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._ In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine-presses on the sabbath. The cessation of the temple services was necessarily followed by a public profanation of the sabbath, and this had gone so far that labour 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, until 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...

15-22 The keeping holy the Lord's day forms an important object for their attention who would promote true godliness. Religion never prospers while sabbaths are trodden under foot. No wonder there was a general decay of religion, and corruption of manners among the Jews, when they forsook the sanctuary and profaned the sabbath. Those little consider what an evil they do, who profane the sabbath. We must answer for the sins others are led to commit by our example. Nehemiah charges it on them as an evil thing, for so it is, proceeding from contempt of God and our own souls. He shows that sabbath-breaking was one of the sins for which God had brought judgments upon them; and if they did not take warning, but returned to the same sins again, they had to expect further judgments. The courage, zeal, and prudence of Nehemiah in this matter, are recorded for us to do likewise; and we have reaso...

Verse 15. _TREADING WINE-PRESSES_] The Sabbath appears to have been totally disregarded....

The desecration of the Sabbath is first brought into prominence among the sins of the Jewish people by Jeremiah Jeremiah 17:21. It could not but have gained ground during the captivity, when foreign masters would not have allowed the cessation of labor for one day in seven. On the return from the captivity, the sabbatical rest appears to have been one of the institutions most difficult to re-establish. IN THE DAY - Some render, “concerning the day.”...

EXPOSITION NEHEMIAH'S EFFORTS FOR THE REFORM OF RELIGION (Nehemiah 13:1). After having exercised the office of governor for twelve years, from B.C. 444 to B.C. 432, Nehemiah had had occasion to visit the Persian court, either to consult Artaxerxes personally on certain matters connected with his province, or for some other reason unknown to us. During his absence various evil practices, to which some reference has been already made in connection with the renewal of the covenant (Nehemiah 10:30-16), acquired so much strength, and came to such a head, that, on Nehemiah's return to Jerusalem at the expiration of a year (verse 6),

CHAPTER 13 _ 1. The separation of the mixed multitude (Nehemiah 13:1)_ 2. The unholy alliance repudiated (Nehemiah 13:4) 3. Nehemiah's action in behalf of the Levites and singers (Nehemiah 13:10) 4. Provision for Sabbath observance (Nehemiah 13:15) 5. Nehemiah's protest (Nehemiah 13:23) 6. His own testimony as to his work (Nehemiah 13:30)...

SOME DETAILS OF NEHEMIAH'S RULE. This section, taken for the most part from Nehemiah's memoirs, deals with his zeal for the sanctity of the Temple (Nehemiah 13:4), his organisation for the maintenance of the Levites (Nehemiah 13:10), his reform regarding Sabbath observance (Nehemiah 13:15), and his measures against those who had contracted marriages with aliens (Nehemiah 13:23). Nehemiah 13:28 f. contains some concluding words of Nehemiah. When it is remembered that for twelve years he had been working among the people, enforc

WINEPRESSES. Hebrew. _gath,_. wine press; not _yekeb,_. wine vat....

Nehemiah's vindication of the Sabbath 15. Jewish Labour on the Sabbath. _saw I in Judah_ i.e. while Nehemiah was residing in the country. _treading wine presses_ For the phrase cf. Isaiah 63:2; Lamentations 1:15. The word here used for -winepress" (_gath_) is different from that used e.g. in Isaiah 5:2; Joel 2:24; Joel 3:13 (_yeqeb_). The -winepress" or _gath_is the place in which the grapes are trodden; the -winefat" or _yeqeb_is the receptacle into which the juice is made to flow from the winepress. she

4. Labor and merchandising is forbidden on the Sabbath. TEXT, NEHEMIAH 13:15-22 15 In those days I saw in Judah some who were treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sacks of grain and loading them on donkeys, as well as wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, and they brought them into Jerusalem on the sabbath day. So I admonished them on the day they sold food. 16 Also men of Tyre were living there who imported fish and all kinds of merchandise, and sold them to the sons of Judah on the sabbath, even in Jerusalem. 17 Then I reprimanded the nobles of Judah and said to them, What is this evil thing you are doing, by profaning the sabbath day? 18 Did not your fathers do the same so that our God brought on us, and on this city, all this trouble? Yet you are adding to the wrath on Israel by profaning the sabbat