Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

7:5 my God put it into my heart. Cf. 2:12. Nehemiah maintains a close relationship with God, as evidenced by his frequent prayers and his clear convictions about God's guidance. He now decides to make a census of the people, and is helped by the discovery of the book of the genealogy of the first returnees.

7:6-73 This list is virtually identical to the one in Ezra 2 (see notes there). Therefore, its purpose is not to give new information but to highlight Nehemiah's next concern after completing the walls, namely, to repopulate Jerusalem (see Neh. 7:4). He may have had in mind such prophecies as Isaiah 62. Regarding the discrepancies in exact numbers between the list of returning exiles in Ezra 2:1-67 and Neh. 7:6-66, various solutions have been proposed, and several factors may have contributed to the differences. Since Nehemiah was reading from a copy of an older list (either the list in Ezra or an official list that both of them consulted), the list may have been updated and corrected to allow for a number of births and deaths that occurred shortly after the exiles returned, and perhaps in some cases people were counted or grouped differently or in different categories. Either or both lists may also have been corrected and supplemented by a number of relatives who had been delayed on the journey by illness or for other reasons, and were added later. Some of the differences may also be due to copying errors.

7:73b This half of the verse is an addition to Ezra 2:70. It brings the perspective of the narrative back to Nehemiah's time. The reference to the seventh month (September/October)--a festival month including the Day of Atonement--leads into the covenant renewal that follows.