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Nehemiah 12: What the Passage Says

143 claims across 47 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Nehemiah 12 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

The chapter opens with lists: the priests and Levites who returned with Zerubbabel and Jeshua, the heads of the priestly families in the days of Joiakim, and the Levites recorded as family heads down to later generations. It then describes the dedication of the rebuilt wall of Jerusalem, when Nehemiah placed two large choirs on the wall to march in opposite directions and meet at the temple, with trumpets, instruments, sacrifices, and loud rejoicing. It closes with the arrangements made that day for storerooms and for the daily shares given to the singers, gatekeepers, Levites, and priests.

Claim by Claim

  1. 12:1
    • These are the priests and the Levites who went up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and with Jeshua.
    • Among them was Seraiah.
    • Among them was Jeremiah.
    • Among them was Ezra.
  2. 12:2
    • Among them was Amariah.
    • Among them was Malluch.
    • Among them was Hattush.
  3. 12:3
    • Among them was Shechaniah.
    • Among them was Rehum.
    • Among them was Meremoth.
  4. 12:4
    • Among them was Iddo.
    • Among them was Ginnethoi.
    • Among them was Abijah.
  5. 12:5
    • Among them was Miamin.
    • Among them was Maadiah.
    • Among them was Bilgah.
  6. 12:6
    • Among them was Shemaiah.
    • Among them was Joiarib.
    • Among them was Jedaiah.
  7. 12:7
    • Among them was Sallu.
    • Among them was Amok.
    • Among them was Hilkiah.
    • Among them was Jedaiah.
    • These men were the heads of the priests and of their brethren in the days of Jeshua.
  8. 12:8
    • The Levites were Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and Mattaniah.
    • Mattaniah was in charge of the songs of thanksgiving.
    • Mattaniah held that charge together with his brethren.
  9. 12:9
    • Bakbukiah and Unni were their brethren.
    • Bakbukiah and Unni stood opposite them in the watches of service.
  10. 12:10
    • Jeshua fathered Joiakim.
    • Joiakim fathered Eliashib.
    • Eliashib fathered Joiada.
  11. 12:11
    • Joiada fathered Jonathan.
    • Jonathan fathered Jaddua.
  12. 12:12
    • In the days of Joiakim there were priests who were heads of fathers' houses.
    • Of the house of Seraiah, the head was Meraiah.
    • Of Jeremiah, the head was Hananiah.
  13. 12:13
    • Of Ezra, the head was Meshullam.
    • Of Amariah, the head was Jehohanan.
  14. 12:14
    • Of Melicu, the head was Jonathan.
    • Of Shebaniah, the head was Joseph.
  15. 12:15
    • Of Harim, the head was Adna.
    • Of Meraioth, the head was Helkai.
  16. 12:16
    • Of Iddo, the head was Zechariah.
    • Of Ginnethon, the head was Meshullam.
  17. 12:17
    • Of Abijah, the head was Zichri.
    • Of Miniamin, no head is named.
    • Of Moadiah, the head was Piltai.
  18. 12:18
    • Of Bilgah, the head was Shammua.
    • Of Shemaiah, the head was Jehonathan.
  19. 12:19
    • Of Joiarib, the head was Mattenai.
    • Of Jedaiah, the head was Uzzi.
  20. 12:20
    • Of Sallai, the head was Kallai.
    • Of Amok, the head was Eber.
  21. 12:21
    • Of Hilkiah, the head was Hashabiah.
    • Of Jedaiah, the head was Nethaneel.
  22. 12:22
    • The Levites in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan, and Jaddua were recorded as heads of fathers' houses.
    • The priests were likewise recorded, up to the reign of Darius the Persian.
  23. 12:23
    • The sons of Levi who were heads of fathers' houses were written in the book of the chronicles.
    • That record extended until the days of Johanan the son of Eliashib.
  24. 12:24
    • The chiefs of the Levites were Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua the son of Kadmiel.
    • Their brethren stood opposite them.
    • They stood to praise and to give thanks.
    • They did so according to the commandment of David the man of God.
    • One division stood opposite the other division.
  25. 12:25
    • Mattaniah, Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, and Akkub were gatekeepers.
    • They kept watch at the storerooms of the gates, which may also be understood as the thresholds of the gates.
  26. 12:26
    • These men served in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak.
    • These men served in the days of Nehemiah the governor and of Ezra the priest and scribe.
  27. 12:27
    • At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought out the Levites from all their places.
    • They sought them in order to bring them to Jerusalem.
    • The purpose was to hold the dedication with gladness.
    • The dedication was to be held with thanksgivings and with singing.
    • The dedication was to be held with cymbals, lutes, and lyres.
  28. 12:28
    • The sons of the singers gathered themselves together.
    • They came from the plain around Jerusalem.
    • They came from the villages of the Netophathites.
  29. 12:29
    • They came also from Beth-gilgal.
    • They came from the fields of Geba and Azmaveth.
    • The singers had built villages for themselves around Jerusalem.
  30. 12:30
    • The priests and the Levites purified themselves.
    • They purified the people.
    • They purified the gates.
    • They purified the wall.
  31. 12:31
    • Nehemiah brought the princes of Judah up onto the wall.
    • Nehemiah appointed two great thanksgiving companies.
    • One company went to the right upon the wall toward the dung gate.
  32. 12:32
    • Hoshaiah went after them.
    • Half of the princes of Judah went after them.
  33. 12:33
    • Azariah went also.
    • Ezra went also.
    • Meshullam went also.
  34. 12:34
    • Judah went also.
    • Benjamin went also.
    • Shemaiah went also.
    • Jeremiah went also.
  35. 12:35
    • Some of the priests' sons went with trumpets.
    • Among them was Zechariah the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Michaiah, the son of Zaccur, the son of Asaph.
  36. 12:36
    • His brethren were Shemaiah, Azarael, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethaneel, Judah, and Hanani.
    • They carried the musical instruments of David the man of God.
    • Ezra the scribe went before them.
  37. 12:37
    • At the fountain gate, which was opposite them, they went up by the stairs of the city of David.
    • They went up at the ascent of the wall.
    • They passed above the house of David.
    • They went as far as the water gate on the east.
  38. 12:38
    • The second thanksgiving company went in the opposite direction, to the left.
    • Nehemiah followed after that company.
    • Half of the people went upon the wall.
    • They went from above the tower of the furnaces as far as the broad wall.
  39. 12:39
    • They went above the gate of Ephraim.
    • They went above the old gate.
    • They went above the fish gate.
    • They passed the tower of Hananeel.
    • They passed the tower of Meah.
    • They went as far as the sheep gate.
    • They stood still at the gate of the guard.
  40. 12:40
    • The two thanksgiving companies stood in the house of God.
    • Nehemiah stood there also.
    • Half of the rulers stood there with Nehemiah.
  41. 12:41
    • The priests Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Michaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah were there with trumpets.
  42. 12:42
    • Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malchijah, Elam, and Ezer were there also.
    • The singers sang loudly.
    • Jezrahiah was their overseer.
  43. 12:43
    • On that day they offered great sacrifices.
    • They rejoiced.
    • God had made them rejoice with great joy.
    • The women also rejoiced.
    • The children also rejoiced.
    • The joy of Jerusalem was heard from far away.
  44. 12:44
    • On that day men were appointed over the chambers.
    • The chambers were for the stores, the contributions, the firstfruits, and the tithes.
    • They were to gather into the chambers, from the fields of the cities, the portions required by the law for the priests and the Levites.
    • Judah rejoiced over the priests and the Levites who served.
  45. 12:45
    • They kept the charge of their God.
    • They kept the charge of purification.
    • The singers and the gatekeepers did likewise.
    • This was according to the commandment of David and of Solomon his son.
  46. 12:46
    • In the days of David and Asaph, long before, there were chiefs of the singers.
    • In those days there were songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.
  47. 12:47
    • All Israel in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah gave the portions of the singers and the gatekeepers.
    • They gave the required amount day by day.
    • They set apart holy portions for the Levites.
    • The Levites set apart holy portions for the sons of Aaron.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

12:1
The return from Babylon: in 538 BC the Persian king Cyrus allowed the Judeans deported by Babylon two generations earlier to go home. Zerubbabel, a descendant of the old royal line, led that first group as governor, and Jeshua served as high priest. The events of Nehemiah's own lifetime, later in this chapter, come about a century after this.
12:7
The names in verses 1–7 are not only individuals but the ancestors of the priestly clans. Priests served in a rotation of family divisions, so a division was known by the name of its founder for centuries afterward, which is why the same names reappear in verses 12–21 as family labels rather than as living men.
12:8
Priests and Levites were different orders. Priests were descendants of Aaron and alone offered sacrifice; Levites were the rest of the tribe of Levi and handled the supporting work of the temple, music, gatekeeping, storerooms, and preparation.
12:9
"Stood facing them" describes antiphonal singing: two groups of singers positioned opposite each other, each answering the other's line in turn. The "times of service" were the fixed shifts in which the temple staff rotated on duty.
12:10
This is the line of high priests, not an ordinary family tree. The office passed from father to son, so listing the succession Jeshua–Joiakim–Eliashib–Joiada–Jonathan–Jaddua is a way of measuring out roughly a century and a half of time.
12:11
Jaddua belongs several generations after Nehemiah, so this line of high priests was brought up to date by a later hand than the rest of the book.
12:12
The names in verses 12 to 21 look like a repeat of verses 1 to 7 because they are family names. Each priest who returned with Zerubbabel gave his name to a division of priests descended from him, so a generation later the head of the family of Seraiah is a different man, Meraiah. "The chief of the fathers" in the King James means the head of a family, not a father who is a chief.
12:17
In the Hebrew text no name is given for the family of Miniamin, a word appears to have dropped out at some point in copying. The gap is in the manuscripts themselves, not in the translation.
12:22
Which Darius is meant is disputed. Darius II ruled 423–404 BC; Darius III ruled 336–331 BC, which would put this note a full century after Nehemiah and suggest the list was updated by a later hand. The Hebrew says only "Darius the Persian," and leaves it open.
12:23
"The book of the chronicles" here means an official register of names kept as a running record, not the biblical books of Chronicles. Descent had to be documented, since only men who could prove their line were admitted to priestly or Levitical service.
12:24
"The man of God" is a standard Hebrew title for someone who speaks or acts under divine commission, used of prophets generally; here it marks David as the authority behind the temple's musical arrangements, which tradition credited to him.
12:25
Gatekeepers were not merely doorkeepers. They controlled access to the temple precincts and guarded the storerooms, which held the grain, oil, wine, and silver brought in as offerings, effectively the treasury and food supply of the whole institution.
12:26
A scribe in this period was a trained scholar and official custodian of the written Law, not a copyist. Ezra's authority came from his mastery of that text.
12:27
A dedication was a formal ceremony marking a building as set apart for its purpose. Cymbals, harps, and lyres were the standard temple instruments; the harp and lyre were both hand-held stringed instruments of different sizes, not the large upright harp of modern orchestras.
12:28
Netophah was a village a few miles south of Jerusalem, near Bethlehem.
12:29
Geba and Azmaveth lay a few miles north-east of Jerusalem, in the territory of Benjamin. Beth-gilgal means "house of Gilgal" and was probably a settlement in the Jordan valley.
12:30
Purification was a ritual procedure (washing, sacrifice, and sprinkling) that removed ceremonial impurity and made a person or object fit for sacred use. It has nothing to do with physical dirt: the newly built wall was clean but not yet ritually consecrated.
12:31
Jerusalem's wall was wide enough on top to walk along in procession. Going "to the right" means turning south, since the two choirs started near the same point and circled the city in opposite directions. The Dung Gate, at the south end, was where refuse was carried out to the valley below.
12:35
The trumpets were straight silver instruments used by priests for signaling at ceremonies, not curved rams' horns. Asaph was one of the musicians David appointed over temple song; his descendants formed a recognized guild of singers, so "son of Asaph" identifies a professional family line.
12:36
King David had set up the temple music long before and chose the instruments for it. "Man of God" was a title of honor for someone who spoke and acted for God.
12:37
The City of David was the oldest and lowest part of Jerusalem, the ridge south of the temple, so the procession had to climb steps to rejoin the wall. The Water Gate faced the Gihon spring, the city's main water source, on the eastern slope.
12:38
The Tower of the Furnaces, or Ovens, probably stood near the bakers' quarter. The Broad Wall was a notably thick stretch of fortification on the western side; a section of it, about twenty feet thick, has been uncovered by excavation.
12:39
The Tower of Meah is the Tower of the Hundred, Hebrew *me'ah* means "hundred," perhaps its height in cubits or the size of its garrison. The Sheep Gate, on the north-east, was where animals for sacrifice were brought in. The Prison Gate, or Gate of the Guard, stood near the detention quarters.
12:40
"The house of God" is the temple. Both processions ended in its courts, having encircled the city between them.
12:43
Animal sacrifice was the ordinary form of public worship: the animals were killed, part burned on the altar, and much of the remainder eaten by the worshipers, so a day of "great sacrifices" was also a large communal feast.
12:44
Three kinds of contribution are listed. Gifts, or offerings, were voluntary donations; firstfruits were the earliest portion of each harvest, handed over before the rest could be used; the tenth part, or tithe, was a tenth of produce and livestock owed annually. The priests and Levites held no farmland of their own and lived entirely on these payments, so the storerooms were their food supply.
12:45
"The service of making things clean" is the work of ritual purification, supervising the washings, inspections, and rites that kept people and objects fit for temple use.
12:46
Asaph led the temple singers in David's time roughly five hundred years before this, so "long ago" points back to the arrangements the returned community was consciously reviving.
12:47
The descendants of Aaron are the priests. The chain described here is set out in the Law: the people gave a tenth of their produce to the Levites, and the Levites in turn gave a tenth of what they received to the priests.

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