WEBVTT - Nehemiah 7 - Nehemiah's List of Exiled Families 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:12.520 Life Audio. Well, good morning, faithful listeners. Thank you so 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:15.120 much for being here on the Bible Explain podcast with me. 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:17.000 And for those of you who don't know, my name 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:19.320 is Jen and I am the host of this podcast. 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:21.759 I hope you are ready to share a delicious cup 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:25.040 of seven weeks coffee with me as we read Neamiah 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:28.080 chapter seven. The entire thing. But this is one of 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:31.360 those chapters where it's mostly just names and names that 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:34.280 I do not know how to pronounce, so I'm probably 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:37.199 going to be skipping over a good portion of it. 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:39.600 But anytime that I do this, I always recommend that 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:42.040 you guys go back and read it for yourself. In fact, 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:44.320 it's even best to have your Bible with you if 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:46.920 you are able to if you are doing this podcast 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:49.240 at home. I know a lot of you Faithful listeners though, 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:52.280 like to listen to me while you're driving or working 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:55.280 or cleaning your house or something like that, so I 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:57.400 understand if you can't grab the Bible right here and now, 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:00.080 but it's always good to have the Bible open and 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:02.120 in front of you when you are reading through the Bible, 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:04.560 because I am a human being and I do make mistakes, 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:07.160 as you guys, know, so having the Bible open and 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:09.480 you know, gaining from it for yourself is a very 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:13.120 good thing. Niamiah seven is actually a very interesting chapter. 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:15.560 Even though we here in the West we usually like 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:19.080 to skip over chapters like this because honestly, we don't 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:23.480 really care about family names or all of these random 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:26.080 people because we don't know these people. And also because 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:29.039 our culture is very different. You know, we don't really 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:32.759 base our identity on our families here in the West. 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:35.679 Typically we look at ourselves as individuals who can break 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:38.320 away from our families and kind of just be whoever 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:40.640 we want to be, and our family name doesn't matter 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:45.720 as much. But back in Neamiah's day, family name meant everything. 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:48.080 It was your identity. So we're going to get into 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:51.680 all of these different people why Niamiah is writing all 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:53.440 of this down, and I think it's going to be 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:55.520 a lot more interesting to you guys than you expect. 0:01:55.720 --> 0:01:57.400 So let's go ahead and get into this right after 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:01.920 a quick message from one of my sponsors, So let's 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:04.800 go ahead and start in verses one through ten. I'll 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:07.520 be reading pretty much everything today from the World English Bible, 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:09.520 as I usually do, and just to let you guys 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:12.720 know this is Nehemiah speaking. So starting in verse one, 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:15.519 here's what it says. Now, when the wall was built, 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:18.000 and I had set up the doors, and the gatekeepers, 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:20.760 and the singers and the Levites were appointed, I put 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.640 my brother Hanani and Hanna and Ayah, the governor of 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:26.640 the fortress, in charge of Jerusalem, for he was a 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:30.560 faithful man and feared God above many. I said to them, 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:33.160 don't let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:36.080 sun is hot, and while they stand guard, let them 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:39.320 shut the doors, and you bar them, and appoint watches 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:42.520 of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, everyone in his watch, with 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:46.800 everyone near his house. Now the city was wide and large, 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:49.919 but the people were few therein, and houses were not built. 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:52.359 My God put it into my heart to gather together 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:55.080 the nobles and the rulers and the people, that they 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:57.960 might be listed by genealogy. I found the book of 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:00.240 the genealogy of those who came up at the first first, 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:02.679 and I found this written in it. These are the 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:04.720 children of the province who went up out of the 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:08.320 captivity of those who had been carried away, whom Nebekonezer, 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:11.000 the King of Babylon, had carried away, and who returned 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:14.320 to Jerusalem and Judah everyone to his city who came 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:21.400 with Zerubabyl Jeshua, Niamiyah, Azaria, Ramayah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bill Shan, 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:26.079 miss Pereth, big Vi, Nahum, and Bana, the number of 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:28.520 the men of the people of Israel, the children of 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:32.920 Parash two thousand, one hundred and seventy two, the children 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.920 of Shefadia three hundred seventy two, the children of Ara 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:39.960 six hundred and fifty two. And so that's where I'm 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:44.040 going to stop for right now. So Niamiyah is finished 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:46.480 building the walls. That is what we've been talking about 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:49.880 for the past several weeks. But interestingly enough, even though 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:52.920 the walls are finally built, the Book of Niamiyah is 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:57.360 only halfway done, because building the walls was only one 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:00.560 part of Namiyah's job. He had a big job actually 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.640 ahead of him. God put a lot of things on 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:08.480 Nehemiah's heart, not just the protection of Jerusalem with these walls, which, 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:10.440 by the way, something I didn't mention because I didn't 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:13.720 even think about it until a couple days ago, was 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:17.120 that another reason why the walls needed to be built 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:20.960 around Jerusalem was because that was where the temple was. 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:24.640 Don't forget the people of Israel considered Jerusalem to be 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:29.880 a very holy city. It was where God resided, and 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:33.480 so these walls would also protect the temple from being 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:35.880 completely destroyed. You know in other books of the Bible 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:40.680 that we discussed whenever a foreign army goes into Jerusalem 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:42.880 to try to capture people, what do they do First? 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:45.760 They always go to the temple and they steal stuff 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:48.479 out of it, like every single time, whether it's the 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:52.200 Egyptians or the Babylonians, they always go to the temple 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:54.480 and try to destroy it first, because firstly, there were 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:57.239 some very beautiful things inside the temple that were worth 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:00.560 a lot of money. But also you have to the 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:04.880 culture back in these days, when an invading army conquered 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:08.840 a land, they believed that they were also conquering the 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:11.919 god of that land, and they would say, oh, my 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:15.640 God is so much stronger than that person's God because 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:19.200 we just conquered their land. So going into the temple 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:22.000 and completely destroying it was like one of the first 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.400 things that people would do to kind of show the people, oh, 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:28.720 I am so much stronger than your God. Hence why 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:32.160 Niamiah had it on his heart to build these walls 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:35.559 around Jerusalem and around the Temple. So now these walls 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:38.360 are complete very quickly, by the way, fifty two days. 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:42.240 It took Nehemiah and the residence of Jerusalem to build 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:44.960 these walls. It says he set up the doors, he 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:48.440 assigned the gatekeepers and the singers and the Levites, and 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:51.599 he put his brother Hanani, and also this man named 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:54.280 Hanna and Naya, who was the governor of the fortress, 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:58.400 in charge of Jerusalem. Now we do get a little 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:05.200 glimpse into Niamiah's family life because Hanani is mentioned twice. 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:09.599 First in Niemiyah One, when Hanani had gone to Jerusalem 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:13.040 initially possibly on an errand from the king of Persia. 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:16.159 He came back and gave this report, this really bad 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.880 report about Jerusalem to Niemiah, and that was what made 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:23.080 Niamiyah actually want to go to Jerusalem in the first place. Well, 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:27.400 apparently Hanani actually traveled with his brother Niemiyah to go 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:30.279 back to Jerusalem, and he was an upstanding man, because 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.160 Niamiyah put him in this other man Hannah and Aiah 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:37.000 in charge of the security of Jerusalem. And it says 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:40.080 specifically of this other guy, Hanna Andaiyah, that he was 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:44.040 a faithful man and feared God above many. Now that's 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:46.640 very important when you put somebody in charge of the 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.520 security of a holy city. You have to fear God 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:52.479 before you fear man, because if you fear people more 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:54.599 than you fear God, then you're going to cave to 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:56.960 any kind of army that comes your way, and you're 0:06:57.000 --> 0:06:59.800 going to open up those gates and allow these people 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:03.640 to come in and potentially desecrate the Temple to God 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:06.719 and kill a whole bunch of residents of Jerusalem. So 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:09.120 it's important for the person to be in charge of 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:13.920 security to fear God far more than you fear men. 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:17.840 So now that Neamiyah has set up the security of Israel, 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:20.440 he says to these two men his brother Hanani and 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:22.760 also Hanna and Ayah, which, by the way, those two 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.400 men basically had the same name. Interestingly enough, Hanani was 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:29.680 just a shortened form of Hanna and Ayah, which has 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:32.680 made some scholars think that these two men are actually 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:35.679 the same, but most people don't actually think that because 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:39.640 it would make no sense for Namiah to mention his 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:42.600 brother's name twice. That would be like my sister, you know, 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:44.360 putting me in charge of something and like writing it 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:46.640 down as a record and being like, I put my 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:51.160 sister Jen and also Jennifer in charge of this one thing. 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:55.360 Like any person reading that would be like what Like 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:58.000 you'd assume that there's two different people, one named Jen 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:02.800 and also one named Jennifer. So most likely Niemiah was 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:06.400 not talking about his brother just twice. He's probably talking 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:11.119 about two different individuals, one named Hannani and another named 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:14.040 hann and Ayah. Just as Jen and Jennifer is a 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:17.280 very common name, it could be that Hanani and Hanna 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:19.440 and Ayah was a common name back in these days. 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:23.200 But anyway, he puts Hanani and Hanna and Ayah in 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:26.240 charge of the security of Jerusalem. Here's what he says 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:29.160 to them, don't let the gates of Jerusalem be opened 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:31.960 until the sun is hot, and while they stand guard, 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:34.840 let them shut the doors and you bar them and 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:37.720 a point watches of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, everyone on 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:41.880 his watch, with everyone near his house. So remember when 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:44.760 Neiamiah finished building those walls, there were still a ton 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.480 of threats against him. We talked about all of that 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:50.520 in the previous chapter how many threats Niamiah had on 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:53.240 his life because the people did not want these walls 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:55.800 to be built. Now granted, and once the walls were 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.679 actually built, the nations kind of gave up because they 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:01.240 were like, well, we didn't when we didn't want these 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:03.040 walls to be built, but now they're built and there's 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:05.360 nothing we can really do about it. But still, it 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.839 was wise of Nehamiyah to make sure that the gates 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:11.520 were only opened during certain times of the day, during 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:13.319 the sunniest part of the day, when you could really 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:16.400 see what was going on. That was the only times 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:19.680 the doors were allowed to be open to the city 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:23.480 of Jerusalem. And also watches had to be put in place, 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:27.840 so guards stationed around the city. And Neamiyah's very smart, 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:31.960 it says, to station these men near their own homes, 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:34.679 because if you think about it, you know, with all 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:38.320 of these threats coming to Jerusalem from these opposing nations, 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:41.400 if each man was stationed directly near his own home, 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:44.360 then he would probably be far more on guard than 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:47.000 he would if he was stationed, you know, across the 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:48.800 city or something like that where he couldn't see his 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:52.760 house at all. This was very smart of Nehamiyah to do. 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:55.200 But now it says in verse four that the city 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:58.720 was wide and large, but the people were few therein 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:01.160 and the houses were not to build, So there are 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:03.800 very few houses built in Jerusalem. The city was not 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:07.600 very populated, yet it was a big city, Meamiah said. 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:10.320 And unfortunately all the people were not living within the city. 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:12.520 It sounds like a lot of people were living outside 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:16.480 of the city. So now, because Jerusalem is very sparse. 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:18.720 It says in verse five that God put it into 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:22.160 Neemiah's heart to gather together the nobles, the rulers, the 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:25.480 people that they might be listed by genealogy. And he 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:27.679 found the book of the genealogy of those who came 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:30.240 up at the first and I found this written in it. 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:32.000 And I'm not gonna lie. When I first read this, 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:34.880 I was like, why did God put this on Neamiah's heart, 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:38.760 especially considering the fact that Ezra wrote down the genealogy 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:42.160 of the people, possibly only a few decades before Nehemiah 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:45.360 wrote all of this down. So why was it necessary 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:48.920 to have two of almost the exact same list with 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:52.319 a few differences. Well, after doing some research, my best guess, 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:54.120 and this is just my two cents. This is not 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:59.480 scriptural or anything. My best guess is that Nehemiah felt 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:03.640 that he needed to really research the data himself in 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:06.440 order to get a good grasp of who was in 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:09.040 the city. Don't forget that Niamiah had only just recently 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:11.200 arrived in the city of Jerusalem. He didn't know who 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:14.320 was there yet, and if he wanted to repopulate the city, 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:16.719 which is what it sounds like he was aiming to do, 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:19.960 he needed to know who was there, who was in 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:22.679 the land, and I think that's why he researched this 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:25.400 topic himself. Now, a lot of people like to say 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:29.440 that Niamiyah copied Ezra's report. In Ezra Chapter two, you'll 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:32.440 see a very similar report, But I actually don't agree 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:37.000 with that because there are twenty nine differences between Ezra's 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:40.600 account and Namiyah's account when you compare the two side 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:43.760 by side, So that really doesn't sound like Neamiyah's copying 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:47.800 Ezra if he has that many differences. There were probably 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:51.160 a lot of places actually where the genealogies were written down, 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:55.560 because again this was very important to the Israelite people. 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:59.440 Family meant everything, that was your identity, so people would 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:02.320 keep their family history and their records kind of like 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:05.840 how you know, some families have a bible of their 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:09.040 ancestors where each person would like write down their names 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:11.480 in that bible. That was probably what a lot of 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:14.800 the Jews did. They kept their heritage written down somewhere. 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:18.120 And it's very likely that as Namiyah had this on 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:21.400 his heart to record these families, that people were coming 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:24.000 to him with these records being like, hey, look, this 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:26.880 is my family history. Because he kind of goes into that. Actually, 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:30.400 towards the end of this chapter, he mentioned some people 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:34.680 that were not able to produce records of their family history. 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:37.320 That's talked about in verse sixty one. It says these 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:40.240 were those who went up from Tell Malaw Tell Hersha, 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.520 cherub Aiden and Emer, but they could not show their 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:46.760 father's houses nor their offspring whether they were of Israel. 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:49.920 So yeah, it does sound like people were potentially bringing 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:53.560 their records to Nehemiah so that he could write all 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:56.920 of these things down. Now why was this so important, Well, 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.280 because Niamiah needed to have a good grasp of who 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:02.480 was in is at this point in time, who was 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:07.240 ready to move into Jerusalem, and also who was illegitimate. 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:09.640 Remember in the chapter we just talked about on Monday. 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:13.480 Ezra had some run ins with false prophets and a 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.080 false prophetess as well. He was well aware that there 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:19.840 were people in Israel that were not fit for the 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.160 roles that they were in. Could be that there were 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:26.520 some priests who weren't even Israelites potentially doing the role. 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:28.240 In fact, we're going to get into some of those 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:31.120 people at the end of this chapter. And Niamiah, dealing 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:33.920 with that experience all through the building of this wall, 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:36.400 probably had it on his heart to make sure that 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:40.840 these people in Israel were legitimate and if any of 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:44.560 them moved into Jerusalem, they had good intentions and not 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:49.000 potentially evil intentions trying to destroy Jerusalem or being a 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:52.200 spy for other nations or something along those lines. So 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:54.480 that's my guess as to why God put this on 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:57.960 Nehemiah's heart. It was a very different motivation than what 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:00.400 Ezra had. If you look back in the Book of 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:03.360 Ezra when he wrote all of these lineages down, he 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:05.480 likely did it. And again this is my two cents, 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:09.480 because he was a scribe, because these things interested him, 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:14.400 because he was really passionate about lineages, and also he 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:17.840 likely wanted to give a credence to all of the 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:21.160 people who came back to Israel to rebuild it and 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:24.080 give them the recognition that they deserved. So two totally 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:27.440 different motivations for writing all of these lineages down. Though 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:30.240 the two accounts are very very similar. But there are 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:32.840 some differences, and we'll get into some of those differences today. 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:35.920 I'm not going to mention all twenty nine differences. If 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:38.160 you guys are interested in that, you can certainly look 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:40.160 that up yourself. It is easy to find just by 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:42.800 googling it. But continuing in verse six, it says, these 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:44.600 are the children of the province who went up out 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:47.120 of the captivity of those who had been carried away, 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:49.920 whom nebukin Azer, the King of Babylon, had carried away, 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:52.840 and who returned it to Jerusalem and to Judah, everyone 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:56.880 to his city who came with Zerubabyl Jeshua and all 0:14:56.920 --> 0:14:59.560 of these other people. So the first group of people 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:02.440 that Neiami goes into are the leaders of Israel, the 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:05.560 ones who are carried away by King Nebukeinezer and now 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:08.280 have returned back into the land one hundred years prior 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:16.680 to Niemiyah, and he mentions Parash Shafadia, Ara, pihathmoab Elam, Zatu, Zakai, 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:22.800 Benui babei asgad Ad Dinikim, And I am going to 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:25.680 stop right there so that I don't butcher these names 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:28.240 even further. But yeah, these were the leaders of Israel. 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:31.000 You know, these were the guys that came back into 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:33.040 the land one hundred years prior to all of this, 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:35.920 and it mentions all of their families and all of 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:38.520 the people that returned with them. So, for example, this 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:42.840 first guy mentioned Parash two one hundred and seventy two 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:45.680 came with this guy, so that's a lot of people 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:48.800 that came with him. Now moving forward in verse twenty five, 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:52.680 you're going to notice that it kind of changes to 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:56.920 not talking about individual men but a city. It says 0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:00.320 the children of Gibeon ninety five. After that at the 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:04.960 men of Bethlehem and beth Asthmaveth and Kiriath Jerem. You know, 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:08.720 you're going to recognize some of these Israelite cities mentioned here, 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:11.640 which proves that there are two ways that somebody could 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:15.080 prove their identity as an Israelite. They could do it 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:17.800 by their family name. So for example, I am from 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:20.720 the family of Parash i am a second cousin or 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:24.480 something like that. Or you could say, my family has 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:28.440 lived in Gibeon for this amount of generations, and you 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:31.160 would bring these records that you have to Neamiah and 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:33.080 he'd write all of this down. So there are two 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:35.560 separate ways that you could prove that you are in Israelite, 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:38.680 either by a name of like one of the patriarchs 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:42.280 of your family, or by your city name as well. 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:46.040 And now in verse thirty nine through forty two, Niamiah 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:49.480 switches to talking about the Levites. He says specifically of 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:53.320 the priests, the children of Jediah the house of Jeshua 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:57.560 nine hundred and seventy three, the children of Emer one 0:16:57.600 --> 0:17:01.480 thousand fifty two, the children of pas Sure one thousand, 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:05.160 two hundred and forty seven, the children of Harim one 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:09.560 thousand seventeen. So that is how many priests traveled to Israel, 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:13.359 And the lineage of the priests was especially important, more 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:16.359 so than any of the other tribes, because the Levites 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:19.840 were the only ones who could be priests according to 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:24.560 God himself. That is what it says in numbers, Where 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:30.080 is it numbers? Chapter sixteen, Verse forty. This was to 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:32.600 remind the Israelites that no one except a descendant of 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:35.800 Erin should come to burn incense before the Lord, or 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:38.720 he would become like Cora and his followers. And I 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:40.359 don't know if you guys know the story of Cora 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:43.359 and his followers. I won't really get into it today. 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:48.000 But they were not good people, and they tried to 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:51.920 usurp authority from Moses back in the wilderness, and God 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:56.040 judged them for their rebellion. So only the Levites, specifically 0:17:56.080 --> 0:18:00.280 from the family of Arin, could be priests. Now there 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.080 are other Levites not from the family of Aarin that 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:06.680 could serve in the temple, but they could never be priests, 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:10.360 and that is who Nehemiah discusses in verses forty three 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.840 through forty five. Now these people, though they couldn't be priests, 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:16.520 they could be other things. It says they could be singers. 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:20.000 Right here, they could be gatekeepers, and in general, the 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:23.200 Levites would assist the priests in a lot of different ways. 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:26.040 But again they couldn't be priests. They couldn't even go 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:29.080 into the Temple of God. Actually, so now in verse 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:33.560 forty six it mentions temple servants the children of Ziha, 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:37.280 the children of Hasufah, the children of Taboith. And something 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:39.720 you're going to notice about all of these names, well 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:41.720 not all of them, but a lot of them, is 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:44.919 that these names are foreign. They are not Israelite names, 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:51.159 which actually shows that the temple's servants were probably prisoners 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:53.679 of war a lot of times, or they could have 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:57.679 been slaves that were forced to serve in the temple. 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:01.120 God actually talks about this in Ezekiel forty four, verses 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:05.520 six through nine, and Ezekiel is a prophet prophesying during 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:10.160 the Babylonian takeover. So here's what God says in Ezekiel 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.760 forty four, starting in verse six. You shall tell the rebellious, 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:17.040 even the house of Israel, the Lord Yahweh, says you, 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:19.679 House of Israel. Let that be enough of all of 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:23.920 your abominations, in that you have brought in foreigners, uncircumcised 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:27.760 in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:31.080 to profane it, even my house when you offer my bread, 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:34.120 the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant. 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:36.639 To add to all of your abominations, you have not 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:39.199 performed the duty of my holy things. But you have 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:42.800 set performers of my duty in my sanctuary for yourselves. 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:46.600 The Lord Yahweh says, no foreigner uncircumcised in heart and 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:50.320 uncircumcised in flesh shall enter into my sanctuary of any 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:53.280 foreigners who are among the children of Israel. So God 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:57.520 makes it very clear that these foreigners who are specifically 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:02.000 uncircumcised in heart and in FLEs should not be entering 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:06.960 into the sanctuary. But apparently the Israelites were allowing these 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:10.600 foreigners and even forcing these foreigners, probably in certain circumstances, 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:13.520 to do some of these jobs. And God was not 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:16.680 happy with this because he says, you have not performed 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:19.000 the duty of the holy things. Instead, you are putting 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:21.520 these foreigners in charge of all these things that you 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:24.560 should be in charge of, And he specifically mentions he 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:27.359 is angry with the fact that they are uncircumcised in 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:31.320 heart and in flesh. Okay, So that means that they 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:35.040 were not following any of the laws of God. But 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:38.120 the priests were still putting these people in charge of it. Now, 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:41.600 if these foreigners would have been circumcised in both heart 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:44.199 and in flesh, then it would have been okay for 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:46.280 them to serve in the Temple. But because they were 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:49.280 still foreigners, they did not adopt any of the customs 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:53.080 of Israel, and they weren't even forced to adopt these customs. Instead, 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:55.600 they were just put in charge of stuff. And God 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:57.800 was not okay with this. Now. Granted, I'm not going 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:00.560 to open up the can of worms about slavery in 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:02.720 the Old Testament right now. I've talked about it before 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:04.359 on the podcast, and maybe I'll try to find an 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:07.880 episode where I discussed that and link it in the description, 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:11.080 But for right now, just know that I don't think 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:15.320 slavery was necessarily the greatest evil in the sight of God. 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:17.480 There could have been some of that going on. We know, 0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:21.280 based upon other portioned scripture that slavery is not a 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:23.520 good thing. I mean, we just talked about that. Actually 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:27.720 in Neemiah, just a couple chapters ago, the Israelites were 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:31.639 putting their own brothers and sisters into slavery and even 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:35.199 selling their brothers and sisters into slavery, and Niemiah was 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:38.760 sickened by all of this. But God is always concerned 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:43.640