Nehemiah 13


Nehemiah 13 is the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, or the 23rd chapter of the book of Ezra-Nehemiah in the Hebrew Bible, which treats the book of Ezra and book of Nehemiah as one book. Jewish tradition states that Ezra is the author of Ezra-Nehemiah as well as the Book of Chronicles, but modern scholars generally accept that a compiler from 5th century BCE is the final author of these books. The chapter addresses a series of problems handled by Nehemiah himself, which might arise during his temporary absence from the land, with some similar issues as in Ezra 9–10 and Nehemiah 10.

Text

The original text of this chapter is in Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 31 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes Codex Leningradensis.
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, and Codex Alexandrinus.

Purification (13:1–3)

This section records the obedience of the people at that period of time to the words of the law, that they took "immediate" response ; in this case, by removing all people of foreign descents.

Verse 1

The exclusion of the Ammonites and Moabites from the sanctuary is written in, because of two reasons :
  1. Their failure to provide the Israelites the basic requirements of food and water
  2. The Moabite king Balak had hired Balaam to curse Israel, although God turned these curses into great blessings.

    The reforms of Nehemiah (13:4–31)

After 12 year in Jerusalem, Nehemiah returned to the court of Artaxerxes (#Verse 6|verse 6]

Verse 6