Commentaria in II Esdrae (Nehemiam)
Chapter 12. Synopsis of the Chapter
The priests and Levites in the time of Nehemias are reviewed. Hence, verse 27, he himself convokes them for the dedication of the walls, which, verse 34, is related to have been done by a solemn procession of the same around the walls with two choirs of singers, the applause of the people, and the immolation of victims. Finally, verse 43, those are appointed who are to preside over the treasuries and the expenses of the temple, and to provide for the priests and Levites in the matter of food.
1. Now these are the priests and the Levites that went up with Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, and Josue: Saraias, Jeremias, Esdras, 2. Amarias, Melluch, Hattus, 3. Sebenias, Rheum, Merimuth, 4. Addo, Genthon, Abia, 5. Miamin, Madia, Belga, 6. Semeia and Joiarib, Idaia, Sellum, Amoc, Helcias, 7. Idaia. These were the chiefs of the priests, and their brethren, in the days of Josue. 8. And the Levites, Jesua, Bennui, Cedmihel, Sarebia, Juda, Mathanias, over the hymns, they and their brethren: 9. and Bechecia and Hanni, and their brethren, every one in his office. 10. And Josue begot Joacim, and Joacim begot Eliasib, and Eliasib begot Joiada, 11. and Joiada begot Jonathan, and Jonathan begot Jeddoa. 12. And in the days of Joacim there were priests and chiefs of families: of Saraias, Maraia: of Jeremias, Hanania: 13. of Esdras, Mosollam: of Amarias, Johanan: 14. of Milicho, Jonathan: of Sebenia, Joseph: 15. of Haram, Edna: of Maraioth, Helci: 16. of Addaia, Zacharias: of Genthon, Mosollam: 17. of Abia, Zechri: of Miamin and Moadia, Phelti: 18. of Belga, Sammua: of Semaia, Jonathan: 19. of Joiarib, Mathanai: of Jodaia, Azzi: 20. of Sellai, Celai: of Amoc, Heber: 21. of Helcias, Hasebia: of Idaia, Nathanael. 22. The Levites in the days of Eliasib and Joiada, and Johanan, and Jeddoa, were written chiefs of families, and the priests in the reign of Darius the Persian. 23. The sons of Levi, chiefs of families, were written in the book of the words of the days, and until the days of Jonathan, the son of Eliasib. 24. And the chiefs of the Levites, Hasebia, Serebia, and Josue the son of Cedmihel: and their brethren by their turns, to praise and give thanks according to the commandment of David the man of God, and to observe equally in order. 25. Mathania, and Bechecia, Obedia, Mosollam, Telmon, Accub, were keepers of the gates and of the porches before the gates. 26. These were in the days of Joacim the son of Josue, the son of Josedec, and in the days of Nehemias the governor, and of Esdras the priest and scribe. 27. Now at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem, and to keep the dedication and gladness with thanksgiving and singing, with cymbals, psalteries and harps. 28. And the sons of the singers were gathered together out of the plains round about Jerusalem, and from the villages of Nethuphati, 29. and from the house of Galgal, and from the countries of Geba and Azmaveth: for the singers had built them villages round about Jerusalem. 30. And the priests and the Levites were purified, and they purified the people, and the gates, and the wall. 31. And I made the princes of Juda go up upon the wall, and I appointed two great choirs of them that gave praise. And they went on the right hand upon the wall to the dung gate. 32. And after them went Osaias, and half of the princes of Juda, 33. and Azarias, Esdras, and Mosollam, Judas, and Benjamin, and Semeia, and Jeremias. 34. And of the sons of the priests with trumpets, Zacharias the son of Jonathan, the son of Semeia, the son of Mathania, the son of Michaia, the son of Zechur, the son of Asaph, 35. and his brethren, Semeia, and Azareel, Malalai, Galalai, Maai, Nathanael, and Judas, and Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God: and Esdras the scribe before them at the fountain gate. 36. And over against them they went up by the steps of the city of David, at the going up of the wall over the house of David, and unto the water gate on the east. 37. And the second choir of them that gave thanks went on the other side, and I after it, and the half of the people upon the wall and upon the tower of the furnaces, and as far as the broad wall, 38. and above the gate of Ephraim, and above the old gate, and above the fish gate, and the tower of Hananeel, and the tower of Emath, and as far as the sheep gate: and they stood in the gate of the guard, 39. and the two choirs of them that gave praise stood in the house of God, and I, and half of the magistrates with me. 40. And the priests, Eliachim, Maasia, Miamin, Michaia, Elioenai, Zacharia, Hanania, Ezer. And the singers sang clearly, and Jezraia was their overseer. 42. And they offered great sacrifices on that day, and rejoiced: for God had made them joyful with great joy; the wives also and the children rejoiced, and the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off. 43. They reviewed also in that day the men over the storehouses of the treasure for the libations, and for the firstfruits, and for the tithes, that by them the princes of the city might bring in, in the fair order of thanksgiving, the priests and Levites: for Juda rejoiced in the priests and Levites that stood by. 44. And they kept the observance of their God, and the observance of expiation, and the singers, and the porters according to the commandment of David, and Solomon his son, 45. for in the days of David and Asaph from the beginning there were chiefs appointed over the singers, in the song of those that praised and gave thanks to God. 46. And all Israel, in the days of Zorobabel, and in the days of Nehemias, gave portions to the singers and the porters day by day, and they sanctified the Levites, and the Levites sanctified the sons of Aaron.
1. Esdras.—Cajetan thinks that this Esdras is different from the Esdras of book 1, who himself wrote it, which he conjectures to be true; and therefore that this verse, like verse 22, was not written by Nehemias, but was inserted into this book at this place after his death. He proves it because here he is called simply Esdras, whereas that one, in book 1, is called priest and scribe. But Sanchez and others hold that they are one and the same. For here also, verse 35, he is called “Esdras the scribe,” and is said to have presided over one choir of singers. Hence Esdras was still alive in this twentieth year of Artaxerxes, being now 147 years old, as I said above. The Scholastic History adds, on Judith chapter 10: When the dedication was now completed, Esdras died and was buried at Jerusalem.
7. These were the chiefs of the priests, etc., in the days of Josue—that is, of Jesus the son of Josedec the High Priest, who in the first year of Cyrus led the Jews back from Babylon with Zorobabel and rebuilt the temple.
10. And Josue begot Joacim, and Joacim begot Eliasib, and Eliasib begot Joiada.
11. And Joiada begot Jonathan, and Jonathan begot Jeddoa.—Jeddoa is Jaddus, who, clothed in pontifical vestments, met Alexander the Great and appeased him when he was angered against the Jews (because they had favoured Darius Codomannus, king of the Persians, to whom they were subject, and not him as he invaded them). Hence Alexander reverenced him as a suppliant, as Josephus testifies, Antiquities book 11, chapter 8.
You will say: Nehemias could not have seen Jaddus as High Priest; for then he would have had to live two hundred years: for so many flowed from Cyrus to Alexander, and for so many years the monarchy of the Persians stood, which Alexander, Darius being conquered, transferred to the Greeks. For Nehemias lived and did these things under Artaxerxes Longimanus, who preceded Alexander by a hundred years and more: wherefore he could not himself have seen Jaddus as High Priest under Alexander. Convinced by this argument, Scaliger, On the Emendation of Times, contends that the Artaxerxes who sent Nehemias into Judea was not Longimanus, but Mnemon, who reigned in Persia a little before Alexander. But I answer: all these things, which are objected in the argument, were added by the Synagogue of the Jews, which was then ruled by the Holy Spirit, or by some hagiographer writer, to show the continuous succession of the Pontiffs through the whole time of the kingdom of the Persians up to Alexander, from whose deeds the books of the Machabees begin, so as to weave through the history of Israel, that is, of the commonwealth and Church of God, by the Machabean Pontiffs and Princes down to Christ. For the first, Josue or Jesus, who is named here, was Pontiff under Cyrus: the last, Jeddoa or Jaddus, was Pontiff under Darius Codomannus and Alexander: the intermediate ones were Pontiffs in succession under Darius, Xerxes, Artaxerxes and the other intermediate kings of the Persians, as I showed in the list and series of these Pontiffs which I prefixed to Esdras. That this is so is gathered from verses 23 and 26 where it is said that in the time of Nehemias the Pontiffs were Joacim and Eliasib, “and until the days of Jonathan the son of Eliasib”; but Jonathan was the father of Jeddoa or Jaddus; wherefore Nehemias did not see him as Pontiff. In like manner the last chapters of the books of Moses and Josue and others, in which their death is described, were added by Esdras, as I said in the preface to Esdras. I answer second, that Nehemias saw Jaddus as a boy, but not as Pontiff. This is clear from chapter 13, verse 28, where it is said that one of the sons of Joiada the Pontiff gave his daughter as wife to Sanaballat the Horonite: and so made him his son-in-law, “whom,” says Nehemias, “I chased from me.” For this son of Joiada was Jonathan the father of Jaddus, or certainly was Jonathan’s brother. Wherefore if Jonathan, or his brother, then had a marriageable daughter, he could certainly also have had a son Jaddus. As therefore Esdras, by God’s gift, was long-lived and lived 147 years; so also Nehemias, his contemporary, was long-lived, as were Jesus the son of Josedec, Daniel and the like in that age, and this to the end that they might restore the Synagogue in the captivity partly fallen away, in faith, law and the worship of the true God, namely, as the saying is: “Charity does not feel old age.” Wherefore Jaddus the Pontiff, in the time of Alexander the Great, seems to have been very old, namely about 94 years, so that he was born under Artaxerxes, or Darius Nothus his son, and was seen by Nehemias when a boy or youth; for from the last year of Artaxerxes to Alexander 94 years flowed. And for this reason Jeddoa is not here called Pontiff, but is simply named, and is said to have been begotten by Jonathan.
12. And in the days of Joacim there were priests and chiefs of families (priestly ones, both recent and flourishing above the rest): of Saraias, Maraia: of Jeremias, Hanania: of Esdras, Mosollam, etc.—as if to say: In the family of Saraias, which in the time of Josue, or Jesus the Pontiff, was famous and first among the priestly families, as was said in verse 1, now in the time of Joacim the son of Jesus the Pontiff the chief and prince was Maraia: in the family of Jeremias the first and prince was Hanania; in the family of Esdras the head and prince was Mosollam; and so of the rest that follow.
22. The Levites in the days of Eliasib and Joiada, and Johanan, and Jeddoa, were written chiefs of families, and the priests (supply: those were whom I subjoin in verse 24; for thus far he has reviewed the chiefs of the priestly families: now in like manner he reviews the chiefs of the Levitical families) in the reign (the Hebrew, until the reign, as Pagninus and Vatablus render) of Darius the Persian—namely Darius Codomannus, the last king of the Persians, whom Alexander conquered in the seventh year of his reign, and so transferred the monarchy from the Persians to the Greeks. This verse seems to have been inserted into Nehemias by some later hand, as I said at verse 11; for Nehemias did not see Darius Codomannus, nor Jaddus as Pontiff under him: for then he would have had to live two hundred years. Unless you say that Darius here is understood not as Codomannus, but as Nothus, who was the spurious son of Artaxerxes Longimanus and succeeded him in the kingdom. For him Nehemias could have seen, and so if Jaddus was born at the beginning of the reign of Darius Nothus, in the time of Alexander the Great he was about 94 years old.
in the annals, or diaries and chronicles, of the Pontiffs of the Jews. For that the Jews wrote these annals exactly is clear from the book of Paralipomenon and from Josephus, and that by the series of years of the Pontiffs, kings being now extinct. Hence it is likewise clear that these annals are different from the book of Paralipomenon, for they are cited by it.
27. And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem.—Hence it is clear that this solemn dedication was of the wall of Jerusalem, and therefore was performed a little after the 52 days in which the wall was finished, as Salianus, Sanchez and others think; although some suppose that this dedication was not of the wall alone, but of the whole city, after the houses, markets, streets and squares in it had been built and completed within the space of two years, as Josephus testifies; wherefore they say that this dedication of the whole city was made in the twenty-second year of Artaxerxes. Hence from this year 22, in which the city was dedicated, they begin Daniel’s 70 weeks down to Christ.
Moreover the rite of this dedication is described from verse 30 and following. From this began the pious custom of dedicating new cities and houses, which the more religious still carefully observe. The Gentiles did the same, as I said above. Hence the Emperor Justinian, Digest, On the Division of Things, “Sacred places,” 8, Sancta: “Holy things also,” he says, “such as the walls and gates of a city, are in a certain way of divine right, and therefore are in no one’s goods.” That walls were sacred among the Romans Servius shows in many ways on that line of Virgil, Aeneid book 5: “Meanwhile Aeneas marks out the city with the plough.”
Where he shows the definite rites and sacrifices which were used in the marking out and building of walls.
30. And they purified the people, and the gates, and the wall.—Namely by sprinkling them with lustral water; likewise by praying and sacrificing for their safety. Again, by the same rites they purified the walls and the people from every uncleanness and irregularity which under that law they easily contracted in many ways.
31. And I made the princes of Juda go up upon the wall.—For the walls had a slight breadth; hence they held few. Only the princes, therefore, were ordered, not all, but some, to go up on them, since it was theirs to defend them against enemies. Moreover on this side and that, at the sides of the princes, were two choirs of priests and Levites, proceeding with them at an equal pace and singing the praises of God. Over one choir presided Esdras, as is clear from verse 35; over the other Nehemias with his followers, who were partly priests, partly laymen, chiefly of the princes
42. And they offered great sacrifices on that day—which God showed pleasing to him, when the water with which the victims had been drenched he turned into fire, which burnt up the victims: for which reason the Hebrews, to recall so great a miracle every year, instituted the feast of the fire given by God, as is clear from 2 Machabees
43. They reviewed also in that day the men over the storehouses of the treasure for the libations, and for the firstfruits, and for the tithes, that by them the princes of the city might bring in, in the fair order of thanksgiving (in a seemly thanksgiving, according to their merits), the priests and Levites (that, namely, through the men set over the treasuries they might lead the priests and Levites to the treasuries themselves, to receive from them the tithes, libations and firstfruits due to them by the law, that, namely, from them they might give portions to the priests and Levites, as the Hebrew, Septuagint, Sixtine, Vatablus and others have it; and that “in the fair order of thanksgiving,” that, namely, by these seemly offerings they might give thanks to the priests and Levites, that in this dedication and procession, harmoniously singing and religiously sacrificing, they had performed their office excellently; for this is what he adds:) Because Juda rejoiced in the priests and Levites that stood by—because they had performed their office in some religious and holy action. Again, to sanctify, says Sanchez, is to show that something is holy. As we are said to sanctify the Sabbath, or the temple, or even God, not because they receive any holiness from us, but because, while we venerate and worship them, we give men proofs of their holiness. And it is no slight proof of some holiness if we support an order at public expense, especially if the reason of that service is given when it is paid, such as is here given by the liberal and grateful people.
in the dedication of the walls so splendidly, as I said. 46. They sanctified the Levites (that is, to the Levites, as the Hebrew and the Septuagint have; as if to say: They brought a holy thing, namely tithes due by the law to the sacred persons, namely the Levites. And in these tithes) 47. the Levites sanctified the sons of Aaron—that is, they brought to the priests their tithe, of which Numbers 18:8. To sanctify, then, here is the same as to offer a holy thing, namely tithe. For from a holy thing the person seems as it were to be sanctified to whom a holy thing due to him by law is offered; so Cajetan, Vatablus and others. So an unbelieving husband is said to be sanctified (by extrinsic denomination) by a believing wife, and in turn an unbelieving wife by a believing husband, 1 Corinthians 7:14.
So the people sanctified the Levites; for by giving them tithes they showed that these were greater than themselves, as ministers of God to be maintained by public tithes; in turn the Levites, by giving a tenth of their tithes to the priests, showed that these were greater and holier than themselves. Hence the Apostle, Hebrews 7:4, from the fact that Abraham gave tithes to Melchisedech, proves that he was greater than Abraham. For tithes are given by laymen to priests as ministers of God, that they may serve and sacrifice to God for them.