Nehemiah 12–13

The Leaders and Servants in Jerusalem

12These are the priests and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra, ²Amariah, Malluch, Hattush, ³Shecaniah, Rehum, Meremoth, ⁴Iddo, Ginnethoi, Abijah, ⁵Mijamin, Maadiah, Bilgah, ⁶Shemaiah, Jehoiarib, Jedaiah, ⁷Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah. These are the heads of the priests and their brothers in the days of Jeshua.

⁸And the Levites: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and Mattaniah and his brothers who were in charge of the songs of thanksgiving. ⁹And Bakbukiah, Unno, their brothers stood opposite them during service. ¹⁰Jeshua fathered Jehoiakim; Jehoiakim fathered Eliashib; Eliashib fathered Jehoiada; ¹¹Jehoiada fathered Jehonathan; Jehonathan fathered Jaddua.

¹²Now in the days of Jehoiakim the priests and the heads of the families^a were: of Seraiah, Meraiah; of Jeremiah, Hananiah; ¹³of Ezra, Meshullam; of Amariah, Jehohanan; ¹⁴of Melichu, Jonathan; of Shebaniah, Joseph; ¹⁵of Harim, Adna; of Meraioth, Helkai; ¹⁶of Adaia, Zechariah; of Ginnethon, Meshullam; ¹⁷of Abijah, Zicri; of Miniamin; of Moadiah, Piltai; ¹⁸of Bilgah, Shammua; of Shemaiah, Jehonathan; ¹⁹of Jehoiarib, Mattenai; of Jedaiah, Uzzi; ²⁰of Sallu, Kallai; of Amok, Eber; ²¹of Hilkiah, Hashabiah; and of Jedaiah, Nethanel.

²²In the days of Eliashib, Jehoiada, Jehohanan, and Jaddua the Levites were recorded as heads of the families.^b So these were the priests during the reign of Darius the Persian. ²³The descendants^c of Levi and the heads of the families^d were recorded in the scroll of the Annals until the days of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. ²⁴And the heads of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, Jeshua son of Kadmiel, and their brothers opposite them, to praise and to give thanks by the command of David the man of God, section alongside section. ²⁵Mattaniah, Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, and Akkub were gatekeepers standing guard at the storerooms of the gates. ²⁶These were in the days of Jehoiakim son of Jeshua, son of Jehozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor and Ezra the priest and scribe.

Dedication of the Wall of Jerusalem

²⁷At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites from all of their places in order to bring them to Jerusalem to do the dedication with joy, thanksgivings, song and cymbals, stringed instruments and lyres. ²⁸The singers^e were gathered from the circuit all around Jerusalem and from the villages of Netophathite, ²⁹from Beth Gilgal, from the field of Geba and Azmaveth; for the singers built for themselves villages all around Jerusalem. ³⁰And the priests and the Levites purified themselves and purified the people, the gates, and the wall.

³¹Then I brought the commanders of Judah up on to the wall. I appointed two great choirs; one went in a procession to the right on the wall to the Dung Gate. ³²After them went Hoshaiah, half of the commanders of Judah, ³³Azariah, Ezra, Meshullam, ³⁴Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah, Jeremiah, ³⁵and the priests^f with trumpets; Zechariah son of Jehonathan, son of Shemaiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Micaiah, son of Zaccur, son of Asaph; ³⁶and his brothers Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani with the instruments of the songs of David the man of God; and Ezra the scribe went before them. ³⁷At the Fountain Gate opposite them they went up the steps of the city of David, at the assent to the wall, over the house of David, and up to the Water Gate to the east.

³⁸Then the second choir went the opposite way. I followed after them with half of the people on the wall, from over the Tower of the Ovens up to the Wide Wall ³⁹and over the Gate of Ephraim, at the Old Gate, at the Fish Gate, the Tower of Hananel and the Tower of the Hundred, and to the Sheep Gate. And they stopped and stood at the Gate of the Guard. ⁴⁰So the two choirs stood in the house of God, and I and half of the prefects with me; ⁴¹and the priests Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Micaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah with the trumpets; ⁴²Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malkijah, Elam, and Ezer. And the singers sang with Jizrahiah the chief officer. ⁴³They offered on that day great sacrifices and rejoiced because God brought great joy to them. And the women and children also rejoiced. The joy of Jerusalem was heard from afar.

Celebration at the Temple

⁴⁴On that day men were appointed for the storehouse rooms, the offerings, the first fruits, and the tithes, in order to gather in them from the fields of the cities the requirements of the law^g for the priests and Levites; for the joy of Judah was upon the priests and Levites standing there. ⁴⁵They kept the responsibility of their God and the responsibility of cleansing, and the singers and gatekeepers, according to the command of David and his son Solomon. ⁴⁶For in the days of David and Asaph from ancient times there was the head of the singers and a song of praise and thanksgiving to God. ⁴⁷So all of Israel in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah gave the daily food portions of the singers and gatekeepers. And they set apart that which was for the Levites, and the Levites set apart that which was for the descendants^h of Aaron.

Israel Separates Itself

13On that day the book of Moses was read in the hearing of the people and it was found written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever come into the assembly of God ²because they did not come to meet the Israelites^a with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them in order to curse them—but our God changed the curse into a blessing. ³So it happened when they heard the law^b that they separated all of the foreign people from Israel.

Nehemiah Brings Reform

⁴Before this, Eliashib the priest who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God—the one related to Tobiah— ⁵prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had formerly put the grain offering, the frankincense, the temple objects, tithes of grain, wine, and oil commanded for the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the offerings of the priests. ⁶During all of this, I was not in Jerusalem because in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king. At the end of some days I asked permission from the king to leave. ⁷So I came to Jerusalem. And I came to learn of the wrong that Eliashib had done for Tobiah by making him a room in the courtyard of the house of God. ⁸It was very displeasing for me, and I threw all of the objects from the house of Tobiah outside of the chamber. ⁹And I spoke in order, and they cleansed the chambers. Then I returned the objects of the house of God—the grain offering and the frankincense.

¹⁰And then I came to learn that the food of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers, the doers of the work, had gone back each to his field. ¹¹So I quarreled with the prefects, and I said, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered them and set them at their station. ¹²So all of Judah brought the tithe of grain, new wine, and olive oil into the storehouses. ¹³I appointed as treasurer over the storehouses Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, Pedaiah from the Levites, and as their hand Hanan son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah, for they were considered faithful. The responsibility given to them was to distribute to their brothers. ¹⁴Remember me, my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my loyal acts which I have done in the house of my God and in his service.

Nehemiah Begins Sabbath Reforms

¹⁵In those days I saw in Judah people treading the wine press on the Sabbath, bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys along with wine, grapes and figs, and every kind of burden and bringing it all to Jerusalem on the day of the Sabbath. And I warned them at that time against selling food. ¹⁶Tyrian men who lived in Jerusalem brought fish and every kind of merchandise and sold it on the Sabbath to the descendants^c of Judah and in Jerusalem. ¹⁷So I quarreled with the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the day of the Sabbath? ¹⁸Did not your ancestors^d do this also, and our God brought on us all of this disaster and on this city too? Now you are adding fierce wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath!”

¹⁹So when it became dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors be shut and said that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I appointed some of my young men over the gates to prevent any goods^e being brought in on the day of the Sabbath. ²⁰So the merchants and the sellers of merchandise spent the night outside of Jerusalem once or twice. ²¹But I warned them and said to them, “Why are you spending the night opposite the wall? If you do it again, I will lay hands against you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath. ²²And then I told two Levites that they must purify themselves and come to guard the gates in order to consecrate the day of the Sabbath. Remember this also, my God, and take pity on me according to the greatness of your loyal love.

Mixed Marriages are Condemned

²³Also in those days I saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. ²⁴Half of their children spoke Ashdodite and could not speak Judean, but only the tongues of other nations. ²⁵So I quarreled with them and cursed them and beat some of their men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath by God: “Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. ²⁶Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in this way? And among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Yet the foreign women made even him sin. ²⁷Should we listen to you all and do this great evil, acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?”

²⁸One from the sons of…