we add the 1,765 persons reckoned by Nehemiah which Ezra has omitted; and, on the other hand, to the 31,089 enumerated by Nehemiah, add the 494, which is an overplus in Ezra, not noticed by Nehemiah; both writers including in the sum total 10,777 of the mixed multitude, not particularized in the individual detail.”

In the second division we have an account of the solemn public reading of the law of Moses at the feast of tabernacles, and, in connection with this, of the renewal of the national covenant with Jehovah through the signature and seal of the princes, Levites, and priests, in their own behalf and that of the people.  Chaps. 8-10.  In this religious and ecclesiastical transaction, Ezra the priest was the leader; Nehemiah, as the Tirshatha, or civil governor, simply taking the lead of the princes in the act of sealing.

The third division contains, along with some genealogical lists, an account of the measures taken by Nehemiah and the princes to increase the number of residents in Jerusalem, of the solemn dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, and of the rectification of various abuses which had crept in partly during Nehemiah’s absence at the court of Persia.  Chaps. 11-13.

The date of Nehemiah’s commission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem is important on account of its connection with the seventy prophetic weeks of Daniel, which are reckoned “from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.”  Dan. 9:25.  It cannot be considered as exactly ascertained, but may be placed somewhere from B.C. 454 to B.C. 446.  See the commentators on Dan. 9:24-27.  How long Nehemiah’s administration continued after his visit to the court of Persia, in the twelfth year of his rule, is not known.

27.  The book, as its title testifies, was written by Nehemiah, not earlier than his return from the court of Persia (ch. 13:6; 5:14); how much later cannot be known.  From the general character of style and diction which belongs to the second division (chaps. 8-10), as well as from the absence of Nehemiah’s peculiar forms of speech, some have thought that Ezra, as the chief actor in the reading of the law and renewal of the national covenant, wrote the account of the transaction, and that Nehemiah incorporated it into his work.  To this supposition there is no serious objection.  We must remember, however, that arguments based on supposed differences of style cannot amount to much where the materials from which a conclusion is to be drawn are so scanty.

The genealogical notice in ch. 12:10, 11, which gives the lineage of the high priests from Joshua to Jaddua, who is apparently the high priest described by Josephus as having met Alexander the Great on his march to Jerusalem, is thought by many to be an addition made after Nehemiah’s death as a matter of public interest.  See above, Chap. 15, No. 17.  The same judgment is passed by some on 1 Chron. 3:19-24.  But the interpretation of this latter passage is very uncertain.

VII.  ESTHER.