Nehemiah 12:12-21

3. The priests-' families are listed at the time of Joiakim.

TEXT, Nehemiah 12:12-21

12

Now in the days of Joiakim the priests, the heads of fathers-' households were: of Seraiah, Meraiah; of Jeremiah, Hananiah;

13

of Ezra, Meshullam; of Amariah, Jehohahan;

14

of Malluchi, Jonathan; of Shebaniah, Joseph;

15

of Harim, Adna; of Meraioth, Helkai;

16

of Iddo, Zechariah; of Ginnethon, Meshullam;

17

of Abijah, Zichri; of Miniamin, of Moadiah, Piltai;

18

of Bilgah, Shammua; of Shemaiah, Jehonathan;

19

of Joiarib, Mattenai; of Jedaiah, Uzzi;

20

of Sallai, Kallai; of Amok, Eber;

21

of Hilkiah, Hashabiah; of Jedaiah, Nethanel.

COMMENT

Only two comments come to mind here.

Joiakim, in Nehemiah 12:12, succeeded Jeshua (Nehemiah 12:10); therefore this entire list is from the next generation after the list in Nehemiah 12:1-7.

This means that the Ezra in Nehemiah 12:13 (and obviously the Ezra in verse one) is not the Ezra of the previous book, and the associate of Nehemiah; the date is a little too early.

WORD STUDIES

PURIFY (Nehemiah 12:27): the basic idea of the Hebrew word is brightness or splendor; i.e. it causes something to shine or be bright. It signifies to be or become clean or pure: to cleanse or purify. It can be done for three reasons. (1) Of physical purity: Ezekiel 39:12 describes the cleansing of the land from corpses. Numbers 8:6-7 speaks of washing and completely shaving the Levites to prepare them for God's service. (2) Of ceremonial purity: Ezekiel 43:26 speaks of cleansing the altar for the new Temple of which Ezekiel had a vision, A leper who had been healed would be purified in a ceremony administered by a priest: Leviticus 14:11. (3) Of moral purity: Malachi 3:3 uses the figure of purifying metal from dross as a parallel of a person's moral cleansing. Jeremiah 33:8 speaks of cleansing through God's forgiveness.

DEDICATION (Nehemiah 12:30: Hanukkah): Sometimes a study of word derivations leads one down some strange and unexpected paths. There are three words formed from the same base, all of which have one common meaning: to choke. Apparently from this come the ideas of being narrow or of closing. A collar is placed around the neck of an animal and it is strangled down so that it can be initiated into man's service and trained for usefulness: thus it becomes dedicated, or consecrated to certain purposes. Each of the italicized words is a translation of one of the forms of this word. Our English word, neck, is derived from this same base (note the N and K, also in Hanukkah). So a wall was collared for man's service.