THE
PULPIT COMMENTARY, •DITED BT TBll
VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D., DBill OF GLOUOIIBTBB i
AND BY TRB
REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A.
NEHEMIAH. ~,p.osifi.on Bv REV. GEORGE RAWLINSON, M.A., OAldDRN l'llOFltliSOR OJ' ANOIBNT HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ODOBD ; A!fl> OANON OF OANTEBBtrll.Y.
J.omiletits BY REV. G. WOOD, B.A.
Jomilits bg l}'ario1ts iutgors: REV. PROF. R. A. REDFORD, LL.B., hLA.; REV. J. S. EXELL; REV. W. CLARKSON, B.A.
NEW EDITION.
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY LONDON AND NEW YORK 1906 THE
BOOK OF NEHEMIAH. -- INTRODUCTION.
1. SUBJECT OF THE BooK. THE Book of Nehemiah is, in the main, a personal narrative, containing an account of Nehemiah himself, and of certain proceedings in which he was engaged, between the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus (or B.c. 444) and his thirty-second or thirty-third year (B.c. 432-1). It is a natural sequel to the Book of Ezra, with which it has always been united in the Jewish canon, though recognised as a " Second Part " of the Book. The principal object of the writer is to describe the circumstances attending the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem in B.c. 444, and its dedication, some years later, with great pomp and ceremony. To explain the part which he himself took in these transactions, he has to preface his account with a purely personal sketch, descriptive of the circumstances under which he became engaged in the work as its director and superintendent. This sketch occupies the first two chapters. The main narrative then commences, and is carried on uninterrupt- edly to the fifth verse of eh. vii., when it is broken in upon by the introduction of a list, identical ( or nearly so) with one given by Ezra in the second chapter of his 13ook-a list of the families which returned from the Babylonian cap- tivity under Zerubbabel, with the number of each family, and the names of the principal chiefs. This occupies eh. vii. from verse 6 to the end. The narrative is then resumed, and continued through thr~e chapters (chs. viii.-x.), the principal subject-matter in this part being the religious instruction of the people, their celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, and the voluntary covenant with Almighty God into which they entered, by the advice of the Levites. After this, the sequence of the history is again interrupted-this time by the insertion of six distinct and independent lists, which occupy a chapter and a half (chs. xi. and xii. 1-26). The dedication of the wall is then related (eh. xii. 27-43). In conclusion, an account is given of certain religious arrangements and reforms which Nehemiah effected (eh. xii. 44-47, and eh. xiii.). ii INTRODUCTION TO
§ 2. AUTHOR, There can be no doubt that Nehemiah himself is the author of those portions of the work which are of most interest, and give it its distinctive character. The initial sentence-" The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah "- applies beyond all question to the parts which are written in the first person (chs. i.-vii; xii. 27-4-7; xiii.). So much is generally allowed. It is argued, on the other hand, that the parts where Nehemiah is spoken of in the third person-notably, chs. viii., ix., and x.-are not from his pen; and their authorship has been attributed to Ezra.• It may be admitted that the interni,J. evidence of style and manner favours strongly the view that this section is not the original composition of Nehemiah.t There is nothing, however, to militate against the supposition that it was drawn up by his authority, and received the sanction of his approval. Ezra's claim to have written it cannot be substanti- ated; on the contrary, a careful analysis of the language leads to the very opposite conclusion. We must regard it as an anonymous work, which, how- ever, Nehemiah probably saw, and placed in its present position. With respect to the lists, which make up the remainder of the Book, that of eh. vii. is probably an official document, drawn up in the time of Zerubbabel, extracted by Nehemiah from the national archives ; that of eh. xi. is the official account of his own census ; those of eh. xii cannot have taken their present shape much before the time of Alexander the Great, since Jaddua (vers. 12 and 22) was his contem- porary; but it is quite possible that Nehemiah may have originated them, and that certain additions may have been made to them subsequently. In this case N ehemi.ah would be, either as original composer or as compiler, the responsible author of the whole Book, with the exception of a few verses. t
§ 3. DATE. The earliest date at which Nehemiah can have composed the last section of the work (eh. xii 27-xiii. 31) is B.o. 431, the year in which, after visiting B!lbylon, he came to Jerusalem the second time (eh. xiii. 6). Probably he wrote very soon after carrying through his reforms, since he expresses himself with a warmth only natural if the struggle had been recent.§ These considera- tions limit the date of the origin.al work to abvut B.o. 431-430. The final recension may have been made about a century later.
§ 4. GENERAL CHARACTER. In general character the Book of Nehemiah very much resembles that of Ezra. It is a plain, straight-forward, simple history of a short period of the • Hiivernick, 'Einleitung in d. Alt. Test.,' § 305; Bishop A. Hervey in Dr. Smith's 'Dictionary of the Bible,' vol ii p. 494. t See the 'Speaker's Commentary,' vol. iii. p. 426, note 2. :; To wit, vers. 11, 22, and 23 of ell. xii. II See especially eh. xiii. 8, 25, and 28. THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH. iii