Neh. 11:1–12:43 The Population of Jerusalem and the Villages; Priests and Levites. These chapters depict the people’s efforts to populate Jerusalem.
11:1–36 Those Who Lived in Jerusalem and the Villages of Judah. This chapter addresses the need to maintain a proportion of the population in Jerusalem, and records the names of leaders who lived there. Populated villages of Judah are also named.
Neh. 11:1 The community’s leaders are concentrated in Jerusalem, but it is underpopulated (see also 7:4). The people in the provincial towns cast lots to decide who should relocate to the capital.
Neh. 11:3–4 The temple servants, along with gatekeepers and singers (vv. 19, 21–22), were classes of Levites (see Ezra 2:40–43). the descendants of Solomon’s servants. See note on Ezra 2:55–58. sons of Judah . . . sons of Benjamin. These two tribes of the southern kingdom were exiled in Babylon, and now they make up the restored community.
Neh. 11:11–12 The ruler of the house of God is the high priest. Work of the house probably means work inside the temple; contrast “outside,” v. 16.
Neh. 11:15–16 The Levites were responsible for the outside work of the house of God, a lesser role than that of the priests in v. 12.
Neh. 11:20–21 the rest of Israel. That is, after a tenth of the population had been resettled in Jerusalem (v. 1). His inheritance refers to property owned by one’s ancestors (see note on Ezra 2:59–63). Ophel. See note on Neh. 3:26.
Neh. 11:23–24 Command from the king must refer to the Persian king. The note about Pethahiah being at the king’s side indicates he oversaw Jewish affairs at the royal court.
Neh. 11:30 from Beersheba to the Valley of Hinnom. The people of Judah lived south of Jerusalem. Beersheba was in the far south, and the Valley of Hinnom was on the southern edge of Jerusalem.
Neh. 11:31–35 The villages of Benjamin were mainly north and west of Jerusalem.
Neh. 11:36 The Levites were in effect a third tribe in the restored community.
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