Nehemiah 10:32,33

3. The people pledged additionally to support the Temple.

TEXT, Nehemiah 10:32-33

32

We also placed ourselves under obligation to contribute yearly one third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God:

33

for the showbread, for the continual grain offering, for the continual burnt offering, the sabbaths, the new moon, for the appointed times, for the holy things and for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and all the work of the house of our God.

COMMENT

The one-third shekel in Nehemiah 10:32 appears superficially to be at variance with the requirement of Exodus 30:13, specifying a half-shekel. The amount is also known to us from Matthew 17:27. The simplest explanation is that different standards of weight had been introduced by the Persians so that what had been a half-shekel before was now only a third of a shekel.[76] This was to be used for the public services of the Temple.

[76] Interpreter's Bible, op. cit., p. 764.

Nehemiah 10:33 probably is in addition to this, and they pledged to take care of these expenses also. It is not likely that the fraction of a shekel yearly from each male over twenty would be sufficient for all these supplies, including repairs to the building.

WORD STUDIES

DOCUMENT: see AMEN, in the Word Studies for chapter 8. SABBATH (Nehemiah 10:31): the basic idea is to cease, interrupt, stop; thus the manna ceased (the verb form of this word): Joshua 5:12. If work stops, there is rest (Exodus 23:12).

The word applied to the seventh day (Exodus 20:11); to the seventh years, when no crops were to be sown (Leviticus 25:2); to the first and last day of the festivals that lasted for a week, regardless of the day of the week (Leviticus 23:39); to the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:32) or Feast of Trumpets (Leviticus 23:24); or in the plural as a synonym for weeks (Leviticus 23:15) or for seven-year periods (Leviticus 25:8).