Nehemiah 13 Study Notes

13:1-3 At that time designates the era of reform under Nehemiah and not a specific date. During the now customary reading of the book of Moses, they read Dt 23:3-6 about the Ammonites and Moabites. The exclusion of the Moabites was because of their attempt to block the Israelites on their way to the promised land and their repeated attacks (Jdg 3:13; 10:9-17). All those of mixed descent (Hb ‘eyrev) were separated from Israel, which probably did not mean deportation or breaking of marriages, but exclusion from the worshiping community.

13:4-5 While some identify Eliashib as the high priest (3:1,20-21), this is unlikely. The name “Eliashib” (“God Repays” or “God Leads Back”) was common in the postexilic era. Moreover, when Eliashib is identified he is called “the high priest” (3:1,20; 13:28) and never “the priest.” Also, the Eliashib in vv. 4-8 was the person responsible for the storerooms of the temple, which though a position of responsibility, was hardly a job for the high priest. That a large room in the temple complex was now empty of offerings and available for Tobiah’s use points to the problem that Nehemiah dealt with later (vv. 10-13).

13:6-7 With this verse (v. 6) it becomes clear how such a shameful situation could have occurred in the Lord’s temple: Nehemiah was in Babylon. In 5:14, Nehemiah’s time in Jerusalem was described as from Artaxerxes’s “twentieth year until his thirty-second year, twelve years,” probably 445-432 BC. Nehemiah stated that it was only later that he asked Artaxerxes for a leave of absence to return to Jerusalem and deal with the problems that had arisen. The description of his activity suggests that he returned as governor of the province and not just a private citizen. According to the Elephantine Papyri, a governor named Bagohi was active in Jerusalem in 407 BC, thus giving a suggested end date for Nehemiah’s second governorship.

13:8-13 Tobiah the Ammonite’s profaning of the rooms provided by Eliashib meant they had to be purified before they were restored to their original function. These rooms were empty because during Nehemiah’s absence the people had failed to provide a tenth of their produce. While the priests were provided for by their share of the sacrifices, the people had vowed to give a tenth of their produce (10:35-39) for the support of the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers. But in Nehemiah’s absence, and with heavy Persian taxes, they had failed to keep their promises; the Levites had been forced to return to farming. Nehemiah recalled the Levites and their associates back to the temple and insisted that the people give a tenth. To make sure such a situation would not happen again, Nehemiah appointed four trustworthy men who represented the various temple personnel to make an equitable distribution of the tenths.

13:14 The first of four brief prayers to God by Nehemiah in this chapter occurs in this verse (see note at 4:4-5). He asked the Lord not to erase his deeds of faithful love (Hb chesed). The thought is that in the records of heaven (Ps 69:28; Dn 7:10; 12:1; Mal 3:16) his acts of faithful love would remain and be acknowledged by the Lord. Nehemiah’s “deeds” were those acts of faithfulness to the commission laid upon him by God. The phrase is not an example of “works righteousness” but an expression of his faithfulness to his call by God to serve as governor.

13:15-16 In 10:31 the people had pledged that they would not buy any merchandise or any kind of grain on the Sabbath, but when Nehemiah returned for his second stint as governor, he found they had changed their minds. Moreover, the people were working on the Sabbath as if it were just another day. The Tyrians were Phoenician traders whose homeland was the region of Tyre and Sidon.

13:17-18 The word rebuked is from a Hebrew term (riv) often used in a covenant lawsuit. Nehemiah contended with the nobles of Judah because of their violation of their covenant with God. Even if they were buying only from Gentile traders, their evil was clear; they were profaning the Sabbath day. During the postexilic era, Sabbath observance took on special significance and served as an important national marker that distinguished them from their Gentile neighbors. Nehemiah reminded the nobles of Judah of the terrible cost of their Sabbath violations in the past (Ezk 20:18-24) that had brought this disaster on us and on this city.

13:19-22 Nehemiah not only “rebuked” the leaders but took action. He closed the city gates into Jerusalem during the Sabbath. Some merchants tried to get around his orders by setting up shop right outside the walls (v. 20), but he warned them that he would disperse them by force if it happened again. Posting his men to the city gates was only a temporary measure, so Nehemiah ordered the Levites to purify themselves and to guard the city gates . . . to keep the Sabbath day holy. While this was an expansion of the Levites’ duties, it was certainly in keeping with their overall purpose of maintaining the sanctity of the temple. The second of four brief prayers in this chapter (v. 22b) records Nehemiah’s request that God honor his work in restoring the sanctity of the Sabbath and treat him in accordance with his faithful love (Hb chesed).

13:23-27 Ezra had dealt with the problem of intermarriage with Gentiles about thirty years before (Ezr 10), but the people had reverted to their old ways—to the extent that half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or one of the other peoples (lit “the tongue of a people and a people”). Some suggest this was a non-Semitic language related to the language of the Philistines. More likely it was either Aramaic or Phoenician, both of which were closely related to Hebrew and would be understandable to Hebrew speakers; the languages were clearly distinct from Hebrew. Nehemiah’s measures to secure the use of Hebrew appear to have had only temporary success. By the time of Jesus, Aramaic was the common language of the people. Nehemiah’s response to this situation (v. 25) seems violent by modern standards, but even until recently the use of physical punishment was common and accepted in many Middle Eastern countries. Nehemiah reacted strongly because he realized that the sin of intermarriage with Gentiles had been a major cause of the destruction of their nation and their temple.

13:28 To illustrate how serious this problem was, Nehemiah recounted the sad case of a grandson of the high priest Eliashib who had married the daughter of Sanballat the Horonite (see note at 2:10), the enemy of Nehemiah and God’s people. Once again, Nehemiah’s response was swift and decisive. Probably the man left Judah and moved to Samaria where his father-in-law was governor.

13:29 In Nehemiah’s third prayer in this chapter, he asked God again to remember. However, he did not ask God to remember and bless, but to remember and judge. He asked God to remember them, probably referring to Sanballat and those within the priesthood who had defiled the priesthood by intermarriage with foreigners.

13:30-31 These final verses of the book of Nehemiah give a brief summary of some of Nehemiah’s reforms. The fourth and final prayer of the chapter is also the shortest (just four words in Hebrew): Remember me, my God, with favor (Hb tovah). While the conclusion to Ezra-Nehemiah may seem anti-climactic, the ministries of Ezra and Nehemiah were crucial to the survival of the Jewish people. The small community of exiles struggled to preserve their people and their faith in a devastated land. They found in Ezra and Nehemiah two leaders who were used by the Lord to help them endure in a hostile environment, living as subjects of the Persian kings. That empire, with all its pomp and glory, would fall to Alexander the Great, while the Jewish community would survive not only Alexander and his descendants but the Romans as well. Ezra’s and Nehemiah’s faithfulness to God helped the Jewish people continue, so they could one day produce a son of Abraham, a son of David (Mt 1:1), who would redeem the world.