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SERIES O --- RETURN TO THE LAND --- LESSON 09

PLOTS AGAINST NEHEMIAH

From Nehemiah 6:1-7:6, 64-73

When the news reached Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and our other enemies that I had completed the wall so there was no opening left in it [although at the time I had not yet hung the doors of the gates], they sent word that I should meet them in one of the villages of the Plain of Ono. But I knew that they were planning to kill me there, so I sent back this answer: [I am too busy with an important work to come to see you. Why should I stop this work to meet with you there?] They sent the same message to me four times, and each time I sent back the same answer. At last, Sanballat’s messenger brought me an open letter. This is what Sanballat’s letter said: [There is a rumour among the various people that you are planning to rebel against the king. Geshem says that he hears this and that is the reason you are building the wall. This rumour says also that you plan to be the new king and that you have even appointed prophets in Jerusalem to proclaim ‘There is a king in Judah.’ Now this will certainly be reported to the king, so you and I ought to meet to discuss it.] Once again, I sent a message to Sanballat. [Of course, these things are not true,] I said. [You are making them up in your own mind.] We knew that these people were trying to discourage us from finishing our work. So now, YHVH, give us even more strength to do it. Later, when I visited the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah and grandson of Mehetabel, who was a shut-in at home, he warned, [Let us go to the house of YHVH for our meeting and close the doors, for they are coming tonight to kill you.] But I answered, [Should I run from danger? Should I hide in the temple to save my life? No, I will not do that.] I was sure that YHVH had not given this message to him but that Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him to say it. They did this to frighten me so that I might sin and they could have a bad report to bring against me. O my YHVH, remember Tobiah and Sanballat and what they have done, as well as Noadiah the prophetess and the other prophets who have tried to frighten me. The wall was finished at last on the twenty-fifth day of Flu, early in September, fifty-two days after we had begun our work. When our enemies and the surrounding nations saw that it was done, they were humbled, for they realized that YHVH had done this work through us. During the days when we were building the wall, many letters were exchanged between Tobiah and the influential men of Judah. Many of these men were loyal to him because he was a son-in-law of Shecaniah son of Arah, and because his son Johanan had married the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah. These men often told me what a good man Tobiah was, while they shared with him all that I said. Then Tobiah sent his threatening letters to frighten me. When the wall was finished and the doors were hung in the gates, I appointed the gatekeepers, singers, and Levites. I placed my brother Hanani in charge of Jerusalem and made Hananiah commander of the fortress, for he was a faithful person with more reverence for YHVH than all the others. I ordered them not to open the gates of the city until long after sunrise and to close and lock them for the evening while the guard was still on duty. I also ordered that each guard should be a resident of Jerusalem and must guard a certain station near his own home. The city was large, but there were at this time few houses or people in it. Moreover, Adonai put it in my heart to assemble the leaders of the city along with the common people to enrol them by families. I had found the genealogical record of those who had returned to Judah earlier. In it was a long list of names of those who had come from the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had carried away, but who had returned later to Jerusalem and Judah. Some of the priests could not find their family history, so they were not permitted to serve as priests. The governor warned them also not to eat any of the sacred food usually given to priests until the time came when Urim and Thummim could be consulted to find if they had descended from priests. Altogether there were forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty persons in the assembly. In addition, there were seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven servants and two hundred and forty-five male and female singers. They had seven hundred and thirty-six horses, two hundred and forty-five mules, four hundred and thirty-five camels, and six thousand seven hundred and twenty donkeys. Some of the heads of families gave money to the work. The governor gave a thousand gold drachmas, worth about five thousand dollars, as well as fifty golden bowls, and five hundred and thirty garments for the priests. Other heads of families gave twenty thousand gold drachmas, worth about a hundred thousand dollars, and twenty-two hundred silver minas, worth about seventy thousand dollars, as well as sixty-seven garments for the priests. The priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, temple servants, and all the others returned home to their villages throughout Judah. By the seventh month, September, they were back in their homes again.

COMMENTARY

SCRIBAL MATERIALS

In Nehemiah’s time, those who knew how to write possessed a rare and valuable skill. Chief among them were the priests and trained scribes; the latter could be men or women. Even prophets and kings were not always literate. The governors may have signed their letters to Nehemiah with a character that looks like a modern Western {X.} The ancient Hebrew letter {tau,} which means {signature,} resembled an {X.} Because of the hot and humid climate in the region of Palestine, fewer samples of writing have survived than in Egypt. Letters, now long vanished, may have been written on papyrus that was originally imported from Egypt. Sometimes papyrus scrolls were as much as thirty feet in length. Filled with writing, they were rolled up and stored in large lidded clay pots. Ink was used on papyrus. It was also used on clay. Letters, memos and receipts have been found written on broken pieces of pottery; called {potsherds} or {ostraca.} The most common writing surface was a clay tablet; a triangular-tipped stylus made impressions on the wet surface. Other materials were used to write on as well, though much less often. Bronze and stone were used, carved with a chisel; wood and bark were inscribed with pen and ink –- unless the wood was coated with stucco, and then a stylus was used; ink was also used on linen, which was very uncommon, and on leather. Parchment and vellum, which made the smoothest writing surfaces, were not invented until around 200 B.C. The writing itself evolved from the picture-letters of hieroglyphics to the wedge shapes of cuneiform, and finally to the fast and graceful Aramaic script.

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