Neemia 10:34

34 Noi tirammo eziandio le sorti fra i sacerdoti, i Leviti, e il popolo, per l’offerta delle legne; acciocchè a’ tempi assegnati anno per anno, per le case nostre paterne, ne fossero portate alla Casa dell’Iddio nostro, per ardere sopra l’Altar del Signore Iddio nostro, come è scritto nella Legge.

Neemia 10:34 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 10:34

And we cast the lots among the priests, the Levites, and the
people
The priests and Levites were in one lot, and the people in another, as Aben Ezra:

for the wood offering;
for providing wood to burn upon the altar continually, concerning which Maimonides ^F3 thus writes:

``what is the wood offering? there was a time fixed for families to go out unto the forests, and bring in wood of disposition (to be laid in order on the altar); and the day when it came to the turn of a family to bring the wood, they offered up freewill burnt offerings, which were called a wood offering; and it was to them as a good day (or festival), and they were forbid to mourn, fast, or do any work on it;''

and he observes, that if a single person brought wood of his own free will, he was obliged to the same; and Josephus ^F4 speaks of a feast called (culoforia) , when it was customary for all to bring wood to the altar, to keep alive the sacred fire, that it might not go out, which, according to him, was on the fourteenth of the month Lois, or August; but this was not the business of all the people, lots were cast, as here said, who should do it, and when:

to bring it into the house of our God;
the temple, where there was a place called the "wood room", into which the wood was brought after it had been wormed by the priests ^F5

after the houses of our fathers;
or families on whom the lot fell to do it: some render it,

into the house of our fathers,
meaning the same as before; the temple so called, because they built it, and worshipped God in it; so Jarchi and Aben Ezra:

at times appointed, year by year;
as the lot directed; these, according to the Jewish doctors ^F6, were nine times in the year; on the first of Nisan (or March), the sons of Arach, of the tribe of Judah, brought the wood; on the twentieth of Tammuz (or June), the posterity of David, of the tribe of Judah; on the fifth of Ab (or July), the children of Parosh, of the tribe of Judah; on the seventh of the same month, the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab; on the tenth of the same month, the posterity of Senaah, of the tribe of Benjamin; on the fifteenth of the same month, the children of Zattu, and with them the priests and Levites, and all who were of an uncertain tribe on the twentieth of the same month, the posterity of Pahathmoab, of the tribe of Judah; on the twentieth of Elul (or August), the children of Adin, of the tribe of Judah; on the first of Tebeth (or December), the posterity of Parosh again brought the wood:

to burn upon the altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in the
law;
the wood should be burnt upon it, and fire kept on it continually, ( Leviticus 6:12 Leviticus 6:13 ) , for this refers only to that, the wood offering is nowhere spoken of in the law.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 Hilchot Cele Hamikdash, c. 6. sect. 9, 10. Vid. Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Taanith, c. 4. sect. 5.
F4 De Bello Jud. l. 2. c. 17. sect. 6.
F5 See Lightfoot's Prospect of the Temple, ch. 25.
F6 Misn. Taanith, c. 4. sect. 5.

Neemia 10:34 In-Context

32 Noi imponemmo eziandio a noi stessi per legge, di pagare ogni anno la terza parte d’un siclo per testa, per lo servigio della Casa dell’Iddio nostro;

33 per li pani che si doveano disporre per ordine, e per l’offerta continua, e per l’olocausto continuo; e per quelli de’ sabati, delle calendi, e delle feste solenni: e per le cose sante, e per li sacrificii per lo peccato, per fare il purgamento, de’ peccati per Israele, e per ogni altra cosa che si conveniva fare nella Casa dell’Iddio nostro.

34 Noi tirammo eziandio le sorti fra i sacerdoti, i Leviti, e il popolo, per l’offerta delle legne; acciocchè a’ tempi assegnati anno per anno, per le case nostre paterne, ne fossero portate alla Casa dell’Iddio nostro, per ardere sopra l’Altar del Signore Iddio nostro, come è scritto nella Legge.

35 Noi ordinammo ancora di portare ogni anno, nella Casa del Signore, le primizie della nostra terra, e le primizie d’ogni frutto di qualunque albero;

36 e i primogeniti de’ nostri figliuoli, e delle nostre bestie da vettura, secondo che è scritto nella Legge; e di menare alla Casa del nostro Iddio, a’ sacerdoti che fanno il servigio nella Casa dell’Iddio nostro, i primogeniti del nostro grosso e minuto bestiame;