Nehemiah 10

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. They agree to live up to their promises or suffer a curse: devastating punishment from God. 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 dibs 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.