Nehemiah 12:31-43

6. The processional and dedication ceremonies are described.

TEXT, Nehemiah 12:31-43

31

Then I had the leaders of Judah come up on top of the wall, and I appointed two great choirs, the first proceeding to the right on top of the wall toward the Refuse Gate.

32

Hoshaiah and half of the leaders of Judah followed them,

33

with Azariah, Ezra, Meshullam,

34

Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah, Jeremiah,

35

and some of the sons of the priests with trumpets; and Zechariah the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Micaiah, the son of Zaccur, the son of Asaph,

36

and his kinsmen, Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah and Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God. And Ezra the scribe went before them.

37

And at the Fountain Gate they went directly up the steps of the city of David by the stairway of the wall above the house of David to the Water Gate on the east.

38

The second choir proceeded to the left, while I followed them with half of the people on the wall, above the Tower of Furnaces, to the broad wall,

39

and above the Gate of Ephraim, by the Old Gate, by the Fish Gate, the Tower of Hananel, and the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Sheep Gate, and they stopped at the Gate of the Guard.

40

Then the two choirs took their stand in the house of God. So did I and half of the officials with me;

41

and the priests, Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Micaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah, with the trumpets;

42

and Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan. Malchijah, Elam, and Ezer. And the singers sang, with Jezrahiah their leader,

43

and on that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced because God had given them great joy, even the women and children rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard from afar.

COMMENT

Nehemiah 12:31 begins the descriptive of a processional of dignitaries and choirs in two columns almost the entire length of the wall, around the city.

Nehemiah 12:32-36 give the personnel included in one column.

In Nehemiah 12:36, the kind of instruments associated with David are used, with the explanation that he was the man of God; so we see their effort to conform even in small details to the tried and proven paths to evoke God's pleasure. At the front of that procession, right behind the choir, was Ezra.

In Nehemiah 12:37 their route is traced from a point south of the city to another on the east.

Meanwhile, Nehemiah 12:38-39, a second column began at the same southern point and followed along the west wall and apparently circled more than half of the city. Following the choir and leading the rest of this procession was Nehemiah.

In Nehemiah 12:40, both columns arrived at the Temple where the choirs and some of the dignitaries stationed themselves for the ceremonies to follow.

Nehemiah 12:41-42 list the priestly participants and the choir leader, and mention the singers and the instrumental accompaniment.

In Nehemiah 12:43 there is one more word for joy in the Hebrew text than in English: five times there is rejoicing or joy! Amid it all was the offering of innumerable sacrifices, and thrilled by it all were men, women, and this time without question, children.

The impression made by the pageantry, the dignitaries (Ezra and Nehemiah both may have been recalled from Babylon and Persia for the occasion), the music, and the smell and sight of sacrifices, must have been awe-inspiring.

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.