Nehemiah 10
Jews renew their promises to God
Governor Nehemiah makes it official
1As governor, I ratified an agreement the Jewish people made among themselves. These are the people who signed on to the agreement:Nehemiah the governor and the son of Hacaliah, Zedekiah,
Priests who sign the contract
2Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah,3Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah,
4Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch,
5Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah,
6Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch,
7Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin,
8Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah. These are the priests who signed the agreement.
Levite scholars sign, too
9Levites signing the contract included Jeshua son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel,10Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan,
11Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah,
12Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah,
13Hodiah, Bani, Beninu.
Family leaders sign the contract
14Other leaders signing the contract included Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani,15Bunni, Azgad, Bebai,
16Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin,
17Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur,
18Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,
19Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai,
20Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir,
21Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua,
22Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah,
23Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub,
24Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek,
25Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah,
26Ahiah, Hanan, Anan,
27Malluch, Harim, and Baanah.
Jews renew their promises to God
28Everyone here agrees. Among them: priests, Levite scholars, security guards at the gates, singers, all other Temple workers, and all the wives, sons, and daughters of these men. So, these are the people who have agreed to live separated from non-Jews and to obey God’s law.29We the people, with our nobles and families, promise to obey the laws Moses gave us from God. If we fail to keep them, we expect the LORD to invoke his right to punish [1] us.
30We won’t allow our daughters to marry non-Jewish men. We won’t allow our sons to marry non-Jewish women.
31We won’t buy or sell grain or anything else on the Sabbath Day of Saturday, or on any other sacred day on our Jewish calendar. [2]
We’ll keep the law about letting our farmland rest every seventh year; [3] we won’t plant crops that year. We will also keep the law about forgiving debts of our fellow Jews every seventh year.
32Once a year we’ll donate to the Temple three grams of silver, a third of a shekel. [4] 33Priests will use this money to buy the sacred Bread in God’s Presence [5] they keep in the sanctuary. It will also help them cover the cost of the daily and seasonal sacrifices, such as those on the annual Day of Atonement, [6] when we ask God to forgive the sins of our nation. They’ll also use the money to maintain the Temple property.
34We used dice [7] to decide on which family brings wood to the Temple on scheduled days. Families of priests, Levite scholars, and other citizens will take turns bringing wood to the Temple for sacrifices to the LORD.
35We promise to bring offerings from the first of every crop we harvest—grain from the fields and fruit from the trees.
36We also promise to bring to the Temple our first sons and the first animals born to each animal in our flocks and herds—as the Law demands. [8]
37We will donate to the Temple the first dough we make from our flour. We’ll bring donations from all of our crops: grain along with fruit from every one of our trees. We’ll bring wine and olive oil for the priests. And we’ll give a tithe of 10 percent of our harvest to support the Levites every year when they come to collect.
38Levites promise to tithe, too. They will donate to the Temple a 10 percent tithe of the 10 percent tithe they get from the citizens. So, the Temple gets one percent of each harvest. The high priest descended from Aaron will be there to watch Levites bring their offerings.
39People of Israel and Levites will bring to the Temple storehouse their donations of grain, wine, and olive oil. This is where priests and temple guards and singers all minister to the people. We won’t neglect the Temple of our God or the people who minister there. [9]
Footnotes
This formal promise, or vow, picks up language from the Bible book of Deuteronomy, which summarizes Jewish laws. Here in the Book of Nehemiah, the people take an “oath” like their ancestors did. And they engage a “curse,” which they agree to unleash upon themselves if they fail to live up to their promises. In Deuteronomy, Moses lists the blessings God will shower on Israelites who obey the law. But he also lists the curses, or punishments, for disobeying. Among the curses: God will give the land of Israel away and scatter the Jews abroad. That’s what happened in 586 BC, when Babylonian invaders from what is now Iraq destroyed Jerusalem and other cities of Judah and exiled the survivors.
See Leviticus 23 for sacred Jewish holidays.
Leviticus 25:1-7.
That’s about one-eighth of an ounce, which is a little less than the weight of an American quarter, a British twenty pence, or an Australian ten-cent coin. And it’s about half the weight of a Euro. There is no mention of a tax like this in the laws of Moses. Apparently, the Persian Empire’s wide use of currency put financial pressure on the Temple to get with the program. Moses did order a half-shekel tax for the tent worship center, a predecessor of the Temple (Exodus 30:11-16). But it sounds like it was a one-time donation. This money was donated in addition to the other sacrifices or donations of livestock, grain, wine, and olive oil.
The bread is also known as consecrated bread, or the Bread of the Presence, or the shewbread. Every Sabbath day, priests put 12 fresh loaves of bread on the table. A week later, priests ate those loaves and replaced them with another dozen loaves of bread (Leviticus 24:5-9).
Known today as Yom Kippur, this is the most solemn day on the Jewish calendar. The high priest appeals for the forgiveness of sins that the people of the nation had committed in the past year. Jews taught that God’s footrest was the lid on the Ark of the Covenant, the gold-covered chest that held the 10 Commandments (1 Chronicles 28:2).
More literally, they were to throw or draw “lots.” The “lots” may have been stones or animal bones marked in a way that produced random outcomes for “yes” or “no” answers, or for determining who goes first in a group. The idea is like throwing dice, with the high number going first. It’s also a little like “heads” or “tails” from a coin toss. Many at the time taught that God controlled the outcome. So, the dice spoke for God.
God claimed dibbs on Israel’s firstborn children and animals. They didn’t belong to the parents. They belonged to God. The first male child in each family was often considered the most important. He got a double share of the family inheritance. God didn’t require the Israelites to sacrifice their firstborn children, as some other religions in the region apparently did. But God had each family, in a sense, buy back the children by substituting them with animal sacrifices instead. That’s how Exodus 22:29 reports it.
“Or the people who work there” isn’t in the Hebrew text but it seems implied by the sentence immediately before it.
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