Nehemiah 12

Nehemiah 12:1-9 . PRIESTS AND LEVITES WHO CAME UP WITH ZERUBBABEL.

1. these are the priests--according to Nehemiah 12:7 , "the chief of the priests," the heads of the twenty-four courses into which the priesthood was divided ( 1 Chronicles 24:1-20 ). Only four of the courses returned from the captivity ( Nehemiah 7:39-42 , Ezra 2:36-39 ). But these were divided by Zerubbabel, or Jeshua, into the original number of twenty-four. Twenty-two only are enumerated here, and no more than twenty in Nehemiah 12:12-21 . The discrepancy is due to the extremely probable circumstance that two of the twenty-four courses had become extinct in Babylon; for none belonging to them are reported as having returned ( Nehemiah 12:2-5 ). Hattush and Maadiah may be omitted in the account of those persons' families ( Nehemiah 12:12 ), for these had no sons.
Shealtiel--or Salathiel.
Ezra--This was most likely a different person from the pious and patriotic leader. If he were the same person, he would now have reached a very patriarchal age--and this longevity would doubtless be due to his eminent piety and temperance, which are greatly conducive to the prolongation of life, but, above all, to the special blessing of God, who had preserved and strengthened him for the accomplishment of the important work he was called upon to undertake in that critical period of the Church's history.

4. Abijah--one of the ancestors of John the Baptist ( Luke 1:5 ).

9. their brethren, were over against them in the watches--that is, according to some, their stations--the places where they stood when officiating--"ward over against ward" ( Nehemiah 12:24 ); or, according to others, in alternate watches, in course of rotation.

Nehemiah 12:10-47 . SUCCESSION OF THE HIGH PRIESTS.

10. Jeshua begat Joiakim, &c.--This enumeration was of great importance, not only as establishing their individual purity of descent, but because the chronology of the Jews was henceforth to be reckoned, not as formerly by the reigns of their kings, but by the successions of their high priests.

11. Jaddua--It is an opinion entertained by many commentators that this person was the high priest whose dignified appearance, solemn manner, and splendid costume overawed and interested so strongly the proud mind of Alexander the Great; and if he were not this person (as some object that this Jaddua was not in office till a considerable period after the death of Nehemiah), it might probably be his father, called by the same name.

12. in the days of Joiakim were priests, the chief of the fathers--As there had been priests in the days of Jeshua, so in the time of Joiakim, the son and successor of Jeshua, the sons of those persons filled the priestly office in the place of their fathers, some of whom were still alive, though many were dead.

23. The sons of Levi . . . were written in the book of the chronicles--that is, the public registers in which the genealogies were kept with great regularity and exactness.