Nehemiah 12:27

at the dedication of the wall It is only natural to suppose that the dedication of the walls took place at no long interval after their completion. The walls were finished on the 25th of the month Elul (Nehemiah 6:15) or September. According to 2Ma 1:18 Nehemiah on the 25th of Chislev (December) celebrated the restoration of the altar. If this date may be relied upon as representing a true tradition of the solemn dedication described in these verses, exactly three months elapsed between the completion and the dedication of the walls. It has been by some considered improbable that the Feast of Tabernacles and the Sealing of the Covenant (8 10) would have taken place before the Dedication described in these verses; and accordingly the events narrated in those Chapter s have been ascribed to the following year.

Rawlinson is of opinion that -the nexusof the remainder of this chapter with the next and the date given in chap. Nehemiah 13:6, make it certain that the ceremony was deferred for the space of nearly twelve years. Perhaps Nehemiah required an express permission from the Persian king before he could venture on a solemnity which might have been liable to misrepresentation."

But the unlikelihood of this hypothesis cannot be thus disposed of. (1) Is it probable that 12 years should have been permitted to elapse between the triumphant accomplishment of Nehemiah's work and its religious consecration? (2) The nexusof the remainder of this chapter with Nehemiah 13:1-3 is very close, but a completely new section, with marked difference of style, opens at Nehemiah 13:4 and denotes the resumption of the more colloquial extracts from the Memoirs of Nehemiah. (3) The mention of the date, twelve years later, in Nehemiah 13:6 refers to the events described in the immediate context; and there is no probability that it would also be applicable to the preceding section Nehemiah 12:27-43. If Nehemiah 13:6 were, as has been supposed, so closely connected with Nehemiah 12:27-43, this mention of the date would surely have been placed in chap. 12.

out of all their places Explained in the two next verses. Cf. Nehemiah 11:3; Nehemiah 11:20.

to keep the dedication with gladness literally -to make dedication and gladness" (LXX. ποιῆσαι ἐγκαίνια καὶ εὐφροσύνην). -Dedication." Heb. Khanukkah. The Jewish Feast of Dedication to commemorate the purification of the Temple by Judas the Maccabee (165 b.c.) was held in mid-winter (Adar 25). See John 10:22; 1Ma 4:60.

with thanksgivings The LXX. transliterates in ἐν θωδαθᾷ. Among the Psalms appropriate to be sung on such an occasion some have suggested Psalms 122, 147.

cymbals, psalteries, and with harps Cf. 1 Chronicles 13:8. -Psaltery" = nebel, a harp: -harp" = kinnor, a kind of guitar.