Nehemiah 12:1

Now these are the priests and the Levites that went up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua,.... Who went up from the captivity in Babylon to Jerusalem with them; the one was the prince,

Now these are the priests and the Levites that went up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra, These are the priests - according to 5:7, "the chief of the priests,"

CHAPTER 12 The priests, , and Levites which came up with Zerubbabel, ,9. The succession of high priests, . Certain chief Levites, . The manner of dedicating the wall, . The offices of priests and Levites, ; of singers and porters, . The priests, i.e. the chief of the priests, as they are called here, , to wit, the heads of those twenty-four courses which David appointed by Divine direction, 1 Chronicles 24. And whereas there are twenty-four, and here but twenty-two, and , &c. only twenty, the reason of this difference may possibly be this, because two of the twenty-four courses were extinct in Babylon, or at least none of them was then returned; and two of the persons here named, ,5, to wit, Hattush and Mandish, may be omitted in the account of the posterity of these persons, , &c., because they had no posterity. Possibly these were not the same courses which David had appointed, but others which Zerubbabel and Joshua had constituted in imitation of that order as far as they could. Ezra: either this was another Ezra, or if it were the same mentioned Ezra 7, he lived to a great age; which may well be supposed, considering his great sobriety, and abstinence from those evil practices which shorten men’ s lives, and his great piety, to which God promised long life, and withal the special providence of God confirming him so long in such a season wherein the church of God did greatly need his help and counsel.

Nehemiah 12:1 Now these [are] the priests and the Levites that went up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,Ver. 1. Now these are the priests and the Levites] Ancestors to those that dedicated the walls; and here registered, as for honour’ s sake to themselves, so to show that their successors, now employed in this work, were true priests and Levites of a right descent and alloy. That went up with Zerubbabel] Together with those that came afterwards with Ezra, Ezra 8:2-3; Ezra 8:18-19.

XII.(1-9) The priests and Levites of the First Return. (1) Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra.—The first is the family name, represented by Jeshua. Of the two others we know nothing more than this record gives.

CHAPTER XII Account of the priests and Levites that come up with Zerubbabel, 1-7. Of the Levites, 8-21. The Levites in the days of Eliashib, 22-26. Of the dedication of the wall, and its ceremonies, 27-43. Different officers appointed, 44-47. NOTES ON CHAP. XII Verse 1. Now these are the priests] Not the whole, but the chief of them, as we are informed, Ne 12:7; Ne 12:22-24. The Septuagint omit ver. 3, except the word Shechaniah; as also verses 12:4-6, 9, 37-41. The Arabic omits the first twenty-six verses, and 12:29. Mention is made of Ezra in this verse; and he is generally allowed to be that Ezra whose book the reader has already passed over, and who came to Jerusalem in the time of Cyrus, with Zerubbabel. If this were the same, he must have been at this time upward of a hundred years of age: and this case is not improbable, as an especial providence might preserve such a very useful man beyond the ordinary age of men. See what has been said on the case of Nehemiah, See Clarke on Ne 1:1.

1. Now these … Jeshua] Cf. Ezra 2:1. For the list beginning with Seraiah, see the parallel list of names in Nehemiah 10:3-9 and Nehemiah 12:12-21. The Ezra mentioned in this verse and Nehemiah 12:13 must not be confounded with ‘the Scribe:’ he appears in Nehemiah 10:3 as Azariah. The following table gives a comparison of the three lists: Nehemiah 10:3-9. Nehemiah 12:1-7. Nehemiah 12:12-21. (1) Seraiah Seraiah Seraiah (2) Azariah Jeremiah Jeremiah (3) Jeremiah Ezra Ezra (4) Pashhur Amariah Amariah (5) Amariah Malluch Malluchi (6) Malchijah Hattush (wanting) (7) Hattush Shecaniah Shebaniah (8) Shebaniah Rehum Harim (9) Malluch Meremoth Meraioth (10) Harim Iddo Iddo (11) Meremoth Ginnethoi Ginnethon (12) Obadiah Abijah Abijah (13) Daniel Mijamin Miniamin (14) Ginnethon Maadiah Moadiah (15) Baruch Bilgah Bilgah (16) Meshullam Shemaiah Shemaiah (17) Abijah and Joiarib Joiarib (18) Mijamin Jedaiah Jedaiah (19) Maaziah Sallu Sallai (20) Bilgai Amok Amok (21) Shemaiah Hilkiah Hilkiah (22) Jedaiah Jedaiah We have, therefore, 22 priestly houses recorded, and there can be little doubt that the number 24 had been restored, but that two of the names have dropped out either in the course of transcription or in consequence of the defectiveness of the original lists. Of the four priestly houses who are mentioned in the lists of Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 as having gone up out of the captivity with Zerubbabel, i.e. Jedaiah, Immer, Pashhur, Harim, we find here the names of (22) Jedaiah and (8) Rehum = Harim. Immer may possibly be concealed in the name of (4) Amariah. Pashhur has dropped out entirely. The opinion of some is that the similarity of names in these lists is accidental, and that the three lists give us the names of individuals living at three different periods, Nehemiah 12:1-7 in the days of Zerubbabel, Nehemiah 10:1-8 in the days of Eliashib, Nehemiah 12:12-21 in the days of Joiakim, which happen very often to resemble one another. But the improbability of this needs no demonstration.

The priests - The number of the names here given, which Isaiah 22, is probably to be connected with that of the Davidic “courses,” which was 24 1 Chronicles 24:7-18.