Nehemiah 13

On that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God, because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.) Nehemiah 13:1-2

We have seen so far in this book that when the Word of God was read it had an immediate effect on the people. [1] It is sad, but as we mentioned in 9:7-8, only about 30 percent of US Christians are seriously reading the Bible today. This probably helps account for the mess that some Christians and Christian churches are in at present.

We are told here that Ammonites and Moabites could not be admitted to God’s assembly (Deut. 23:3-6). There was a good reason for that ruling. When God’s children came out of Egypt the Ammonites and Moabites mistreated them, although they were blood relatives. We learn that what a nation does can have lasting implications for the following generations. The Moabites particularly hired Balaam to curse Israel, but instead, the curse turned into a blessing (Num. 22:2ff.). They tried to curse Israel, but the curse came to rest upon their own nation. In Genesis 12:3, God said to Abram: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Many are the nations that have experienced this verse both for good and for evil.

Now the refusal to accept other people or nations is deeply frowned upon today in our Western culture. It is important that we understand this was not so much a cultural separation but a religious separation. In order to redeem fallen humanity, God started with a single man, Abraham. Then he moved to establish a holy or separate nation, Israel. After that, he formed a holy remnant within that nation and then, at last, introduced his holy Messiah. God’s saving plan could not be diluted by accepting unrepentant pagan people within it.

Before anyone panics, we need to mention that God always had a plan for pagan people to become a part of his nation Israel. They could come in by repentance and faith like Ruth the Moabitess came in. She said to her Jewish mother-in-law Naomi, “…Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). She not only joined the heritage of Israel but she became a part of the Messianic line. Many of David’s great soldiers were from pagan nations, like Uriah the Hittite. They had joined Israel and had become a part of Israel’s faith heritage.

Wiersbe laments about our condition today in Christian churches: “The ‘mixed multitude’ is composed of unsaved people who want to belong to the fellowship of God’s people without trusting the Lord or submitting to his will…‘Today the world has so infiltrated the church,’ said Vance Havner, ‘that we are more beset by traitors within than by foes without. Satan is not fighting churches – he is joining them.’” [2] It is obvious today that many within the church have never truly repented or really accepted Jesus as the Lord of their lives.

“When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent” (13:3). Guzik says: “They could have thought of 20 reasons to not do what the Word of God plainly told them to do. Instead, they simply obeyed…” They could have said: “That command was made long ago and speaks to a different time;” “Things are different now;” “Let’s not go overboard;” “Let’s assign a committee to examine the issue.” [3] So it often goes on in our churches. However, these people got busy and did what the Lord commanded.

Problems With The Priesthood

Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah, and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil prescribed for the Levites, musicians and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests. Nehemiah 13:4-5

We run into a problem with this first verse. We are told that a priest by the name of Eliashib had been put in charge of the storerooms. At that time Eliashib was also high priest (Neh. 3:1, 20-21; 12:10; 13:28). Several commentators have felt that the high priest could not have been put in charge of the storerooms, but it had to be another priest with the same name. [4] There is one thing for sure and that is the high priest Eliashib was fully responsible for what happened in the temple storerooms. It was undoubtedly Eliashib the high priest who was associated with Tobiah.

The name Tobiah has come up a lot in this book. He was from the country of Ammon but he was obviously Jewish or part Jewish. His name in Hebrew means “God is good.” He might well have belonged to a Jewish family that did not go on the exile. It seems that he was a compromised Jew in some sense. He was obviously interested in gaining power and influence. There is one thing for sure, that he resisted Israel’s resettlement and the building of the wall. He was, in fact, a deadly enemy of the true Israel.

Tobiah had been given a room or possibly a suite of rooms adjoining the temple (cf. v. 9). It is amazing how the old serpent loves to coil himself around the things of God and try his best to destroy them. Tobiah had lodged his ugly self in the very space allowed for the storage of offerings for the Levites, priests, musicians and gatekeepers. Utley notes that “… it was unlawful for anyone but Levites to be in this temple area.” [5] We will see later in verse 10 that many of these ministries had not been supplied with food and essentials and had gone back to work on their small farms. Because of evil in the holy place the work of God had been neglected. Breneman remarks, “Certainly the high priest must have known about the matter and even permitted it.” [6]

“But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God” (13:6-7). We mentioned in 12:44ff. that Nehemiah was probably preparing to return to the King of Persia, since the wall was built, and he was probably going back to report on that. That year was 444 BC, the same year that he had come. Here we are told that he also returned to the emperor in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes, which would have been 433 BC. He had been governor of Judea from 445 to that time. We do not know how long he was away, but it was long enough for things to get into a mess spiritually. Anders says, “More than likely, Nehemiah received reports of what was happening in Jerusalem and some of the religious lapses and abuses that were taking place.” [7]

Kidner says: “After twelve years as governor (445-433) he had returned to the emperor; then ‘after some time’ (verse 6) he obtained permission to go back to Jerusalem. If on his first visit he had been a whirlwind, on his second he was all fire and earthquake to a city that had settled down in his absence to a comfortable compromise with the Gentile world.” [8]

Artaxerxes is here called the “king of Babylon.” Utley explains: “This seems unusual to us because he was king of Persia and yet, Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius I are also referred to as the king of Babylon.” [9] The Persians had conquered mighty Babylon so they apparently continued to use this title.

“I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense” (13:8-9). Nehemiah manifested a holy zeal much like that of Christ a few centuries later, when he threw the money changers and religious merchants out of the temple (Matt. 21:12-13). All Satan ever wants is a toe hold in God’s work. Kidner says he was “ideally placed for influence and intrigue.” [10] Tobiah had many sympathizers and admirers in Jewish ranks but that could not save him from Nehemiah’s wrath. We can get the full picture here with all of Tobiah’s expensive household goods strewn out in the street.

It is amazing how when people repent and throw the junk out of their lives that good things happen all over. When the great Welsh revival began in 1904, by the next year the Swansea County Police Court reported for the first time that there was not a single arrest for drunkenness. The police literally had nothing to do. Thieves returned things they had stolen; converted gamblers reformed their ways; the courts had no cases to try. The men’s language was so reformed that pit ponies in the coal mines could no longer understand what was being said to them. [11]

“I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and musicians responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields” (13:10). Nehemiah got his people busy cleaning up the rooms that Tobiah had defiled. He then filled them with the food offerings that were meant for the priests, Levites and others (cf. Deut. 12:19; 14:27; 18:1-8). Those, who had left their work and retreated to their small farms, could now happily return to the temple and minister to the Lord.

“So I rebuked the officials and asked them, ‘Why is the house of God neglected?’ Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts” (13:11). Barnes says: “During Nehemiah’s absence there had been a general falling away, and there was danger of a complete national apostasy.” [12] They had promised Nehemiah that they would never forsake the house of the Lord (10:39) but they did, and it did not take them long to do it.

“All Judah brought the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil into the storerooms” (13:12). Wiersbe says: “When God’s people start to decline spiritually, one of the first places it shows up is in their giving…Giving is both the ‘thermostat’ and the ‘thermometer’ of the Christian life; it measures our spiritual ‘temperature’ and also helps set it at the right level.” [13] Someone wrote in Modern Maturity magazine, “The world is full of two kinds of people, the givers and the takers. The takers eat well – but the givers sleep well.” [14]

“I put Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and a Levite named Pedaiah in charge of the storerooms and made Hanan son of Zakkur, the son of Mattaniah, their assistant, because they were considered trustworthy. They were made responsible for distributing the supplies to their fellow Levites” (13:13). Nehemiah was a man who had learned to delegate authority to other people and that was one of his strong points. We remember that before he made his first return to King Artaxerxes, he appointed men over the storerooms (12:44ff.). He had been away long enough that others had taken their places or else they had grown weary and failed in their jobs. Nehemiah quickly corrected this situation. He wanted to make sure that the Levites and other ministries were well supplied with food and provisions.

“Remember me for this, my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services” (13:14). We see Nehemiah sending up another of his quick little prayers. He does it twice in this last chapter. There are times when all of us might wonder if God will remember the good things we have done. We have a scripture that was not available to Nehemiah. In Hebrews 6:10 it is promised: “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.”

Desecration Of The Sabbath

In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Therefore I warned them against selling food on that day. People from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah. Nehemiah13:15-16

The Jewish people generally honor the Sabbath. In Jerusalem today Fridays are a bustle of activity. The week’s work is brought to an early close. Mothers and fathers scurry to the market for last-minute food items. The house is thoroughly cleaned, the rugs beaten and the candlesticks polished. All food for the next day is prepared and kept warm by special heating arrangements so that no fire will be kindled on the Sabbath. As the afternoon passes, the air becomes laced with the aromas of exotic foods from the world over.

By 2 P.M., the shops begin to close and soon the buses stop running. The frenzy of Friday’s activities begins to wind down. Husbands return home to greet their wives with the customary bouquets of fresh flowers. It seems that all family members share a joyful anticipation of the Sabbath eve and the day with God and family. Later in the afternoon, before the Sabbath actually begins, the women often can be seen from the apartment windows reverently lighting the Sabbath candles. A blissful quiet begins to descend upon the land. The queen has come again; the bride has made her appearance. Sabbath is greeted like a queen or bride. All is at rest!

As Christians, we are under no obligation to keep the Sabbath, but those believers living in Israel get to keep the day whether they like it or not. Actually, keeping the Sabbath is like the best of two worlds because when the Sabbath ends the Lord’s Day begins. When we lived in Jerusalem it was always our custom to have many guests in for Sabbath dinner. I tried to keep my wife from having more than 15 people at the meal. Those times were some of the happiest and most fulfilling that we remember.

We might say a few words about the Sabbath for Christians. The Sabbath was a special covenant arrangement that God made with Israel. Sunday is not the same as the Sabbath since it is the first day of the week and the Sabbath is the seventh. However, whether we are Jews or Christians we certainly need a day of rest each week. When I was a child, Sunday was very much like the Sabbath. In our rural area, all the stores and businesses closed and the farmers dared not work on the day lest they be scorned by the community. Those times were opportunities to go to church and then to gather in family groups for lunch, recreation and rest. Today the Christian rest has been obliterated by our society. All of us are paying an emotional, physical and spiritual price for not taking that time of rest.

Wiersbe says: “The French agnostic, Voltaire, is supposed to have said, ‘If you want to kill Christianity, you must abolish Sunday.’ I’m not sure I agree with him, but I do know that many Christians have killed their joy, witness, and spiritual power by turning Sunday into an ordinary day and not putting Christ first in their week.” [15]

Nehemiah noticed that the people were beginning to do the very things that had brought about the fall and captivity of their nation previously. He rebuked them sharply. In post-exilic times there were friendly relations with the Phoenician areas and some folks from the seacoast towns actually lived in Jerusalem. Apparently, these people did not consider that the law was binding on them and they brought in fish and other items to sell on the Sabbath. It was not these people alone since we see that the Jews themselves were doing the same things.

“I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, ‘What is this wicked thing you are doing – desecrating the Sabbath day? Didn’t your ancestors do the same things, so that our God brought all this calamity on us and on this city? Now you are stirring up more wrath against Israel by desecrating the Sabbath’” (13:17-18). Kidner remarks: “Before the exile there was a growing impatience with the sabbath law. Amos in the 8th century BC could see the merchants chafing at the weekly shut-down of business (Am: 8:5).” [16] God did not forget their attitudes and actions concerning his holy day. It was such attitudes and deeds that brought the defeat and captivity of his people in the first place. Utley says: “The Mosaic covenant promised blessing for obedience and cursing for disobedience (cf. Deuteronomy 27 – 29). The first covenant depended on human performance, but the reality of Genesis 3 doomed it from the start. It thereby forms the need for a new covenant based on YHWH’s character and the Messiah’s performance.” [17]

“When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates so that no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day. Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem. But I warned them and said, ‘Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will arrest you.’ From that time on they no longer came on the Sabbath” (13:19-21). Nehemiah was determined that the Sabbath would be honored on his watch. He was not willing to trust the normal gatekeepers but set some of his own devoted people over the gates. The people kept coming on the Sabbath and setting up their bazaars to sell goods on the holy day. It was at that point that Nehemiah exercised his great authority as the Persian governor. He threatened to arrest and imprison them if they came again and with this, the Sabbath abuses ceased.

“Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember me for this also, my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love” (13:22). The Levites were already set aside to do the Lord’s will and work. Nehemiah demanded that they purify themselves further and he set them over the city gates so that the Sabbath could be guarded. It was a holy work since the Sabbath was holy.

Nehemiah sent up another of his little quickie prayers to God asking the Lord to remember his work. We cannot assume that he was trying to please God by his good works. This verse shows that he was relying not on good works but on the mercy of God. [18]

Intermarrying With Pagans

Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. Nehemiah 13:23

It seems that the matter of intermarriage with pagans was a perennial problem in Judea (Ezr. Chs. 9-10; Neh. 10:30). To make matters worse they were intermarrying with the very people God had cursed, Ammon and Moab. Also, the people of Ashdod were opposed to building the wall (Neh. 4:7). McConville comments about this practice: “…which, more obviously than any other, must lead to the gradual dissolution and disappearance of the Jews as a people…Intermarriage strikes at the religious heart of the people (symbolized in the high priest’s family) and plays into the hands of their enemies…” [19]

Intermarriage with pagans can be a real problem for faith people in this age. When we accept pagan ideas and concepts, we are in a sense intermarrying with paganism. We can think today of all the “live-in” relationships that even Christian couples have. There is no way that God’s will can be done in such relationships. There is no covenant involved and these associations can be broken in the twinkling of an eye. Also, the New Testament forbids Christians to intermarry with pagans (1 Cor. 7:39).

“Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language of Judah” (13:24). Wiersbe says: “A child is more likely to learn how to speak from his mother, with whom he spends more time, than from his father who is away from home each day working.” [20]

The Hebrew language is the language of revelation, worship and service to God. There are many words and expressions that are lacking in other languages. When the people of Israel began returning to the land in the 1880s, they could barely speak to each other because they had come from over a hundred different nations. At that time Hebrew was considered a dead language. Soon a gifted man by the name of Eliezer Ben Yehudah began to restore the Hebrew language. He forbade his children to speak anything but Hebrew and he became a fanatic about the subject.

Ben-Yehuda and his wife, Deborah, spoke Hebrew at home and in the street. The biographer, St. John, relates this story of one of their strolls through town:

One day when Deborah and Eliezer were walking down one of Jerusalem’s narrow streets, talking in Hebrew, a man stopped them. Tugging at the young journalist’s sleeve, he asked in Yiddish: “Excuse me, sir. That language you two talk. What is it?” “Hebrew” Eliezer replied.

“Hebrew! But people don’t speak Hebrew. It’s a dead language!” “You are wrong, my friend,” Eliezer replied with a fervor. “I am alive. My wife is alive. We speak Hebrew. Therefore, Hebrew is alive.” [21]

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda Lived to gather the necessary materials for his 16-volume dictionary of the revived Hebrew language. He lived to hear Hebrew become a spoken language once again, and he saw it gain the status as one of the three official languages of the re-born country. [22]

Speaking the language of the land is so important as my family learned when we moved to Israel in 1982. There is no way to deeply relate to a people without speaking their language. The Lord is interested in a people having godly offspring (Mal. 2:15). Part of that in ancient Israel was speaking the biblical language. Kidner says, “…A single generation’s compromise could undo the work of centuries.” [23]

“I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: ‘You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves’” (13:25). We can see what a fanatic Nehemiah was regarding this subject of intermarriage. Ezra plucked out his own hair and his beard (Ezr. 9:3) but Nehemiah plucked out the hair of these offenders. [24] In the ancient cultures, the plucking or shaving of one’s hair was a deep disgrace (1 Chron. 19:4-5). We can imagine that these men were humiliated, and in that state, they were made to promise that they would not give their children in such marriages.

“Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women” (13:26). The Lord loved Solomon with a very special love (2 Sam. 12:24). Yet Solomon had many foreign wives, even wives of the Ammonites and Moabites (1 Ki. 11:1-8). In his old age, his many foreign wives led him astray. He even became a worshipper of these foreign gods. For this, the Lord became displeased with him and took away his kingdom.

“Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?” (13:27). Spanish philosopher George Santayana is quoted as saying, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” It seems that the people of Judaea were having some memory problems. They had been down this road before in pre-exilic times and it caused a disaster for their nation.

This is a good place to talk about sin and the weakness of the flesh. The Law of God was analytic but not therapeutic. The law was like a magnifying glass or an x-ray. It defined sin and showed it up in individual lives, but it could not heal sin. Even the blood of Israel’s sacrifices could not heal sin (Heb. 10:4). They all pointed to the coming Messiah who would heal sin.

Guzik says: “…the law – that is, rules, vows, promises, covenants, and the such, are all ultimately powerless to stop sin. Only the grace of God, alive and flowing in our lives, can give us the power to truly overcome sin.” [25] In Romans 8 we read: “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8:3-4).

“One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. And I drove him away from me” (13:28). We have to say that the high priesthood in post-exilic times was quite compromised by sin. This fact is also made plain in the later Book of Malachi. Even the priests themselves could not live by the law of the Lord. The defiled priesthood would continue to the time of Christ. For this reason, God saw fit to provide a perfect high priest in Jesus the Messiah. In Hebrews 4:15 we read: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin.” Hebrews 7:26 says: “Such a high priest truly meets our need – one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.”

One of the sons of Joiada, son of Eliashib the high priest had actually married into the family of wicked Sanballat. This evil Samaritan ruler was another deadly enemy of Israel. It was a brazen defilement of God’s holy order. Nehemiah chased him away from Jerusalem and the priesthood and he probably took up lodging with Sanballat. He was thus expelled from the Jewish community. [26]

McConville makes an application to our Christian community today saying: “The Church can take nothing for granted. It is never reformed once-for-all, but rather – as the Reformers in the 16th century knew well – semper reformanda (‘always needing to be reformed’), simply because of the perversity and inconstancy within human beings.” [27]

“Remember them, my God, because they defiled the priestly office and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites” (13:29). Nehemiah sends up the next to last of his quickie prayers. He needed God’s help in his valiant stand against Israel’s high priesthood. Thankfully, as the duly appointed Persian governor, he had the political and religious clout to do what he had just done.

“So I purified the priests and the Levites of everything foreign, and assigned them duties, each to his own task. I also made provision for contributions of wood at designated times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me with favor, my God.” (13:30-31). With a purified priesthood there was some hope that the nation could accomplish God’s will. However, we have seen many examples of the fallible human nature revealed in this book. Nehemiah did what he could to stem the tide of evil that is always present. He got the temple storerooms full of firstfruits and other offerings, as well as the necessary firewood. Breneman comments: “The Book of Nehemiah begins with prayer and closes with prayer. For lasting results, ministry can never be separated from prayer.” [28]

In the final analysis, it was God alone who would sustain his people and bring them through to victory. In Jeremiah 24:5-7, we read this great promise: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians. My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.’”

Footnotes

1. Barnes, Commentary on Nehemiah, Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible, v. 13:1.

2. Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, OT, p. 789.

3. Guzik, Enduring Word Bible Commentary, Ezra, v. 12:3.

4. McConville, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, p. 147.

5. Utley, Bible Lessons International, Nehemiah, v. 13:7.

6. Breneman, Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther, The New American Commentary, p. 269.

7. Anders, g. ed. Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Holman Old Testament Commentary, p. 271.

8. Kidner, Ezra & Nehemiah, p. 129.

9. Utley, Bible Lessons International, Nehemiah, v. 13:6.

10. Kidner, Ezra & Nehemiah, p. 129.

11. Charles Colson, The Sky Is Not Falling, Living Fearlessly In These Turbulent Times (Brentwood, TN: Worthy Publishing, 2011) pp. 182-183.

12. Barnes, Commentary on Nehemiah, Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible, v. 13:10.

13. Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, OT, p. 790.

14. Ibid., p. 791.

15. Ibid.

16. Kidner, Ezra & Nehemiah, p. 130.

17. Utley, Bible Lessons International, Nehemiah, v. 13:17.

18. Clarke, Commentary on Nehemiah, The Adam Clarke Commentary, v. 13:22.

19. McConville, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, p. 148.

20. Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, OT, p. 789.

21. Jim Gerrish, Does God Play Favorites? (Minneapolis: Cornerstone Publishing, 2000, 2003), p. 117.

22. Ibid.

23. Kidner, Ezra & Nehemiah, p. 131.

24. Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, OT, p. 790.

25. Guzik, Enduring Word Bible Commentary, Ezra, vs. 13:23-31.

26. Dummelow, Commentary on Nehemiah, John Dummelow’s Commentary on the Bible, v. 13:28.

27. McConville, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, pp. 150-151.

28. Breneman, Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther, The New American Commentary, pp. 275-276.