Nehemiah 13:15 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Nehemiah 13:15
In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals.
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
saw
רָאִ֣יתִיra.'I.ti
H7200
to see · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
Judah
בִֽיהוּדָ֣הvi.hu.Dah
H3063
Jehudah (or Judah) · preposition + proper noun, a place name
treading
דֹּֽרְכִֽיםdo.re.khim-
H1869
to tread · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
presses
גִּתּ֣וֹתgi.Tot
H1660
a wine-press (or vat for holding the grapes in pressing… · noun, common feminine plural absolute
sabbath
בַּשַּׁבָּ֡תba.sha.Bat
H7676
intermission · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine 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
Nehemiah 10:31 And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on…
Exodus 34:21 Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.
Nehemiah 13:21 Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time f…
Exodus 20:8-11 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Isaiah 58:13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, h…
Jeremiah 17:21-22 Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
Exodus 35:2 Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth work t…
Numbers 15:32-36 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Nehemiah 13:15-22
Here is another instance of that blessed reformation in which Nehemiah was so active. He revived sabbath-sanctification, and maintained the authority of the fourth commandment; and a very good deed this was for the house of God and the offices thereof, for, where holy time is over-looked and made nothing of, it is not strange if all holy duties be neglected. Here is,
I. A remonstrance of the abuse. The law of the sabbath was very strict and much insisted one, and with good reason, for religion is never in the throne while sabbaths are trodden under foot. But Nehemiah discovered even in Judah, among those to whom sabbaths were given for a sign, this law wretchedly violated. His own eyes were…
THE VIOLATION OF THE SABBATH. (Neh. 13:15-31)
In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine-presses on the sabbath--The cessation of the temple services had been necessarily followed by a public profanation of the Sabbath, and this had gone so far that labor was carried on in the fields, and fish brought to the markets on the sacred day. Nehemiah took the decisive step of ordering the city gates to be shut, and not to be opened, till the Sabbath was past; and in order to ensure the faithful execution of this order, he stationed some of his own servants as guards, to prevent the introduction of any commodities on that day. On the merchants and various dealers finding admission denied them,…
Treading wine-presses - The Sabbath appears to have been totally disregarded.
John Gill on Nehemiah 13:15
In those days saw I in Judah some treading winepresses on the sabbath,.... Which was not a work of necessity, and so did not drive away the sabbath, as the Jews express themselves, but might have been deferred to another day:
and bringing in sheaves; of wheat, it being the time of wheat harvest:
and lading asses; with goods to be carried from place to place, and sold on that day; this was contrary to the express law, for the ass was to rest, Deuteronomy 5:14,
as also wine, grapes, and figs: it being the time of ingathering the fruits of the earth:
and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day; besides those borne on asses, others were carried on men's sh…
The Church Fathers
In those days I saw in Judah men treading wine presses on the Sabbath, etc. By law, we are commanded to work for six days on necessary things, and on the seventh, we are to rest; the general mystery of this command is clear, that all the elect in this world, which is measured by six ages, ought to labor for eternal rest; but on the future day, as on the seventh day, they hope to receive perpetual rest from the Lord. And according to tropology, that is, the moral sense, the elect also in this life keep a Sabbath dedicated to the Lord, when they separate themselves temporarily from the cares of this world, devote themselves to prayer, and lift their purified minds to the contemplation of heavenly things. For when we carry out the demands of the flesh with a sincere heart, and not in desires contrary to the Apostle's command, we labor as if in six days on necessary things; since we are occupied with things needed for this world. Furthermore, the Sabbath of our prayers and devotion, in which we are freed from temporal activities, so that we may sweetly taste the joys of eternity, is rightly assigned to the seventh day; because it imitates the future rest of life and blessed praise; but the Gentiles seek to profane the Sabbath day when earthly thoughts inopportunely disturb us during our time of prayer and try to draw us away from deep love through memory or delight in temporal things. They load wine, grapes, and figs onto donkeys, and all kinds of burdens, and bring them into Jerusalem, when they seek to burden the foolish movements of our spirit with carnal pleasures, attempting through these and similar temptations to violate the rest of our hearts devoted to God. But Nehemiah opposes these tumults of improper thoughts so that they do not disturb our Sabbath, when with strict diligence, aided by the Lord, we exclude useless and inept imaginations from our hearts during prayer. He exhorts them to sell such merchandise on the days when it is lawful to do so, when the devout heart imposes a boundary on its thoughts, so that during prayer, it abstains from the cares of passing things. Yet at other times, when opportunity dictates, let them not completely turn away from efforts concerning food and clothing; but let them dispense these with appropriate moderation when necessity demands.
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
Commerce — From the time that men began to live in cities, trade, in some shape, must have been carried on to supply the town-dwellers with necessaries from foreign as well as native sources, for we find that…
Malachi — Messenger or angel, the last of the minor prophets, and the writer of the last book of the Old Testament canon (Mal. 4:4, 5, 6). Nothing is known of him beyond what is contained in his book of…
Wine — The common Hebrew word for wine is yayin, from a root meaning “to boil up,” “to be in a ferment.” Others derive it from a root meaning “to tread out,” and hence the juice of the grape trodden out.…
Wine-press — Consisted of two vats or receptacles, (1) a trough (Heb. gath, Gr. lenos) into which the grapes were thrown and where they were trodden upon and bruised (Isa. 16:10; Lam. 1:15; Joel 3:13); and (2) a…
Art · .Of the winemaker — .Of the winemaker
Arts Of The · Wine-maker — Wine-maker
Fig · Traffic in — Traffic in
Fig Tree, The · Fruit of: Sold in the markets — Fruit of: Sold in the markets
Harvest · Sabbath — Sabbath
Sabbath · .By Nehemiah — .By Nehemiah
Sabbath, The · No purchases to be made on — No purchases to be made on
Traffic · Suspen — Suspen
Vine, The · The fruit of: Sold in the markets
in
וּמְבִיאִ֣יםu.me.vi.'Im
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, hiphil active participle, masculine plural absolute
sheaves
הָעֲרֵמ֣וֹתha.'a.re.Mot
H6194
a heap · definite article + noun, common feminine plural absolute
lading
וְֽעֹמְסִ֪יםve.'o.me.Sim
H6006
to load · conjunction + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
asses
הַחֲמֹרִ֟יםha.cha.mo.Rim
H2543
a male ass (from its dun red) · definite article + noun, common both genders plural absolute
wine
יַ֜יִןYa.yin
H3196
wine (as fermented) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
grapes
עֲנָבִ֤ים'a.na.Vim
H6025
a grape · noun, common masculine plural absolute
figs
וּתְאֵנִים֙u.te.'e.Nim
H8384
the fig (tree or fruit) · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural absolute
burdens
מַשָּׂ֔אma.Sa'
H4853
a burden · noun, common masculine singular absolute
brought
וּמְבִיאִ֥יםu.me.vi.'Im
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, hiphil active participle, masculine plural absolute
Jerusalem
יְרוּשָׁלִַ֖םye.ru.sha.Lim
H3389
Jerushalaim or Jerushalem · proper noun, a place name
sabbath
הַשַּׁבָּ֑תha.sha.Bat
H7676
intermission · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
day
בְּי֣וֹםbe.Yom
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
testified
וָאָעִ֕ידva.'a.'Id
H5749
to duplicate or repeat · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
day
בְּי֖וֹםbe.Yom
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
sold
מִכְרָ֥םmikh.Ram
H4376
to sell · verb, qal infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
victuals
צָֽיִדTza.yid
H6718
the chase · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Field-work and trading on the Sabbath done away with. - Neh 13:15. In those days, i.e., when he was occupied with the arrangements for worship, Nehemiah saw in Judah (in the province) some treading wine-presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses, and also wine, grapes, and figs, and all kinds of burdens, and bringing it to Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day. The מביאים is again taken up by the second וּמביאים, and more closely defined by the addition: to Jerusalem. Robinson describes an ancient wine-press in his Biblical Researches, p. 178. On כּל־משּׂא, comp. Jer 17:21. ואעיד, and I testified (against them), i.e., warned them on the day wherein they sold victuals. ציד, food…
Nehemiah instituted two additional reforms to restore proper Sabbath observance (13:15-22) and proper marriage practices (13:23-31). These two sections have similar structures: Nehemiah discovered a problem, corrected the problem, and asked God for his blessing.
13:15-16 Normal work was to cease on the Sabbath in order to keep it holy (Exod 20:8-11; 31:14-17; 35:2-3; Jer 17:19-27).
Rashi on Nehemiah 13:15
the stacks sheaves of grain.
and I warned I warned them not to do it.
on the day they sold provisions On the day they were selling food and provisions. צָיִד, provisions, as (Gen. 45:21): “...and he gave them provision (צֵדָה) for the way.”
Wine · Generally made by treading the grapes in a press — Generally made by treading the grapes in a press
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).
