Nehemiah 13 Study Notes

Debate exists whether ‘ud derives from ‘ed (witness) or whether the reverse is true. ‘Ud denotes be a witness (Mal 2:14), testify (Am 3:13), say on behalf of (Lm 2:13), or speak well of (Jb 29:11). It means warn (Gn 43:3), give a warning (Jr 6:10), charge (Zch 3:6), or admonish (Ps 81:8). It suggests call as witness (Dt 4:26), and occurs with ‘ed as appoint or call in (Is 8:2; Jr 32:10). ‘Ed (69x) indicates people or things as witnesses. It denotes testimony or evidence (Ex 20:16; 22:13). ‘Edut (61x) refers to the two tablets of the Law as God’s testimony (Ex 31:18), or to individual laws as testimonies (Jr 44:23). It means warning (Neh 9:34), decree (Ps 81:5; 119:88).

13:19-22 Nehemiah not only “rebuked” the leaders but took action. He closed the city gates into Jerusalem during the Sabbath. Some merchants tried to get around his orders by setting up shop right outside the walls (v. 20), but he warned them that he would disperse them by force if it happened again. Posting his men to the city gates was only a temporary measure, so Nehemiah ordered the Levites to purify themselves and to guard the city gates . . . to keep the Sabbath day holy. While this was an expansion of the Levites’ duties, it was certainly in keeping with their overall purpose of maintaining the sanctity of the temple. The second of four brief prayers in this chapter (v. 22b) records Nehemiah’s request that God honor his work in restoring the sanctity of the Sabbath and treat him in accordance with his faithful love (Hb chesed).

13:23-27 Ezra had dealt with the problem of intermarriage with Gentiles about thirty years before (Ezr 10), but the people had reverted to their old ways—to the extent that half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or one of the other peoples (lit “the tongue of a people and a people”). Some suggest this was a non-Semitic language related to the language of the Philistines. More likely it was either Aramaic or Phoenician, both of which were closely related to Hebrew and would be understandable to Hebrew speakers; the languages were clearly distinct from Hebrew. Nehemiah’s measures to secure the use of Hebrew appear to have had only temporary success. By the time of Jesus, Aramaic was the common language of the people. Nehemiah’s response to this situation (v. 25) seems violent by modern standards, but even until recently the use of physical punishment was common and accepted in many Middle Eastern countries. Nehemiah reacted strongly because he realized that the sin of intermarriage with Gentiles had been a major cause of the destruction of their nation and their temple.

13:28 To illustrate how serious this problem was, Nehemiah recounted the sad case of a grandson of the high priest Eliashib who had married the daughter of Sanballat the Horonite (see note at 2:10), the enemy of Nehemiah and God’s people. Once again, Nehemiah’s response was swift and decisive. Probably the man left Judah and moved to Samaria where his father-in-law was governor.

13:29 In Nehemiah’s third prayer in this chapter, he asked God again to remember. However, he did not ask God to remember and bless, but to remember and judge. He asked God to remember them, probably referring to Sanballat and those within the priesthood who had defiled the priesthood by intermarriage with foreigners.

13:30-31 These final verses of the book of Nehemiah give a brief summary of some of Nehemiah’s reforms. The fourth and final prayer of the chapter is also the shortest (just four words in Hebrew): Remember me, my God, with favor (Hb tovah). While the conclusion to Ezra-Nehemiah may seem anti-climactic, the ministries of Ezra and Nehemiah were crucial to the survival of the Jewish people. The small community of exiles struggled to preserve their people and their faith in a devastated land. They found in Ezra and Nehemiah two leaders who were used by the Lord to help them endure in a hostile environment, living as subjects of the Persian kings. That empire, with all its pomp and glory, would fall to Alexander the Great, while the Jewish community would survive not only Alexander and his descendants but the Romans as well. Ezra’s and Nehemiah’s faithfulness to God helped the Jewish people continue, so they could one day produce a son of Abraham, a son of David (Mt 1:1), who would redeem the world.