey the Mosaic Law (vv. 28-29). The "curse"they took on themselves was submission to the curse that God promised would come on those who did not keep His Word (v. 29; Deut. 28:15-68). "Law"(Heb. torah) refers to all God's instructions, "commandments"are His rules, "ordinances"are His judicial pronouncements, and "statutes"are His permanent decrees (v. 29; cf. Deut. 4:45).

These Jews promised specifically not to intermarry with pagans (v. 30) and to keep the Sabbath day and the sabbatical year (v. 31). They further committed to support the temple service financially (vv. 32-34), to give their first-fruits to God (vv. 35-37a), and to pay their basic tithe tax (vv. 37b-39). The last sentence in verse 39 shows that the primary concern of the people was the worship that was the heart of their national life. Their priorities were proper.

The Law required Israelites 20 years old and older to pay one-half a shekel as a temple tax (Exod. 30:11-16). The people here only promised one-third of a shekel (v. 32). Perhaps Nehemiah reduced the amount since the returned exiles were now poor.74Another explanation is that the people may have pledged this one-third shekel in addition to the other one-half.75A third possibility is that a different system of evaluating the shekel had replaced the older one.76The text is not specific on this point. In any case the people responded sacrificially.



created in 0.04 seconds
powered by
bible.org - YLSA