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

13:1-2 On that day. See 12:44. no Ammonite or Moabite. This text closely follows Deut. 23:3-5, which expressly excluded Moabites and Ammonites from the religious assembly of Israel (for several generations) because of their historical enmity against Israel and their infectious idolatry (see Numbers 22-25).

13:3 separated . . . foreign descent. This resembles the measures taken by Ezra a decade or so earlier (Ezra 9-10), but there is no sign here of compulsory divorce. Note Ezra 6:21, which allowed foreigners to join Israel if they embraced the Jewish religion, as in the book of Ruth (who was a Moabite).

13:4-9 The connection of these verses with vv. 1-3 lies in the fact that Tobiah, already known to be an enemy of the community (2:10; 4:7-8), was an Ammonite. Eliashib's offense is also related to the theme of the proper administration of tithes and offerings (12:44), because Tobiah has been given a room in the temple reserved for these.

13:4 Now before this. The time is unspecified.

13:6 I was not in Jerusalem. When Nehemiah was given leave of absence, the king had required him to name a time for his return (2:6). It is not clear whether he had traveled more than once between Jerusalem and the royal court. In any case, he is now called back in the thirty-second year (433 b.c.; cf. 1:1) for an unspecified time. The journey from Susa took about 55 days to travel the 1,100 miles (1,770 km), and another 55 days to return (averaging 20 miles or 32 km per day). Eliashib (see 12:10) may have been opposed to Nehemiah's policy of strict separation from the community's neighbors, and thus may have taken advantage of his perhaps lengthy absence. king of Babylon. An unexpected name for the Persian Artaxerxes; but see Ezra 5:13 and 6:22, where Persian kings are called king of Babylon and Assyria, respectively. This is because the successive empires in some sense took on the identity of their predecessors. In addition, Artaxerxes might actually have been holding court in Babylon at the time. Nehemiah's return to Jerusalem must have been before Artaxerxes' death in 423 b.c.

13:9 Cleansed, that is, purified in a ritual sense. Nehemiah sees the misuse of the temple as a desecration. He restores the polluted area to its proper use.