’Thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly.  Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers kept Thy law, nor hearkened unto Thy commandments....  For they have not served Thee.’  Therefore, as a natural consequence and result, ’Behold, we are servants this day.’

They would not serve God, they would not be His servants, so they had been made to serve someone else; they had, as a punishment for their sin, been made servants to the King of Persia.  And what was the result?

’The land that Thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it.  And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom Thou hast set over us because of our sins.’

The amount of tribute paid by Judea to Persia is not known; but the province of Syria, in which Judea was included, paid L90,000 a year.

‘Also they have dominion over our bodies.’

They can force us against our will to be either soldiers or sailors, and can make us fight their battles for them.

They have dominion ‘over our cattle.’

They can seize our cattle at their pleasure, for their own use or the use of their armies.

‘And we are in great distress.’

Yes, our sin has indeed brought its punishment; and feeling this, realizing this very deeply, we have gathered together to do what we intend to do this day, to make a solemn agreement, a covenant with God.  We intend to promise to have done with sin, and for the future to serve and glorify God.

Then a long roll of parchment was brought out, on which the covenant was written, and one by one all the leading men in Jerusalem came forward and put their seals to it, as a sign that they intended to keep it.

In the East it is always the seal that authenticates a document.  In Babylon the documents were often sealed with half-a-dozen seals or more.  These were impressed on moist clay, and then the clay was baked, and the seals were each fastened to the parchment by a separate string.  In this way any number of seals could be attached.

We are given in Neh. x. the names of those who sealed, honoured names, for they made a brave and noble stand.  First of all comes the name of Nehemiah, the governor, setting a good example to the rest.  He is followed by Zidkijah, or Zadok, the secretary.  Then come the names of eighty-two others, heads of families, all well-known men in Jerusalem.  Each one fastened his seal to the roll of parchment containing the solemn covenant.  No less than eighty-four seals were attached to it.

What then were the articles of the covenant?

What did those who sealed promise?

First of all, they bound themselves (x. 29) to walk in God’s law, and to observe and do all the commandments.  What need after that to enter a single other article in the covenant?  If a man walks in God’s law he cannot go wrong; if he keeps all God’s commandments, what more can be required?