The Work That Opens the Gates Each Morning

The King James runs the sentence on, but the Hebrew divides more naturally after “Israel”: they were written in the book of the kings of Israel, and Judah was carried away. That book is one of the sources Chronicles cites by name (2 Chronicles 27:7), not the Books of Kings as we have them. “Behold” points the reader to a document that could be checked.

“The first inhabitants” means the first to settle again after the return, the heading Nehemiah 11:3 also uses. The Nethinims, “the given ones”, were temple servants; Ezra 8:20 says David and the princes appointed them to serve the Levites. This is the only mention of them outside Ezra and Nehemiah.

Nehemiah 11:4 lists only Judah and Benjamin in Jerusalem. Chronicles adds Ephraim and Manasseh, as it does when Hezekiah sends letters inviting them to his Passover (2 Chronicles 30:1). No individual from either northern tribe is actually named in what follows.

Pharez here, the Shilonites in verse 5 and Zerah in verse 6 are the three surviving branches of Judah, so every line of the tribe has someone in the city. Uthai appears as Athaiah in Nehemiah 11:4, with a different pedigree. Omri and Imri stand side by side, two forms of one name.

The Shilonites are not people from Shiloh but the descendants of Shelah, Judah’s third son, the “Shelanites” of Numbers 26:20; the Hebrew vowels have made the name look like Shiloh’s. Asaiah is probably Nehemiah 11:5’s Maaseiah.

Zerah was the twin whose hand came out first and was tied with a scarlet thread, though his brother Pharez was born before him (Genesis 38:27–30). Nehemiah 11 names no Zerahites in Jerusalem at all. Six hundred and ninety is the only number given for Judah here.

Sallu also heads Benjamin’s list in Nehemiah 11:7, but with a different line of ancestors. Hasenuah, with the article, is probably a clan, and Nehemiah 11:9 has “Judah the son of Senuah”, second over the city, perhaps from the same family.

Ibneiah at the start of the verse and Ibnijah at the end are the same name, “the LORD builds”, on two different men. Reuel is also the name of Moses’ father-in-law (Exodus 2:18). Four Benjamite heads are listed here, and three of them are given pedigrees.

Nine hundred fifty and six Benjamites here; Nehemiah 11:8 gives nine hundred twenty and eight. The figures are close enough to be the same community and different enough to be two counts at two times. “According to their generations” marks each figure as a family tally.

These three names are also the names of three of David’s twenty four priestly courses: Jehoiarib drew the first lot, Jedaiah the second, Jachin the twenty first (24:7 and 17). The verse may name the courses, not single men. The Maccabees traced their descent to the course of Jehoiarib (1 Maccabees 2:1).

Nehemiah 11:11 names Seraiah son of Hilkiah in this place, and 6:13–14 makes Seraiah the son of Azariah son of Hilkiah. The two records name father and son in the same slot. Hilkiah is the high priest who found the book of the law, so this is the family of Josiah’s reform.

A Pashur son of Malchiah was among the officials who asked Jeremiah for an oracle (Jeremiah 21:1) and later wanted him dead (Jeremiah 38:1–4). Immer is a priestly course (24:14), and another Pashur, “the son of Immer”, had Jeremiah beaten and put in the stocks (Jeremiah 20:1–2).

“Very able men” is gibbore chayil, the phrase translated “mighty men of valour” throughout the military lists, here applied to priests. One thousand seven hundred sixty is far more than the 1,192 that Nehemiah 11:10–14 gives, so the two lists counted different groups or different years.

Shemaiah’s pedigree matches Nehemiah 11:15 almost exactly. Merari, the least prominent of the three Levite families, is listed first here. Azrikam is also the name of one of Azel’s sons in verse 44, a name repeated in both Levite and Benjamite families.

Bakbakkar is probably Nehemiah 11:17’s Bakbukiah, and bakbuk is the word for a jar, named for the gurgling sound it makes when poured. Mattaniah, of Asaph’s line, is “the principal to begin the thanksgiving in prayer” in Nehemiah 11:17, the man who led the singing.

Netophah lay near Bethlehem, and Nehemiah 12:28 gathers singers “from the villages of Netophathi” for the dedication of the wall. Two of David’s champions, Maharai and Heled, were Netophathites (11:30). Some Levites lived outside the city and came in to serve.

“Porters” means doorkeepers, from the Latin porta, a gate, not men who carry loads. Akkub and Talmon also head the porters in Nehemiah 11:19, a hundred and seventy two with their brethren. Shallum is named chief, the man with authority over the gates.

The king’s gate on the east was the one the king used; Ezekiel 46:1–2 reserves an eastern gate of the temple court for the prince. “Hitherto” means up to the time of writing, so the source knew the Korahite family still holding this gate.

The gatekeepers are Korahites, the same family as Heman the singer (6:37). The psalm of the sons of Korah says, “I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God” (Psalm 84:10). “The host of the LORD” is the wilderness camp, where their fathers guarded the entry to the tent.

The Hebrew can be read as a statement, “the LORD was with him”, or as a wish, “the LORD be with him”. Numbers 3:32 put Eleazar over “them that keep the charge of the sanctuary”, and his son Phinehas followed him. The gatekeepers claim a founder from the first generation of priests.

Zechariah is Meshelemiah’s firstborn, called “a wise counsellor” in 26:14, whose lot fell to the north gate. He kept the door of the tent in David’s day, before any temple stood. The chapter moves back from the return to David’s reign in a single step.

Two hundred and twelve here, against the hundred and seventy two of Nehemiah 11:19. Samuel died before David took the throne (1 Samuel 25:1), so the office traced to both reaches back to the prophet’s lifetime. “Seer” is ro’eh, the old word explained in 1 Samuel 9:9: a prophet “was beforetime called a Seer”.

“The house of the LORD, namely, the house of the tabernacle” names a house and a tent together, the office covering both the temple and the tent that came before it. “Wards” are mishmarot, watches or shifts of duty, the unit in which guard service was counted.

Chapter 26:14–18 gives the detail: six Levites daily to the east, four to the north, four to the south, four at the causeway to the west, with others at the storehouse. The four directions mean the house was guarded on every side.

Changes of the watch fell on the sabbath. Jehoiada used that weekly changeover to crown Joash, holding back the shift going off duty so he had twice the men in the court (2 Chronicles 23:4–8). Villagers came in for their week and went home again.

“Set office” is be’emunah, “in faithfulness” or “in trust”, the word already used in verse 22. The four chief porters are literally “the mighty of the porters”. The chambers and treasuries were the storerooms around the courts, where offerings and temple goods were kept.

“The opening thereof” is maftêach, the ordinary word for a key; the same word appears in Isaiah 22:22, “the key of the house of David”. The chief porters slept round the building because they carried the keys, and the day’s worship could not start until they had used them.

When the exiles came home, Ezra 1:9–11 records the vessels Cyrus returned, counted item by item, five thousand four hundred in all. “Ministering vessels” are the vessels of service, used in the daily ritual, and they were counted out in the morning and counted back in.

Fine flour, oil and frankincense are the three ingredients of the grain offering in Leviticus 2:1, and wine was poured as the drink offering beside it. The Levites kept the stores. The sacrifices depended on supplies that someone had to buy, receive and guard.

Exodus 30:22–38 gives the recipes for the holy anointing oil and the incense, and forbids anyone to make them for private use. Here the mixing is kept to “the sons of the priests”, not Levites in general, so a Levite could guard the spices without being allowed to compound them.

“The things that were made in the pans” are the flat cakes baked on a griddle, the “meat offering baken in a pan” of Leviticus 2:5, and the high priest’s daily offering in Leviticus 6:20–22. The firstborn of the chief gatekeeper had this kitchen duty.

Chronicles calls the shewbread “the bread of the arrangement”, for the two rows of six loaves set out each sabbath (Leviticus 24:5–8). When the fresh loaves went in, the old were eaten by priests, which is why Ahimelech had “hallowed bread” to give David at Nob (1 Samuel 21:6).

“Free” is petirim, exempt from other duties. The exemption depended on support: Nehemiah 11:23 says the king ordered a fixed daily portion for the singers, and Nehemiah 13:10 shows what happened when the portions stopped, as the singers went back to their fields.

The closing words almost exactly repeat 8:28, which closed the Benjamite heads with “These dwelt in Jerusalem”. The same line closes both rolls, of sanctuary staff and of Saul’s tribe, before the Gibeon family is taken up.

The father of Gibeon now has a name, Jehiel, which 8:29 left out; the Hebrew consonants read Jeuel. Everything that follows repeats the Benjamite list of chapter 8, with small differences that show it was copied from a separate record, not from the earlier chapter.

With Ner restored, Jehiel has a son Kish and, through Ner, a grandson Kish, the uncle and the nephew sharing a name. That doubling may help explain why other records make Ner and Kish brothers. The list keeps both.

Zechariah is the full form of the Zacher of 8:31, and Mikloth, missing from that list though his son was there, now appears. Jehiel has ten sons here. The fuller form suggests this version came from a better copy of the source.

The spelling is Shimeam here and Shimeah in chapter 8, where a single final letter differs. “Brethren” appears twice in one breath: these Gibeonites lived at Jerusalem beside their brethren, a Benjamite household settled in the capital next to the others of verses 3–9.

Four sons are named here, and one verse into chapter 10 three of them die in a single line: “Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul” (10:2). The genealogy names the household that is about to be killed.

The Hebrew spells the name two ways in one verse, Merib-baal and then Meri-baal. Mephibosheth, as Samuel calls him, later met David on his return with his feet undressed and beard untrimmed, saying he had mourned since the king left (2 Samuel 19:24).

Tahrea is the Tarea of 8:35. The Hebrew of this verse lacks “and Ahaz”, and the King James supplied it from chapter 8, printing it in italics to show it was added. The next verse needs Ahaz, so the supply is sound.

Jarah here is Jehoadah in 8:36. In the Hebrew script, d and r look nearly identical, and confusing one for the other explains many of the spelling differences between parallel lists like these. Alemeth, Azmaveth and Zimri come through unchanged.

Eleasah means God has made, a name also borne by Elasah son of Shaphan, who carried Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles in Babylon (Jeremiah 29:3). Four generations are given here in two styles, first “begat”, then “his son”, the way the source seems to have joined two lists.

This second copy stops at Azel’s sons. It drops Eshek and Ulam’s hundred and fifty archers (8:39–40) and goes straight to Gilboa. The genealogies that began with Adam in 1:1 end with a list of the dead king’s descendants, just before the account of his death.