Nehemiah 10

What Happens in This Chapter

This chapter records the written agreement that the people of Judah sealed after their public confession. It first lists the names of those who put their seals on it: Nehemiah the governor, the priests, the Levites, and the leaders of the people. The rest of the people then joined them in a sworn promise to keep the law of Moses, spelling out specific terms: no marriages with the surrounding peoples, no trading on the Sabbath, letting the land rest and canceling debts every seventh year, a yearly payment for the service of God's house, and the regular delivery of wood, firstfruits, firstborn, and tithes. It closes with the words, "we will not neglect the house of our God."

These are the men who put their seals on the written agreement: Nehemiah the governor, son of Hachaliah, and also Zidkijah,

1Now those that sealed were, Nehemiah, the Tirshatha, the son of Hachaliah, and Zidkijah,

Sealing a document meant pressing a personal seal-stone or signet ring into soft clay or wax attached to it. It served as a signature, making the man legally bound by what the document said. "Tirshatha," the King James word behind "governor," is a Persian title for the official who administered the province on the king's behalf.

2Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah,

3Pashur, Amariah, Malchijah,

4Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch,

5Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah,

6Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch,

7Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin,

8Maaziah, Bilgai, and Shemaiah. These men were the priests.

8Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah: these were the priests.

Priests were descendants of Aaron, the only men permitted to offer sacrifices and handle the holy objects. The names in verses 2-8 are largely priestly family names rather than individuals.

9Next came the Levites: Jeshua son of Azaniah, Binnui from the family of Henadad, and Kadmiel,

9And the Levites: both Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel;

Levites were members of the tribe of Levi who were not descended from Aaron. They worked at the temple as assistants (handling the collection of tithes, teaching, music, and maintenance) but did not offer sacrifices.

10along with their fellow Levites: Shebaniah, Hodijah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan,

10And their brethren, Shebaniah, Hodijah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan,

11Micha, Rehob, Hashabiah,

12Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah,

13Hodijah, Bani, and Beninu.

13Hodijah, Bani, Beninu.

14Then came the leaders of the people: Parosh, Pahathmoab, Elam, Zatthu, Bani,

14The chief of the people; Parosh, Pahathmoab, Elam, Zatthu, Bani,

Most of the names in verses 14-27 are clan names, not personal names. "Parosh," "Pahathmoab," "Elam" and the rest appear in the earlier lists of families who returned from exile, so the man signing was signing on behalf of his whole extended family.

15Bunni, Azgad, Bebai,

16Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin,

17Ater, Hizkijah, Azzur,

18Hodijah, Hashum, Bezai,

19Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai,

20Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir,

21Meshezabeel, Zadok, Jaddua,

22Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah,

23Hoshea, Hananiah, Hashub,

24Hallohesh, Pileha, Shobek,

25Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah,

26Ahijah, Hanan, Anan,

26And Ahijah, Hanan, Anan,

27Malluch, Harim, and Baanah.

27Malluch, Harim, Baanah.

28The rest of the people took part too. This included the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, and the temple servants. It also included everyone who had separated from the peoples of the surrounding lands in order to follow God's law, along with their wives, their sons, and their daughters, everyone old enough to know and understand.

28And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge, and having understanding;

Gatekeepers guarded the temple entrances and controlled who and what came in. Singers were the trained temple musicians. "Temple servants" translates a Hebrew word meaning roughly "the given ones", a hereditary class, apparently of foreign descent, who did the heavy manual work of the sanctuary. "The peoples of the surrounding lands" means the population already living in the region, who had not been in exile in Babylon.

29They joined firmly with their relatives, the leading men, and bound themselves by an oath, calling down a curse on themselves if they broke it. They promised to live by God's law, which was given through Moses, God's servant, and to carefully keep all the commands, rulings, and rules of the LORD our Lord.

29They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes;

In ancient legal practice an oath was routinely reinforced by a self-curse: the person swearing named the disasters that should fall on him if he broke his word. The curse and the oath here are two halves of one formal act, not two separate things.

30We promise that we will not give our daughters in marriage to the peoples living around us, and we will not take their daughters as wives for our sons.

30And that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons:

31If the peoples around us bring goods or any kind of food to sell on the Sabbath day, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day. Every seventh year we will let the land rest, and we will give up our claim on every debt owed to us.

31And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day: and that we would leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt.

The Sabbath was the seventh day of the week, on which all work and trade stopped. The rule about the seventh year comes from the law of Moses: farmland was to be left unplanted for a year, and debts between Israelites were to be released rather than collected.

32We also placed a rule on ourselves: each year every person will pay a third of a shekel of silver for the service of the house of our God.

32Also we made ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God;

A shekel was a weight of silver, roughly two fifths of an ounce, and by this period also a coin. The law of Moses had set the temple contribution at half a shekel; a third of a shekel here probably reflects the different coin standards in use under Persian rule.

33This pays for the bread set out before God, for the regular grain offering and the regular burnt offering, for the offerings on the Sabbaths, the new moon festivals, and the appointed feasts, for the holy gifts, for the sin offerings that cover the wrongs of Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.

33For the shewbread, and for the continual meat offering, and for the continual burnt offering, of the sabbaths, of the new moons, for the set feasts, and for the holy things, and for the sin offerings to make an atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.

"The bread set out before God" was twelve loaves kept on a table inside the sanctuary and replaced each week. A grain offering was flour, oil and incense burned on the altar; a burnt offering was an animal burned whole. The new moon, the first day of each lunar month, was marked with its own sacrifices. A sin offering was the sacrifice that ritually cleansed a person or the nation of wrongdoing; the older English word for this is "atonement," which means covering over or wiping away.

34We also drew lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people to decide when each family would supply wood. Each family brings its wood to the house of our God at set times, year after year, to be burned on the altar of the LORD our God, just as the law says.

34And we cast the lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, after the houses of our fathers, at times appointed year by year, to burn upon the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the law:

Casting lots meant drawing marked stones or sticks, much like drawing straws, to settle a matter without argument. The altar fire burned continually and consumed an enormous amount of fuel, so supplying wood was a real and costly duty; the law of Moses required the fire be kept burning, and the community here organized a rota to do it.

35We also promise to bring the first part of our harvest, and the first fruit from every kind of tree, to the house of the LORD each year.

35And to bring the firstfruits of our ground, and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, unto the house of the LORD:

"Firstfruits" were the first portion of a crop to ripen, handed over before any of the rest of the harvest was used. Giving it acknowledged that the whole harvest came from God.

36We will also bring our firstborn sons and the firstborn of our animals, as the law says. We will bring the first young of our herds and flocks to the house of our God, to the priests who serve there.

36Also the firstborn of our sons, and of our cattle, as it is written in the law, and the firstlings of our herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of our God, unto the priests that minister in the house of our God:

Under the law of Moses a firstborn son was not handed over to the temple but bought back from it by a fixed payment of silver. Firstborn animals of the kinds used in sacrifice went to the priests.

37We will bring to the priests, at the storerooms of the house of our God, the first of our ground meal, our offerings, the fruit of every kind of tree, and our new wine and olive oil. We will bring a tenth of what our ground produces to the Levites, since the Levites are the ones who collect that tenth in all the towns where we farm.

37And that we should bring the firstfruits of our dough, and our offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and of oil, unto the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground unto the Levites, that the same Levites might have the tithes in all the cities of our tillage.

The "first of our ground meal" was a portion taken from each batch of dough before baking. Storerooms were the chambers built around the temple courts where these goods were kept, since the priests and Levites were paid in produce rather than money. A tithe is a tenth. The Levites owned no farmland of their own, so this tenth was their income, collected locally in the farming towns.

38A priest descended from Aaron will go with the Levites when they collect the tenth. The Levites will then bring a tenth of what they collect to the house of our God, to the storerooms in the treasury.

38And the priest the son of Aaron shall be with the Levites, when the Levites take tithes: and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes unto the house of our God, to the chambers, into the treasure house.

The Levites in turn owed a tenth of everything they collected to the priests, a rule set out in the law of Moses. A priest went along at collection time so the accounting could not be disputed.

39The people of Israel and the Levites are to bring their gifts of grain, new wine, and olive oil to those storerooms, where the containers used in the holy place are kept, and where the serving priests, the gatekeepers, and the singers stay. So we will not neglect the house of our God.

39For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the offering of the corn, of the new wine, and the oil, unto the chambers, where are the vessels of the sanctuary, and the priests that minister, and the porters, and the singers: and we will not forsake the house of our God.

"The containers used in the holy place" were the bowls, dishes, shovels and other utensils needed for the sacrifices, which were valuable and kept under guard. The priests, gatekeepers and singers lived on the temple grounds while on duty, which is why the stored produce that paid them was kept there.

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