Nehemiah 7:1-10

1 After the wall was rebuilt and I had installed the doors, and the security guards, the singers, and the Levites were appointed,

2 I put my brother Hanani, along with Hananiah the captain of the citadel, in charge of Jerusalem because he was an honest man and feared God more than most men.

3 I gave them this order: "Don't open the gates of Jerusalem until the sun is up. And shut and bar the gates while the guards are still on duty. Appoint the guards from the citizens of Jerusalem and assign them to posts in front of their own homes."

4 The city was large and spacious with only a few people in it and the houses not yet rebuilt.

5 God put it in my heart to gather the nobles, the officials, and the people in general to be registered. I found the genealogical record of those who were in the first return from exile. This is the record I found:

6 These are the people of the province who returned from the captivity of the Exile, the ones Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried off captive; they came back to Jerusalem and Judah, each going to his own town.

7 They came back in the company of Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, and Baanah. The numbers of the men of the People of Israel by families of origin:

8 Parosh, 2,172

9 Shephatiah, 372

10 Arah, 652

Nehemiah 7:1-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NEHEMIAH 7

Nehemiah having built the wall, and set up the doors, appointed two persons to take the charge of the city, and set watches for the safety of it, and to take special care about opening and shutting the gates of it, Ne 7:1-3, and concerned he was for the peopling of it, and having found a register of the first comers to it, gives their names, Ne 7:4-69 and some account of the freewill offerings made for the work they came about, Ne 7:70-73.