Matthew Henry on Nehemiah 12:1-26
We have here the names, and little more than the names, of a great many priests and Levites, that were eminent in their day among the returned Jews. Why this register should be here inserted by Nehemiah does not appear, perhaps to keep in remembrance those good men, that posterity might know to whom they were beholden, under God, for the happy revival and re-establishment of their religion among them. Thus must we contribute towards the performance of that promise, Psa 112:6, The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. Let the memory of the just be blessed, be perpetuated. It is a debt we still owe to faithful ministers to remember our guides, who have spoken to us the word of God, He…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Nehemiah 12:23
The sons of Levi . . . were written in the book of the chronicles--that is, the public registers in which the genealogies were kept with great regularity and exactness.
Adam Clarke on Nehemiah 12:23
The book of the chronicles - This is not the book of Chronicles which we have now, no such list being found in it; but some other book or register, which is lost.
John Gill on Nehemiah 12:23
The sons of Levi, the chief of the fathers, were written in the book of the chronicles,.... Some think this refers to 1 Chronicles 9:14, &c.
until the days of Johanan the son of Eliashib; from whence Dr. Lightfoot (p) concludes, that the Chronicles were written by Ezra in the times of this Johanan.
(p) Works, vol. 1. p. 146.
Keil & Delitzsch on Nehemiah 12:22-23
"With respect to the Levites in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan, and Jaddua were recorded the heads of the houses, and also (those) of the priests during the reign of Darius the Persian." To judge from the הלויּם with which it commences, this verse seems to be the title of the list of Levites following, while the rest of its contents rather seems adapted for the subscription of the preceding list of priests (Neh 12:12-21). מלכוּת על, under the reign. The use of על with reference to time is to be explained by the circumstance that the time, and here therefore the reign of Darius, is regarded as the ground and soil of that which is done in it, as e.g., ἐπὶ νυκτί, upon night = at night…
