Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Nehemiah 13:30 - 13:30
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Nehemiah concludes his work with a short summary of what he had effected for the community. “I cleansed them from all strangers” (comp. Neh 13:23., Neh 9:2; Neh 13:1.), “and appointed the services for the priests and Levites, each in his business, and for the wood-offering at times appointed (Neh 10:35), and for the first-fruits” (Neh 10:36.). The suffix to וְטִהַרְתִּים refers to the Jews. נֵכָר, strange, means foreign heathen customs, and chiefly marriages with heathen women, Neh 13:23., Neh 9:2; Neh 13:1. מִשְׁמָרֹות הֶעֱמִיד, properly to set a watch, here used in the more general sense of to appoint posts of service for the priests and Levites, i.e., to arrange for the attendance upon those offices which they had to perform at their posts in the temple, according to the law; comp. Neh 10:37, Neh 10:39; Neh 12:44-46; Neh 13:13. וּלְקֻרְבַּן and וְלַבִּכּוּרִים, Neh 13:31, still depend on מִשְׁמִרֹות וָאַעֲמִידָה: I appointed the attendance for the delivery of the wood for the altar at appointed times (comp. Neh 10:35), and for the first-fruits, i.e., for bringing into the sanctuary the heave-offering for the priests. The בִּכּוּרִים are named as pars pro toto, instead of all the תְרוּמֹות prescribed by the law. On the arrangements connected with these two subjects, viz., the purification from heathen practices, and the restoration of the regular performance of divine worship, was Nehemiah's whole energy concentrated, after the fortification of Jerusalem by a wall of circumvallation had been completed. He thus earned a lasting claim to the gratitude of the congregation of his fellow-countryman that returned from Babylon, and could conclude his narrative with the prayer that God would remember him for good. On this frequently-repeated supplication (comp. Neh 13:14, Neh 13:22, and Neh 5:19) Rambach justly remarks: magnam Nehemiae pietatem spirat. This piety is, however - as we cannot fail also to perceive - strongly pervaded by the legal spirit of post-Babylonian Judaism.