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Nehemiah 11:1-12:26

The Holy City Was Filled Again

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The Holy City Was Filled Again

Nehemiah 11:1-12:26

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The Holy City Was Filled Again

Nehemiah 11:1-12:26

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About this song

This song belongs to the Nehemiah collection. One recording is available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.

Bible book
Nehemiah
Collection
Nehemiah
Musical styles
Acoustic
[Verse 1] The rulers already dwell in Jerusalem. The remaining nine portions continue in other cities. Provincial chiefs settle in Jerusalem while others remain in ancestral cities. Benjaminite family heads and hundreds of brethren also settle there. [Pre-Chorus] The stones lay broken, every gate was burned, But prayer became the place where courage turned. [Chorus] The Holy City Was Filled Again, raise the broken stones, Call the scattered families to their homes. The work grew strong through prayer, truth, and hand, And ruined gates remembered how to stand. [Verse 2] Gatekeepers guard the city entrances in ordered numbers. Temple servants dwell in Ophel under appointed overseers. Uzzi oversees singers according to the king's command. Judah's families occupy villages from the south country through surrounding fields. [Bridge] Priests and Levites who returned with Zerubbabel and Jeshua are listed. The high-priestly line continues from Jeshua through Joiakim, Eliashib, Joiada, Jonathan. Priestly family chiefs in Joiakim's days are preserved by name. Levitical chiefs, thanksgiving courses, and gate watches remain recorded through Darius's reign. [Final Chorus] The Holy City Was Filled Again, raise the broken stones, Call the scattered families to their homes. The work grew strong through prayer, truth, and hand, And ruined gates remembered where to stand. [Outro] The wall stood firm, but hearts still needed care. The work was stone and covenant and prayer.

Named in this songJerusalemZerubbabel

About the passage

Nehemiah 11: The holy city must become an inhabited city

The problem first named in chapter 7 finally receives an organized response: Jerusalem has walls but too few residents. Rulers already live there, lots designate one in ten of the wider population for the city, and volunteers receive the people's blessing. The chapter then fills the holy city with households and offices from Judah and Benjamin, priests, Levites, gatekeepers, Nethinims, singers, overseers, and people connected to royal administration. Its registers are not confined to Jerusalem, however. The closing verses spread back across towns, villages, fields, and regions belonging to Judah and Benjamin. The capital is therefore populated without swallowing the countryside that sustains the larger community. The Book of Nehemiah presents settlement as another form of reconstruction. A wall can be completed in fifty-two days; a functioning city requires people who sleep there, work there, worship there, administer it, and remain connected to the land beyond its gates.

Study Nehemiah 11 in depth

Nehemiah 12: The wall becomes a place for thanksgiving

Nehemiah 12 begins with records rather than celebration, placing priests, Levites, and leaders of thanksgiving in a line of service that reaches back to the return with Zerubbabel and Jeshua and forward through later generations. Only after that continuity is established does the wall become a stage for dedication. Levites and singers come in from surrounding settlements, purification prepares ministers, people, gates, and wall, and two great thanksgiving companies move in opposite directions around Jerusalem before meeting at the house of God. Trumpets, instruments, sacrifices, wives, children, and loud singing fill the city with joy that can be heard afar off. Then the chapter returns to storehouses, portions, singers, porters, and daily provision. The great public day is not allowed to become the whole achievement. Dedication is joined to the routines that must keep worship functioning after the music fades.

Study Nehemiah 12 in depth