The Pulpit Commentary — Nehemiah — Section 136

thnt Nehemiah does not regard his good which set him above 11.II other earthly deeds RS sufficient for his justification but monarchs. Who was beloved of his God. throws himself unreservedly on God's m~rcy. See 2 Sam. xii. 24. And God made him Yer. 23.-In those de.ys. I. e. "About king over all Israel. See l Kings iv. 1. this same time." Compare ver. 15. Se.w I - Ver. 27.-Shall we then hearken unto J'ews. Rather, "lookea I after the Jews." you 1 Sh?ll we ~ve way to you, n,nd adopt Thero is a reference to the first three verses the practice wlucn you recommend thus of the present chapter, which h1td introduced transgressing against God, nnd pro;oking the subject of the mixed marriitges. Nehe- him to destroy us Y Surely not. Solomon's miah l\ishes to put on record the part which example is enough to dete1· us. he had t.1,ken in the matter, and begins by Ver. 28.-0ne of the sons of J'oiada, the obsening that it had not escnped him-he son of Eliashib. See eh. xii. 10. Eliashib had had his eye on the transgressors, and seems to have been still living, though one of had noted their misconduct, and the evils his grandsons was of age to ~contract o. mar- whereto it led. Wives of Ashdod. Philis- riage. Was son-in-law to Sanballat the tine ~ives, of a race always hostile to Isnwl, Horonite. Had therefore married one ~f his and natfres of a city which had recently daughters, while Eliashib himself was con- ta.ken part with Nehemiah's bitter enemies nected by marriage with Tobiah. The (eh. fr. i). Of Ammon and of llrloab. Com- defection of the high priestly family from pare Ezra ix. 1, and Noh. xiii. 1. those principles which Ezra and Nehemiah 1 er. 24.-Their children spake half in the regarded as vital is only too apparent. I 11peech of Ashdod. Some understand the chased him from me. I. e. I forced him to writer to mean that half of the children in a quit the country and become an exile. We family spoke the tongue of the father, and may suppose that he refused to repudiate his half that of the mother. Bnt many of the foreign wife, and preferred to take refuge best Hcbraists prefer the sense expressed by with Sanballat in Samaria. our translators, Tiz., that o.ll the children Ver. 29.-They have defiled the priest- spoke a jargon half Ashdodite and half hood, and the covenant of the priesthood, Aramaic. The Philistine language is said and of the Levites. We look in vain for to have resembled the Egyptian (Hieronym., any distinct " covenant" which the priest- 'Comment. in Esaiam,' xix. 18). ly order broke by allying itself with the Ver. 25.-1 contended with them, and heathen, or indeed for any special law for- Clll'Bed them. Or, "reviled them," as Gesenins bidding the priests to take heathen wives, and Professor Lee explain. And smote cer- which wa.s not equally binding upon laymen. tain of them. I. e. " had some of them But Nehemiah feels that every sin is worse beaten." Some understand by this that the in a priest than in one who is not a priest ; offenders nnderwent the bastinado by sen- that a priest who contracts a pollution "pol- tence of a court (Dent. xxv. 2) ; others think lutes the priesthood ; " and that there is a Nehemiah had them strnck informo.lly by tacit covenant by which priests and Levites his attendants. This latter explanation is hind themselves to holiness of life more supported by the following cla.nse, since absolutely and definitely than others. "plncking out the hair" was never a legal Ver. 30.-Thus cleansed I them. Rather, punishment. llrlade them swear by God. "And I cleansed them." The process of Literally, "swore them by God," i. e. dic- cleansing touched on in this verse, and also tated the words, and made them repeat the in ver. 3, is not described. It probably formula and accept the oath. Baying, Ye resembled the process adopted by Ezra (Ezra, shall not give. Literelly, "If ye sho.ll give," x. 5-17). And appointed the wards. I. e. &c. Nehemiah made them swear that if "assigned their offices to the various :priests they should intermarry with the heathen and Levites" (see eh. xi 11-24 ; xii. 44 ; the curse of God should fall npon them. xiii 13). Ver. 26.-Did not Solomon . . . sin by Ver. 31.-And for the wood ofl'ering. I. e. these things! The example adduced was "I appointed persons to look after the col- more apt than any other to move Jews. lection of the wood offering (eh. x. 34) and Israelites might have felt more deeply the of the first-fruits" (ibid. vers. 35-87). At case of Ahab (1 Kings xxi 25). Solomon's appointed times. Compare the expression sin in "going after strange wives," and its in eh. L 34: "At times appointed year by punishment, 111'0 set forth very fully in l year." Remember me, 0 my God, for good. Kings xi 1-40. Among many nation& A characteristic termination of a book where- there was no king like him. The reference of one of the main features has been a con- is not so much to particular texts (e. g. 1 Kings stant carrying to God of all the uuthor'e iii 13 ; 2 Chron. i. 12) as to the gener~l cares, troubles, and difficulties (see eh i. 4- description of Solomon, his glory, and hie 11 ; ii 4, 20 ; iv. 4, 9, 20 ; v. 15, 19 ; vi. greatness (1 Kings iv.-L ;_ 2 Chron. i-ix.), 9, 14 ; xiii. 14, 22, 29). OIi, XIII. 1-31.] THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH. 14.'3