Nehemiah 11 & 12

Last week we saw the people of Israel begin to practice the law again, and we saw how they really seemed to mean what they said. The last verse of chapter 10 really echoes that sentiment:

Nehemiah 10:39 ESV

39 For the people of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of grain, wine, and oil to the chambers, where the vessels of the sanctuary are, as well as the priests who minister, and the gatekeepers and the singers. We will not neglect the house of our God.”

As we pick up in chapter 11, we see some of the logistics of what it was like in Jerusalem during Nehemiah’s time as he and the leaders looked to repopulate the city. That is actually what chapter 11 is really about. Let’s start there and work through these chapters:

Nehemiah 11:1–2 ESV

1 Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem. And the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in Jerusalem the holy city, while nine out of ten remained in the other towns. 2 And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem.

So we see first that the leaders were already living in Jerusalem. This was key, and we saw how Nehemiah had already charged the leaders to live in Jerusalem earlier and set up regular guard rotations and priestly duties.

Nehemiah 7:4 ESV

4 The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few, and no houses had been rebuilt.

Nehemiah 7:73 ESV

73 So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants, and all Israel, lived in their towns. And when the seventh month had come, the people of Israel were in their towns.

What we see is that Jerusalem itself didn’t really have a lot of folks living there. The people were living outside the city in the surrounding towns. Nehemiah needs to get people in the city, but that isn’t the easiest ask.

“Hey, can you uproot your family and move into this city that has been destroyed and is rebuilt…well, the walls are rebuilt…we still have to work on some of the houses…but you can help us with that, right?”

I don’t think a lot of us would be jumping at that chance.

So, there was a lottery system.

For every 10 people, one was chosen to relocate into the city. The rest were to stay where they were in their own towns.

That isn’t a bad deal, really. One tenth of the population relocating isn’t terrible.

You can see that Nehemiah isn’t trying to unduly hurt the people. He understands that people are settled into their lives outside of the city. But he does have to populate the city too.

And we see that the people get it too. As hard as it can be to pick up and move, they get it. Look at verse 2:

Nehemiah 11:2 ESV

2 And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem.

Now, there are some differing opinions on this, as to this verse describes those chosen by lot in the first verse, or these are folks that volunteered to live there on top of the ones chosen through the lottery. Either way, the people realize the sacrifice, realize the need, and they blessed all of those who chose to live in Jerusalem.

One commentary notes:

Ezra & Nehemiah: Walking in God’s Words Populating Jerusalem

Remember that this is the culmination of all that has gone before: the first return from exile in Babylon, under King Darius, recorded in Ezra 1–2; the second return led by Ezra, under King Artaxerxes, recorded in Ezra 7–8; the third return, led by Nehemiah, also under King Artaxerxes, recorded in Nehemiah 1–2. And all this included the rebuilding of the temple under Ezra, the rebuilding of the wall under Nehemiah, and the continued reformation cleansing of the people under both leaders. It was achieved because God fulfilled through the work of Cyrus the word he had spoken by the prophet Jeremiah (Ezra 1:1). It was achieved despite strong opposition, and the continued failure and sin of the people. But it marked the victory and work of God, and his plan to restore his people to the holy land, the holy city and the holy temple.

Now, after the logistics of how the city will be repopulated is taken care of, we see a bit of a census. And this really helps us to see that God cares about the details, even the names of and number of people in the families.

All of these people listed did not live in the city, it is more of a complete list of all of the returned exiles. It does seem to split out those who were in the city first, but we cannot say for certain.

But, this really gives us a feeling of culmination almost of the 150+ years of exile and return.

Nebuchadnezzar conquers Jerusalem in 587 BC, sending the Jews into exile. Cyrus gives his decree in 538BC. This repatriation into Jerusalem and the dedication of the wall happens around 444BC.

What this list is seems to be a celebration of God’s faithfulness to His people.

The tribes here (Judah and Benjamin) are the tribes that represent the southern kingdom.

One commentary:

Ezra & Nehemiah: Walking in God’s Words Populating Jerusalem

Those mentioned are from Judah and Benjamin, because it was those two tribes who comprised the southern kingdom, when God’s people divided into two kingdoms after the reign of Saul. Ten tribes were in the northern kingdom, based in Samaria, and two tribes were in the southern kingdom based in Jerusalem. The northern kingdom had gone into exile in Assyria. It was the southern kingdom who had been taken to exile in Babylon, many of whom had now returned, though, as we learn from 1 Chronicles, there were some from the northern tribes who returned with them (1 Chronicles 9:3).

So, if you remember from your Jewish history, after David dies, Solomon becomes king of Israel. Then, during his reign, the kingdom slowly moves toward disarray. While Solomon starts off really good and builds the opulent temple and amasses vast wealth and power, he slowly falls away from God as he becomes more enamored with himself.

He marries a bunch of women. He has even more concubines. He falls into debauchery.

At the end of his reign, his son Rehoboam takes over. But there is unrest in the kingdom due to Rehoboam’s poor leadership. The conflict causes a rift in Israel, with 10 tribes splitting off to the Northern Kingdom (known as Israel) under Jeroboam, and Judah and Benjamin forming Judah in the south, or the southern kingdom.

The southern kingdom is the Davidic line, the line Jesus comes from.

The Northern Kingdom is conquered by the Assyrians in 722BC, and carried off into exile. The Southern Kingdom, as we have just said, stood until Nebuchadnezzar in 587.

When Nehemiah lists the people in this census here, he is listing basically all that is left of the Jewish people (again, we talked about it a couple weeks ago, but the term ‘Jew’ was derived to describe those from ‘Judah.’).

While I’m sure some northern kingdom folks returned to Jerusalem, the vast majority did not. They were assimilated and integrated into Assyrian culture, intermarrying. They eventually settled in the land of Samaria. These folks, who shared much of the Jewish religious history with the Jews, were called “Samaritans” in the New Testament. This is why: A. they knew something of the scriptures, as we see from Jesus’ interaction with the woman at the well talking about worship, and B. they were hated by the Jews because they were “half-breeds,” having intermarried with Gentiles, and were therefore not pure Jews.

Now all of this exile and return, dying off and repatriation, etc. - all of that is happening because of sin and disobedience to God, and yet God dealing mercifully with His people.

Look at what God does, despite their disobedience:

468 sons of Perez, called valiant men. (v6)

928 men of valor from Benjamin (v8)

822 priests “who did the work of the house.” (v12)

242 heads of fathers houses (v13)

128 more mighty men of valor (v14)

284 Levites who led the worship (v18)

172 gatekeepers (v19)

Now, it looks like, based on the way that verse 20 reads, that those I just mentioned are the ones in Jerusalem, but it is hard to be sure.

Nehemiah 11:20 ESV

20 And the rest of Israel, and of the priests and the Levites, were in all the towns of Judah, every one in his inheritance.

So, for argument’s sake, let’s look at those numbers. If those are the people who lived in the city after the repopulation, we are talking about 3,044 people. Possibly more, if that is just the heads of the families, and not the individual family members.

Now, 3,000 isn’t a ton of people. But that isn’t easy to wrap your head around.

I wanted to help us visualize that, so I did some looking for some way to visualize that.

Now, for reference, there are 2200 students at West Clermont High School. Add the 1800 or so at the middle school, and you are sitting at 4000 students in the two schools. The stadium at WCHS holds 4500, but I did see this (thank you Google!): the home section at the High School stadium holds 3000.

That means that the entire population of Jerusalem under Nehemiah’s reforms could fit into the home section of the stands at West Clermont High School.

For reference, Jerusalem was, at the time, only about 125 acres. That is like 0.19 square miles.

Batavia (the city, not the township) is 3.22 square miles (2060 acres) and the population in the city limits is like 2000 people.

Jerusalem was not a large city. Now, it occupies some 48 square miles and has 980,000 people living in the city limits alone.

We want to understand the size of the city then compared to now, because they are not the same.

When we think about how the city has gone from a desolate place to where it is now, it is astonishing. But we have to see God’s hand moving in the work that Nehemiah was undertaking here to repopulate the city.

Now, we have looked at the people in the city, and we see at the end of chapter 11 (verses 25-36) the places that the people lived outside of the city.

We also see, as we start chapter 12, that the priests and Levites are called out by name. We can see that God wanted the priests and Levites to be named here. And in verse 26, we see the leadership of the city at this time:

Nehemiah 12:26 ESV

26 These were in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor and of Ezra, the priest and scribe.

Then we get to the joyful dedication of the wall. This has been the main problem of Nehemiah, from an outside perspective. This was the reason Nehemiah went to Jerusalem. To rebuild the wall.

What we have seen, or what I hope we have seen, is that Nehemiah was set on doing more than rebuilding the wall; he was determined to rebuild the spiritual lives of the Jewish people, returning them to right worship of God.

Nehemiah 12:27–30 ESV

27 And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites in all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, with thanksgivings and with singing, with cymbals, harps, and lyres. 28 And the sons of the singers gathered together from the district surrounding Jerusalem and from the villages of the Netophathites; 29 also from Beth-gilgal and from the region of Geba and Azmaveth, for the singers had built for themselves villages around Jerusalem. 30 And the priests and the Levites purified themselves, and they purified the people and the gates and the wall.

So, the people decide to hold a ceremony where they dedicate the wall. They gather all of the Levites, not just the ones in the city, but all of them from the surrounding areas, and the Levites purify themselves, and then purify the people and the gates and the wall.

They gathered instruments and they prepared to celebrate.

Nehemiah 12:31–43 ESV

31 Then I brought the leaders of Judah up onto the wall and appointed two great choirs that gave thanks. One went to the south on the wall to the Dung Gate. 32 And after them went Hoshaiah and half of the leaders of Judah, 33 and Azariah, Ezra, Meshullam, 34 Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah, and Jeremiah, 35 and certain of the priests’ sons with trumpets: Zechariah the son of Jonathan, son of Shemaiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Micaiah, son of Zaccur, son of Asaph; 36 and his relatives, Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God. And Ezra the scribe went before them. 37 At the Fountain Gate they went up straight before them by the stairs of the city of David, at the ascent of the wall, above the house of David, to the Water Gate on the east. 38 The other choir of those who gave thanks went to the north, and I followed them with half of the people, on the wall, above the Tower of the Ovens, to the Broad Wall, 39 and above the Gate of Ephraim, and by the Gate of Yeshanah, and by the Fish Gate and the Tower of Hananel and the Tower of the Hundred, to the Sheep Gate; and they came to a halt at the Gate of the Guard. 40 So both choirs of those who gave thanks stood in the house of God, and I and half of the officials with me; 41 and the priests Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Micaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah, with trumpets; 42 and Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malchijah, Elam, and Ezer. And the singers sang with Jezrahiah as their leader. 43 And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.

We see that Nehemiah brings this procession of singers, musicians, and priests onto the wall where they split into two groups and traversed the top of the wall singing, praising, and sacrificing.

We see that all of the people - men, women, and children - are rejoicing and that the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.

This wasn’t a quiet celebration. The neighboring towns knew that Jerusalem was celebrating!

Finally, we see that the proper priestly and Levitical setup are restored to the temple in verses 44-47.

Nehemiah 12:44–47 ESV

44 On that day men were appointed over the storerooms, the contributions, the firstfruits, and the tithes, to gather into them the portions required by the Law for the priests and for the Levites according to the fields of the towns, for Judah rejoiced over the priests and the Levites who ministered. 45 And they performed the service of their God and the service of purification, as did the singers and the gatekeepers, according to the command of David and his son Solomon. 46 For long ago in the days of David and Asaph there were directors of the singers, and there were songs of praise and thanksgiving to God. 47 And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah gave the daily portions for the singers and the gatekeepers; and they set apart that which was for the Levites; and the Levites set apart that which was for the sons of Aaron.

We see the storerooms for the sacrifices, the places for the portions that go to the priests and Levites are all set up and taken care of.

We see that, just as in the time of David, the worship leaders and the priests were being taken care of by the people. They were set apart for the work, and they were provided for.

This is again showing Nehemiah’s overarching concern for the return of right worship in Jerusalem.

But I’ll be honest: this seems like a weird place for this paragraph, right?

Because we were talking about this joyous dedication service, and then we have this paragraph about the Levites and priests. Why?

Well, we’ll see next week what happens when the cat’s away. And what we end chapter 12 with is what we deal with to start chapter 13.

Let’s pray.