The Pulpit Commentary — Nehemiah — Section 76

EXPOSITION. and that Ezra's name should have been CHAPTER VIII. introduced so suddenly and without explan- RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE PEOPLE ation, as it is in eh. viii 1. But the narra- DY EZRA, AND OELEBRATION OF THE FEAST tive in this place, as already observed OF TABERNACLES (eh. viii.). It can scarcely (Introduction, § 2), is by another hancl, and be imagined that Ezra had been present in is a particular relation of certain events Jerusalem during the exciting scenes which which the writer was probably set to de- have been enacted in the first part of this scribe, mther than a chapter on the general Book, and had never come forward in such a. history of the Jewish people. It was not way EIS to obtain notice from the historian. written with any knowledge of what exactly Nehemiah entertained no jealousy of him, was to precede it, and so does not fit on and when the time came for the great cere- very neatly to the previous section. We mony of dedicating the wall, assigned him are left to conjecture Ezra's personal history the second part in it (eh. xii. 36). We between March, n.c. 456, and September, B.c. must therefore suppose either that accidental 444. Now the condition in which Nehe- circumstances had caused his temporary miah found Jerusalem-the oppression of absence from Jerusalem during the summer the rich men (eh. iv.), the prevalence of of n.o. 444, or the.t, having quitted the city mixed marriages (eh. vi 18; x. 30; xiii. soon after the proceedings narrated in the 23-30), the desecration of the Sabbath (eh. last chapter of the Book which bears his x. 31 ; xiii. 15-18), the negligence with name, he now resumed his residence after respect to tithes and offerings (eh. x. 33 having lived elsewhere for nearly thirteen - 39)-is almost incompatible with the years. If Nehemiah's work had been a supposition that Ezra's ministry .had been continuous history composed throughout by continuous during these years, or only inter- himself, it would have been strange that rupted by brief absences, like that of N eho- this doubt should not have been cleored up, miah in n.o. 43S-432 (eh. xiii. 6). It seems,  80 THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH. [en. vm. 1-12.