Nehemiah 10:29

_THEY CLAVE TO THEIR BRETHREN, THEIR NOBLES, AND ENTERED INTO A CURSE, AND INTO AN OATH, TO WALK IN GOD'S_ _ LAW, WHICH WAS GIVEN BY MOSES THE SERVANT OF GOD, AND TO OBSERVE AND DO ALL THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE LORD OUR LORD, AND HIS JUDGMENTS AND HIS STATUTES;_ To observe and do all the commandments ... This national covenant, besides containing a solemn pledged of obedience to the divine law generally, specified their engagement to some particular duties, which the character and exigency of the times stamped with great urgency and importance, and which may be summed up under the following heads: That they abstain from contracting matrimonial alliances with the pagan; that they would rigidly observe the Sabbath; that they would let the land enjoy rest and remit debts every seventh year; that they would contribute to the maintenance of the temple service, the necessary expenses of which h...

1-31 Conversion is separating from the course and custom of this world, devoting ourselves to the conduct directed by the word of God. When we bind ourselves to do the commandments of God, it is to do all his commandments, and to look to him as the Lord, and our Lord....

Verse 29. _THEY CLAVE TO THEIR BRETHREN_] Though they did not _sign_ this instrument, yet they bound themselves under a _solemn_ _oath_ that they would fulfil the conditions of the covenant, and walk according to the law of Moses....

EXPOSITION THE NAMES OF THOSE WHO SEALED, AND THE TERMS OF THE COVENANT (Nehemiah 10:1.). The covenant which the Levites had recommended, probably at the suggestion of Nehemiah and Ezra, whose hand may perhaps be traced in the long address of the preceding chapter (verses 6-38), was at once accepted by the heads of the nation in Church and State, and was "sealed to" by Nehemiah, by his secretary, by the heads of the priestly and Levitical families, each sealing for his house, by the heads of various lay families or communities, and by a certain number of individual laymen, sealing (as it would seem) for themselves only. The rest of the people, those who did not actually s

CHAPTER 10 _ 1. Those who sealed the covenant (Nehemiah 10:1)_ 2. The obligations of the covenant (Nehemiah 10:28) Nehemiah 10:1. The last verse of the preceding chapter mentions a covenant. “And yet for all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, our Levites, and our priests, seal unto it.” In this chapter we find the names of the heads of the different houses who sealed the covenant, which means they put their signature to it. According to talmudical tradition these signers constituted “the Great Synagogue.” Originally it consisted of 120 members, but later only 70 belonged to it. Its covenants were as follows: _ (1) Not to marry heathen women;_...

NEHEMIAH 9:38 TO NEHEMIAH 10:39. THE COVENANT. This section is probably originally from Ezra's memoirs, though it has been considerably worked over, presumably not by the Chronicler, since he writes in the third person. It is, in the main, written in the first person plural, and may in its present form have come from some loyal follower of Ezra or Nehemiah who writes as representing one of the people. The special points of the covenant are the undertaking not to marry foreigners, to observe the Sabbath more strictly, to remit debts in the seventh year, to pay a third of a shekel to the Temple, to supply wood for burning the sacrifices, to offer all the first-fruits, and to give tithes; with all this _cf._ ch. 13....

GIVEN. See App-47. MOSES THE SERVANT OF GOD. The first four occurrences of this expression in the Hebrew Bible. See Dan 9:11. 1 Chronicles 6:49; 2 Chronicles 24:9. THE LORD. Hebrew. _Jehovah._ App-4. OUR LORD. Hebrew our Adonai. App-4. = our sovereign Lord. Compare Psalms 8:1; Psalms 8:9. STATUTES. See note on Deuteronomy 4:1....

_OTHERS WHO JOINED IN THIS COVENANT -- NEHEMIAH 10:28-29:_ _ THE COVENANT PROMISES THAT THEY MADE -- NEHEMIAH 10:30-31:_ In their covenant with God they promised that would not intermarry with the hearten nations. Many of the Jews had done that but they promised that it would not happen again. As we remember some of them had even divorced their good, faithful Jewish wives to marry foreign women! The Jews also promised to observe the Sabbath and to keep the Sabbatical year. Let us remember that the Jewish Sabbath Day was actually on Saturday. They promised to cease the practice of buying and selling on the Sabbath Day. They also covenanted not to be as harsh in the exacting of their debts as they had been in the past. (Nehemiah 5) People would be released from

AND ENTERED INTO A CURSE, AND INTO AN OATH— 1:e. An oath under a conditional execration. Houbigant renders it, _ut jus jurandum juremus, that we may take an oath._ He supposes this verse to be connected with the preceding one, and accordingly renders it thus: _Their nobles promising for their brethren, we come to enter into an oath, that we will walk,_ &c. REFLECTIONS.—1st, As in prayer they had engaged to join themselves anew to God, we have here the persons who subscribed, and the particulars of their engagement. 1. The persons who subscribed were, the chief of the fathers, with Nehemiah the governor, and the chief of the priests and Levites; the persons who by duty and office were most especially obliged to set the good example, and to use their influence to engage the people to the service of their covenant-God; and to this deed of their rulers, the people expressed their solemn con...

2. The content of the document is a vow of purity from the heathen. TEXT, NEHEMIAH 10:28-31 28 Now the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God, their wives, their sons and their daughters, all those who had knowledge and understanding. 29 are joining with their kinsmen, their nobles, and are taking on themselves a curse and an oath to walk in God's law, which was given through Moses, God's servant, and to keep and to observe all the commandments of GOD our LORD, and His ordinances and His statutes: 30 and that we will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons. 31 As for the peoples of the land who bring wares or any grain on the sabbath