Day 141. Nehemiah 11-13

The city of Jerusalem is apparently under-populated during the second temple period, and there is an active program under Nehemiah's leadership to get people to reside within the city walls. In spite of rebuilding activities, the city is still largely in ruins, and apparently, it is so unpleasant that it is viewed as a virtuous act simply to live there (11:2). So we are given a rather full list of those virtuous folks who do, starting with laypersons and ending with priests and Levites. "The rest of Israel, and of the priests and Levites," we are told, "[are] in all the towns of Judah, all of them in their inheritance" (11:20), that is, residing on their family property in the villages outside the city, and we are given a list of those.
The succession of high priests during this period is a little difficult to follow. From the list of priests and Levites provided (12:1-26), however, we gather that Joiakim has succeeded his father Jeshua, who was high priest in the time of Zerubbabel. There is no son of David on the throne, but there is continuity in the high-priestly family.
A great celebration accompanies the dedication of the walls of Jerusalem, and the Levites lead the people in the kind of joyful worship with worship that is familiar to us from 1-2 Chronicles and Ezra (12:27). This dedication is the climax of the Book of Nehemiah. To celebrate its completion, two processions go in opposite directions on the completed wall. The one going to the right is led by the Ezra the scribe (12:36); the one going left is accompanied by Nehemiah himself (12:38). The two companies meet midway to celebrate a great thanksgiving service in the house of God, at which the governor and his officials offer "great sacrifices . . . and [rejoice], for God [makes] them rejoice with great joy; the women and the children also [rejoice]." And we are told that "the joy of Jerusalem [is] heard far away" (12:43). And this time there is no weeping mixed with their rejoicing, as there had been when the foundations of the temple were laid (Ezra
3:3,13). There is also no attempt to stifle joyful sound to keep it from attracting unfriendly attention. The completed walls of the city give the Jews a security from their hostile neighbors such as they had not known since their return from exile.
For Nehemiah there is further reason for rejoicing in that the temple services have been fully reinstituted, with gatekeepers and singers at the tasks "according to the command of David and his son Solomon" (12:45-46). There is continuity between the time of the kings David and Solomon and that of the governors Zerubbabel and Nehemiah (12:47), and Nehemiah several times expresses his satisfaction that things are again being done right, which he considers greatly to his own credit.
The Book of Nehemiah is framed as a report of the governor to his overlord of his accomplishments. For Nehemiah his efforts to maintain the purity of Jews are reported with great satisfaction. At his urging, Moabites and Ammonites are excluded from the reading of the law "because they did not meet the Israelites with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them" (13:2). These incidents occurred hundreds of years ago before, during the period of the exodus and wilderness sojourn, but for Nehemiah the memory of those old resentments is still fresh. The understanding of Judaism in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah is exclusive. Nehemiah not only erects walls of stone; he also builds walls of law and custom to keep out foreign pollutions. For a more inclusive understanding of the Jewish faith we have to look elsewhere--to the book of Ruth, for instance.
Sometime after the wall is completed, Nehemiah returns to the Persian court, perhaps to report on his activities in Jerusalem (13:6), and when he returns to Jerusalem he discovers the his old nemesis Tobiah has actually moved into one of the chambers of the temple. Nehemiah is outraged and literally cleans house. He throws "all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the room" and gives orders that it be cleansed (13:8-9). He also discovers that the Levites had not been paid for the services, and as a result the temple services had been neglected. He scolds those who are responsible and sets the matter right (13:10-13). And again he asks God to remember his diligence in this and approve his service as governor (13:14).
He also finds that a general laxity about the keeping of the Sabbath has crept in, and foreigners are buying and selling in the markets of Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Again, Nehemiah remonstrates with the nobles, and acts to appoint Levite gatekeepers to keep the "merchants and sellers" outside the city, and to enforce the "blue laws" (13:21-22). And again he calls upon God to "remember this to my favor" and approve his diligence (13:22).
We sense by the end of the book that bears his name that Nehemiah has become a real curmudgeon. He takes an active hand in policing the people in the matter of intermarriage. When he hears the children of Jews "who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab" chattering away in "the language of various peoples," he curses and beats some of them, and goes so far as to pull out their hair" (13:23-25). By the end of his term as governor he becomes quite a fanatic—we might say a bit of a nut. When he encounters the grandson of the high priest Eliashib, who had married one of these foreign women, Nehemiah chases him away.
He sums up his career by saying: "I cleansed them of everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites; and I provided for the wood offering, at appointed time, and for the first fruits." And one last time he asks-- "Remember me, o my God, for good." I am sure God did approve of his faithful governor—with certain reservations-- but I'm sure that you are as ready as I am to leave old man Nehemiah chasing those foreign-speaking brats to pull their hair to move with me to the wonderful Book of Esther.