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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Nehemiah 12:1 - 12:1
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Neh 12:1-7
Neh 12:1 contains the title of the first list, Neh 12:1-9. “These are the priests and Levites who went up with Zerubbabel ... and Joshua;” comp. Ezr 2:1-2. Then follow, Neh 12:1, the names of the priests, with the subscription: “These are the heads of the priests and of their brethren, in the days of Joshua.” וַאֲחֵיהֶם still depends on רָאשֵׁי. The brethren of the priests are the Levites, as being their fellow-tribesmen and assistants. Two-and-twenty names of such heads are enumerated, and these reappear, with but slight variations attributable to clerical errors, as names of priestly houses in Neh 12:12-21, where they are given in conjunction with the names of those priests who, in the days of Joiakim, either represented these houses, or occupied as heads the first position in them. The greater number, viz., 15, of these have already been mentioned as among those who, together with Nehemiah, sealed as heads of their respective houses the agreement to observe the law, Neh 10. Hence the present chapter appears to be the most appropriate place for comparing with each other the several statements given in the books of Nehemiah and Ezra, concerning the divisions or orders of priests in the period immediately following the return from the captivity, and for discussing the question how the heads and houses of priests enumerated in Neh 10 and 12 stand related on the one hand to the list of the priestly races who returned with Zerubbabel and Joshua, and on the other to the twenty-four orders of priests instituted by David. For the purpose of giving an intelligible answer to this question, we first place in juxtaposition the three lists given in Nehemiah, chs. 10 and 12.
Neh 10:3-9 Neh 12:1-7 Neh 12:12-21
Priests who sealed the Covenant Priests who were Heads of their Houses Priestly Houses and their respective Heads
1. Seraiah 1. Seraiah* SeraiahMeraiah
2. Azariah 2. Jeremiah* Jeremiah Hananiah
3. Jeremiah 3. Ezra* Ezra Meshullam
4. Pashur 4. Amariah* Amariah Jehohanan
5. Amariah 5. Malluch* Meluchi Jonathan
6. Malchijah 6. Hattush*
7. Hattush 7. Shecaniah* Shebaniah Joseph
8. Shebaniah 8. Rehum* Harim Adna
9. Malluch 9. Meremoth* Meraioth Helkai
10. Harim 10. Iddo Idiah Zecariah
11. Meremoth 11. Ginnethon* Ginnethon Meshullam
12. Obadiah 12. Abijah* Abijah Zichri
13. Daniel 13. Miamin* Miniamin
14. Ginnethon 14. Maadiah* Moadiah Piltai
15. Baruch 15. Bilgah* Bilgah Shammua
16. Meshullam 16. Shemaiah* Shemaiah Jehonathan
17. Abijah 17. Joiarib Joiarib Mathnai
18. Mijamin 18. Jedaiah Jedaiah Uzzi
19. Maaziah 19. Sallu Sallai Kallai
20. Bilgai 20. Amok Amok Eber
21. Shemaiah 21. Hilkiah Hilkiah Hashabiah
22. Jedaiah 22. Jedaiah Nethaneel
When, in the first place, we compare the two series in Neh 12, we find the name of the head of the house of Minjamin, and the names both of the house and the head, Hattush, between Meluchi and Shebaniah, omitted. In other respects the two lists agree both in the order and number of the names, with the exception of unimportant variations in the names, as מְלוּכִי (Chethiv, Neh 12:14) for מַלּוּךְ (Neh 12:2); שְׁכַנְיָה (Neh 12:3) for שְׁבַנְיָה (Neh 12:14, Neh 10:6); רְחֻם (Neh 12:3), a transposition of חָרִם (Neh 12:15, Neh 10:6); מְרָיֹות (Neh 12:15) instead of מְרֵמֹות (Neh 12:3, Neh 10:6); עדיא (Chethiv, Neh 12:16) instead of עִדֹּוא (Neh 12:4); מִיָּמִין (Neh 12:5) for מִנְיָמִין (Neh 12:17); מֹועַדְיָה (Neh 12:17) for מַעַדְיָה (Neh 12:4), or, according to a different pronunciation, מַעַזְיָה (Neh 10:9); סַלַּי (Neh 12:20) for סַלּוּ (Neh 12:7). - If we next compare the two lists in Neh 12 with that in Neh 10, we find that of the twenty-two names given (Neh 12), the fifteen marked thus * occur also in Neh 10; עֲזַרְיָה, Neh 10:4, being evidently a clerical error, or another form of עֶזְרָא, Neh 12:2, Neh 12:13. Of the names enumerated in Neh 10, Pashur, Malchiah, Obadiah, Daniel, Baruch, and Meshullam are wanting in Neh 12, and are replaced by Iddo and the six last: Joiarib, Jedaiah, Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, and Jedaiah. The name of Eliashib the high priest being also absent, Bertheau seeks to explain this difference by supposing that a portion of the priests refused their signatures because they did not concur in the strict measures of Ezra and Nehemiah. This conjecture would be conceivable, if we found in Neh 10 that only thirteen orders or heads of priests had signed instead of twenty-two. Since, however, instead of the seven missing names, six others signed the covenant, this cannot be the reason for the difference between the names in the two documents (Neh 10, 12), which is probably to be found in the time that elapsed between the making of these lists. The date of the list, Neh 12:1-7, is that of Zerubbabel and Joshua (b.c. 536); that of the other in Neh 12, the times of the high priest Joiakim the son of Joshua, i.e., at the earliest, the latter part of the reign of Darius Hystaspis, perhaps even the reign of Xerxes.
How, then, are the two lists in Neh 12 and that in Neh 10, agreeing as they do in names, related to the list of the priests who, according to Ezr 2:36-39 and Neh 7:39-42, returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel and Joshua? The traditional view, founded on the statements of the Talmud,
(Note: In Hieros. Taanith, f. 68a; Tosafta Taanith, c. 11, in Babyl. Erachin, f. 12b. The last statement is, according to Herzfeld, Gesch. i. p. 393, as follows: “Four divisions of priests returned from captivity, viz., Jedaiah, Charim, Paschur, and Immer. These the prophets of the returned captives again divided into twenty-four; whereupon their names were written upon tickets and put in an urn, from which Jedaiah drew five, and each of the other three before-named divisions as many: it was then ordained by those prophets, that even if the division Joiarib (probably the first division before the captivity) should return, Jedaiah should nevertheless retain his position, and Joiarib should be טפל לו (associated with him, belonging to him).” Comp. Bertheau on Neh. p. 230, and Oehler in Herzog's Realencycl. xii. p. 185, who, though refusing this tradition the value of independent historical testimony, still give it more weight than it deserves.)
is, that the four divisions given in Ezra 2 and Neh 7, “the sons of Jedaiah, the sons of Immer, the sons of Pashur and Harim,” were the priests of the four (Davidic) orders of Jedaiah, Immer, Malchijah, and Harim (the second, sixteenth, fifth, and third orders of 1 Chron 24). For the sake of restoring, according to the ancient institution, a greater number of priestly orders, the twenty-two orders enumerated in Neh 12 were formed from these four divisions; and the full number of twenty-four was not immediately completed, only because, according to Ezr 2:61 and Neh 7:63., three families of priests who could not find their registers returned, as well as those before named, and room was therefore left for their insertion in the twenty-four orders: the first of these three families, viz., Habaiah, being probably identical with the eighth class, Abia; the second, Hakkoz, with the seventh class of the same name. See Oehler's before-cited work. p. 184f. But this view is decidedly erroneous, and the error lies in the identification of the four races of Ezr 2:36, on account of the similarity of the names Jedaiah, Immer, and Harim, with those of the second, sixteenth, and third classes of the Davidic division, - thus regarding priestly races as Davidic priestly classes, through mere similarity of name, without reflecting that even the number 4487, given in Ezr 2:36., is incompatible with this assumption. For if these four races were only four orders of priests, each order must have numbered about 1120 males, and the twenty-four orders of the priesthood before the captivity would have yielded the colossal sum of from 24,000 to 26,000 priests. It is true that we have no statement of the numbers of the priesthood; but if the numbering of the Levites in David's times gave the amount of 38,000 males, the priests of that time could at the most have been 3800, and each of the twenty-four orders would have included in all 150 persons, or at most seventy-five priests of the proper age for officiating. Now, if this number had doubled in the interval of time extending to the close of the captivity, the 4487 who returned with Zerubbabel would have formed more than half of the whole number of priests then living, and not merely the amount of four classes. Hence we cannot but regard Jedaiah, Immer, Pashur, and Harim, of Ezr 2:36, as names not of priestly orders, but of great priestly races, and explain the occurrence of three of these names as those of certain of the orders of priests formed by David, by the consideration, that the Davidic orders were names after heads of priestly families of the days of David, and that several of these heads, according to the custom of bestowing upon sons, grandsons, etc., the names of renowned ancestors, bore the names of the founders and heads of the greater races and houses. The classification of the priests in Ezr 2:36. is genealogical, i.e., it follows not the division into orders made by David for the service of the temple, but the genealogical ramification into races and houses. The sons of Jedaiah, Immer, etc., are not the priests belonging to the official orders of Jedaiah, Immer, etc., but the priestly races descended from Jedaiah, etc. The four races (mentioned Ezr 2:36, etc.), each of which averaged upwards of 1000 men, were, as appears from Neh 12:1-7 and Neh 12:12, divided into twenty-two houses. From this number of houses, it was easy to restore the old division into twenty-four official orders. That it was not, however, considered necessary to make this artificial restoration of the twenty-four classes immediately, is seen from the circumstances that both under Joiakim, i.e., a generation after Zerubbabel's return (Neh 12:12-21), only twenty-two houses are enumerated, and under Nehemiah, i.e., after Ezra's return (in Neh 10), only twenty-one heads of priestly houses sealed the document. Whether, and how the full number of twenty-four was completed, cannot, for want of information, be determined. The statement of Joseph. Ant. vii. 14. 7, that David's division into orders continues to this day, affords no sufficient testimony to the fact.
According, then, to what has been said, the difference between the names in the two lists of Neh 10 and 12 is to be explained simply by the fact, that the names of those who sealed the covenant, Neh 10, are names neither of orders nor houses, but of heads of houses living in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. Of these names, a portion coincides indeed with the names of the orders and houses, while the rest are different. The coincidence or sameness of the names does not, however, prove that the individuals belonged to the house whose name they bore. On the contrary, it appears from Neh 12:13 and Neh 12:16, that of two Meshullams, one was the head of the house of Ezra, the other of the house of Ginnethon; and hence, in Neh 10, Amariah may have belonged to the house of Malluch, Hattush to the house of Shebaniah, Malluch to the house of Meremoth, etc. In this manner, both the variation and coincidence of the names in Neh 10 and 12 may be easily explained; the only remaining difficulty being, that in Neh 10 only twenty-one, not twenty-two, heads of houses are said to have sealed. This discrepancy seems, indeed, to have arisen from the omission of a name in transcription. For the other possible explanation, viz., that in the interval between Joiakim and Nehemiah, the contemporary of Eliashib, one house had died out, is very far-fetched.
Neh 12:8-9
The heads of Levitical houses in the time of Jeshua the high priest. - Of these names we meet, Neh 10:10., with those of Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, and Sherebiah, as of heads who sealed the covenant; while those of Sherebiah, and Jeshua the son (?) of Kadmiel, are again cited in Neh 12:24 as heads of Levites, i.e., of Levitical divisions. The name יְהוּדָה does not occur in the other lists of Levites in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and is perhaps miswritten for הֹודִיָּה (Neh 10:10; Neh 13:7). Mattaniah is probably Mattaniah the Asaphite, the son of Micah, the son of Zabdi, head of the first band of singers (Neh 11:17); for he was הֻיְּדֹות עַל, over the singing of praise. The form הֻיְּדֹות, which should probably be read according to the Keri הֻיְּדוּת, is a peculiar formation of an abstract noun; comp. Ewald, §165, b.
Neh 12:9
Bakbukiah and Unni (Chethiv עֻנּו), their brethren, were before them (opposite them) לְמִשְׁמָרֹות, at the posts of service, i.e., forming in service the opposite choir. Neh 12:24 forbids us to understand מִשְׁמָרֹות as watch-posts, though the omission of the doorkeepers (comp. Ezr 2:42) is remarkable. Bakbukiah recurs Neh 12:24; the name Unni is not again met with, though there is no occasion, on this account, for the inapt conjecture of Bertheau, that the reading should be וְעָנוּ or וַיַּעֲנוּ.