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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Nehemiah 13:4 - 13:4
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Nehemiah, on his return to Jerusalem, reforms the irregularities that had broken out during his absence. - Neh 13:4-9. While Nehemiah was at Babylon with King Artaxerxes, Eliashib the high priest had given up to his relative, Tobiah the Ammonite (Neh 2:10; Neh 4:3, and elsewhere), a large chamber in the temple, i.e., in the fore-court of the temple (v. 7), probably for his use as a dwelling when he visited Jerusalem (see rem. on v. 8). On his return, Nehemiah immediately cast all the furniture of Tobiah out of this chamber, purified the chambers, and restored them to their proper use as a magazine for the temple stores. מִזֶּה לִפְנֵי, before this (comp. Ewald, §315, c), refers to the beforementioned separation of the עֵרֶב from Israel (Neh 13:3). Eliashib the priest is probably the high priest of that name (Neh 3:1; Neh 12:10, Neh 12:22). This may be inferred from the particular: set over (he being set over) the chambers of the house of our God; for such oversight of the chambers of the temple would certainly be entrusted to no simple priest, though this addition shows that this oversight did not absolutely form part of the high priest's office. For נָתַן, in the sense of to set, to place over, comp. 1Ki 2:35; the construction with בְּ instead of עַל is, however, unusual, but may be derived from the local signification of בְּ, upon, over. Ewald and Bertheau are for reading לִשְׁכֹת instead of the sing. לִשְׁכַּת, because in Neh 13:5 it is not הַלִּשְׁכָּה that is spoken of, but a large chamber. לִשְׁכַּת may, however, be also understood collectively. Eliashib, being a relation of Tobiah (קָרֹוב like Rth 2:20), prepared him a chamber. The predicate of the sentence, Neh 13:4, follows in Neh 13:5 with וַיַּעַשׂ, in the form of a conclusion following the accessory sentence of the subject. How Tobiah was related to Eliashib is nowhere stated. Bertheau conjectures that it was perhaps only through the circumstance that Johanan, the son of Tobiah, had married a daughter of Meshullam ben Berechiah (Neh 6:18), who, according to Neh 3:30, was a priest or Levite, and might have been nearly related to the high priest. “A great chamber,” perhaps made so by throwing several chambers into one, as older expositors have inferred from Neh 13:9, according to which Nehemiah, after casting out the goods of Tobiah, had the chambers (plural) cleansed. The statement also in Neh 13:5, that there (in this great chamber) were aforetime laid up not only the meat-offerings (i.e., oil and flour, the materials for them), the incense, and the sacred vessels, but also the tithe of the corn, the new wine, and the oil, and the heave-offerings of the priests, seems to confirm this view. This tenth is designated as הַֽלְוִיּם מִצְוַת, the command of the Levites, i.e., what was apportioned to the Levites according to the law, the legal dues for which מִשְׁפַּט is elsewhere usual; comp. Deu 18:3; 1Sa 2:13. The heave-offering of the priest is the tenth of their tenth which the Levites had to contribute, Neh 10:39.