NOTES TO EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

Ezra 1:1-3a This is a duplicate of II Chronicles 36:22-23. It was common practice to do this for 

multiple scrolls meant to be read continuously.

Ezra 1:1,5 God stirs up the people's spirits.

Ezra 3:3 Compare different translations. It can read either "for" or "despite" the fear of enemies.

Ezra 3:12 The cause of weeping was remorse over last 70 years of exile due to disobedience.

Ezra 8:21 straight way = safe journey.

Ezra 8:33 An Iron Age sanctuary at Arad contained ostraca (pieces of broken pottery) inscribed with 

names of priestly families, including Meremoth (also in I Chron. 9:12). They were probably used for 

the assignment by casting lots of temple duties.

Ezra 9:3 "Appalled" has the nuance of speechlessness.

Ezra 9:4-5 This is similar to the time when Job's friends sat with him before he finally spoke.

Ezra 10:18-44 What a way to be remembered for all time!

The Book of Nehemiah Only Esther and Nehemiah were unrepresented among the Dead Sea Scrolls 

until 2011 when fragments of the latter were published.

Neh. 2:10, 19, etc. An official named Sanballat appears in a Samaritan papyrus dating to 50 years prior 

to Nehemiah's time. Nehemiah's Sanballat appears in an Elephantine papyrus. He was governor of the 

province of Samaria in 445 BC when Nehemiah arrived. By 410 BC he was too old to serve, and so his 

son acted in his name.

Tobiah is a Hebrew name ("Yahweh is good"), but Nehemiah does not consider him Jewish. A rock 

inscription in Aramaic found east of the Jordan mentions the same name, indicating the existence of a 

Tobiad dynasty in the region of Ammon. Probably they were of Jewish ancestry but not considered 

fully Jewish because of where they chose to live.

Neh. 2:13 Gihon Spring is called Dragon's Spring in this verse. In the mid-19^th century AD, nearby 

Arabs felt that a dragon lived beneath the cave in which the spring is located which caused the spring 

to stop flowing at times.

Nehemiah 3:1 Note the variety of workers from high priest to perfumer to women. There is no

difference in the church between having walls with no gates or walls with open gates. Neither is 

healthy. We need boundaries instead with controlled access to the outside.

Nehemiah 6 The enemy's tactics include deceptive calls for a sham conference (1-4), smear tactics 

(5-9), attempts to force Nehemiah into a religious compromise (10-14), and the pressure of naive 

friends (15-19)

Nehemiah 8 These events take place during the Jewish New Year.

Neh. 8:13 This ends the Hebrew Bible in the earliest manuscripts. It is an appropriate conclusion since 

it contains the words Elohay (a variation of Elohim) and tovah (good), which are both found in Genesis 

1. David Noel Freedman believes that Nehemiah was responsible for compiling all of the Hebrew 

Bible and that this ending indicates that he saw the compilation as equivalent to the creation of the 

world.