Nehemiah 13:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Nehemiah 13:1
On that day they read in the book of Moses in the audience of the people; and therein was found written, that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God for ever;
gods in the ordinary sense · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
for
עַד'ad-
H5704
as far (or long · preposition
ever
עוֹלָֽםo.Lam
H5769
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 23:3-5 An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congr…
Nehemiah 9:3 And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part…
Deuteronomy 31:11-12 When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in…
Nehemiah 13:23 In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab:
2 Kings 23:2 And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, an…
Ezekiel 25:1-11 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
Nehemiah 2:10 When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to see…
Nehemiah 2:19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despi…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Nehemiah 13:1-9
It was the honour of Israel, and the greatest preservation of their holiness, that they were a peculiar people, and were so to keep themselves, and not to mingle with the nations, nor suffer any of them to incorporate with them. Now here we have,
I. The law to this purport, which happened to be read on that day, in the audience of the people (Neh 13:1), on the day of the dedication of the wall, as it should seem, for with their prayers and praises they joined the reading of the word; and though it was long after that the other grievances, here mentioned, were redressed by Nehemiah's power, yet this of the mixed multitude might be redressed then by the people's own act, for so it seems to be,…
On that day - I am quite of Calmet's mind that the transaction detailed in this chapter did not immediately succeed the dedication of the walls of Jerusalem. It is most likely that, when this dedication was ended, Nehemiah returned to Babylon, as himself particularly marks, Neh 13:6, for he did return in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes; and then, after certain days, supposed to be about the term of one year, he got leave to return to Jerusalem to see how matters were conducted: and there he found the evils which he mentions in this chapter, and which he redressed in the manner himself describes. See the introduction to this book.
Should not come into the congregation - That is, Ye shall…
On that day,.... Not when the wall of the city was dedicated, nor quickly after; for it cannot be thought that people should be so corrupted so soon as this chapter shows; but when Nehemiah had governed them twelve years, and had been at Babylon, and was returned again, as appears from Nehemiah 13:6, compared with Nehemiah 2:1,
they read in the book of Moses in the audience of the people; for from the time of the reading of the law by Ezra, Nehemiah 8:1 it became a custom to read the law publicly:
and therein was found written, that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of the Lord; that is, be admitted to marry with any of the people of Israel; See Gill on Deu…
The Church Fathers
On that day, it was read from the book of Moses, etc. It is evident that the Moabites and Ammonites, because they were born of incest, hold the figure of the heretics, whose founders, while they corrupt the doctrine of the fathers, from which they themselves were taught, by misunderstanding it, use it as if the daughters of Lot secretly and in the dark used their father's seed, and not lawfully: therefore the progeny of such, that is, the followers of heresies, can never have any part in the Church of the Lord. For whoever are corrected from this, will no longer be the offspring of the same origin. However, they met the children of Israel coming out of Egypt with bread and water, if they, living well, and dwelling in Catholic peace, would offer the solace of the word of God to those who have recently been rescued from the service of sins by the water of baptism and the waves of the sea, aspiring to the freedom of the heavenly homeland; just as Barzillai the Gileadite did (2 Samuel 19), who met David and his army fleeing from Absalom with provisions, so that by refreshing them, he rendered them stronger against the new tyranny of the king's son; clearly signifying those who strengthen the church scattered by heretics with the help of the heavenly word, and take care to encourage them to conquer their madness. But while these same heretics strive to destroy neophytes with their leaders and by the shown examples of others, or with malignant words, like a people born of incest attacking the exodus of Israel from Egypt with their arms, and Balaam the soothsayer, who is interpreted as the vanity of the cursed people, and with wicked plots. But God turned the curse of Balaam into a blessing for His people, and protected them from the arms of hostile nations; for all things work together for good to those who love God (Romans 8).
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Pentateuch, The — is the Greek name given to the five books commonly called the “five books of Moses.” This title is derived from “pente”, five, and “teucos”) which, meaning originally “vessel” “instrument,” etc.,…
Ammonites, The · Jewish laws respecting: Perpetual exclusion from the congregation — Jewish laws respecting: Perpetual exclusion from the congregation
Moabites · Excluded from the congregation of Israel forever — Excluded from the congregation of Israel forever
Synagogues · Service of, consisted of: Reading the word of God — Service of, consisted of: Reading the word of God
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
On the same day the Temple workers were appointed (12:44), the text from Deut 23:3-6 was read. It said that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be permitted to enter the assembly of God. Nehemiah later discovered (Neh 13:4-14) that these teachings were no longer being observed.
