Nehemiah 11:10–19

The temple workers who settled in Jerusalem

From the priests:

Jedaiah; the son of Joiarib; Jakin; 11 Seraiah son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, supervisor of the house of God, 12 and their associates, who carried on the work of the temple—822 men; Adaiah son of Jeroham, the son of Pelaliah, the son of Amzi, the son of Zechariah, the son of Pashhur, the son of Malkijah, 13 and his associates, who were heads of families—242 men; Amashsai son of Azarel, the son of Ahzai, the son of Meshillemoth, the son of Immer, 14 and his associates, who were able men—128. Their chief officer was Zabdiel son of Haggedolim.

15 From the Levites:

Shemaiah son of Hasshub, the son of Azrikam, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Bunni; 16 Shabbethai and Jozabad, two of the heads of the Levites, who had charge of the outside work of the house of God; 17 Mattaniah son of Mica, the son of Zabdi, the son of Asaph, the director who led in thanksgiving and prayer; Bakbukiah, second among his associates; and Abda son of Shammua, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun. 18 The Levites in the holy city totaled 284.

19 The gatekeepers:

Akkub, Talmon and their associates, who kept watch at the gates—172 men.

The list of the priests has a number of difficulties, which may be the result of some copying errors. The word Haggedolim is not a personal name but a Hebrew word meaning “the great ones.” If this was a man’s name, it was very unusual, especially because it is a plural. Amashsai is not a Hebrew name but appears to be a mixture of two names.

The beginning of the list presents the most perplexing problem. Perhaps some words have been lost from the text here. If the words son of were supplied before and after the name Jakin, the section of the list from Jedaiah to Ahitub would form one connected genealogy. If this were the case, this part of the list would follow the same pattern as the other lists in this chapter. If the list from Jedaiah to Ahitub is one connected genealogy, Jedaiah would be the leader of the priests who moved to Jerusalem at the time of Nehemiah, and the other people in the list would all be his ancestors. This seems plausible since Seraiah was the name of a priest who returned with Zerubbabel (Nehemiah 12:1) and, being the third name before Jedaiah, he would be in the right position to be the same man as the Seraiah who returned with Zerubbabel. In a parallel list in 1 Chronicles 9:10,11, however, Jedaiah, Jehoiarib, Jakin, and Azariah do not appear to be steps in a genealogy. They seem to be contemporaries. If this interpretation of the list is correct, we have four members of the high priestly family from Nehemiah’s day listed here, rather than one.

The repetition of the same names in different generations of the priestly families makes any solution of this problem uncertain. The name Ahitub, which is the earliest link in this genealogy regardless of whether it begins from Jedaiah or Seraiah, was the name of at least two high priests in the history of Israel (1 Chronicles 6:7-11). The name Ahitub identifies this section of the list as the genealogy of the Kohathite family of priests that supplied the high priests of Israel. There were three main priestly families in Israel. The other two groups in this section, those led by Adaiah and Amashsai, may have represented the other two important priestly families, the Gershonites and Merarites. Numbers chapters 3 and 4 give the background on the three main families of priests.

Perhaps a few words are in order concerning textual or copying errors in our present text of the Bible. This possibility does not deny the inspiration of Scripture, which applies only to the so-called autographs, the original documents of Scripture.

Some copying errors have crept into the manuscripts of the Bible during the centuries in which the Bible was copied by hand. None of these errors raises doubt about any teaching of Scripture. Most of these errors can be corrected easily from the context or from other manuscripts of the Bible. 

The realization that such copying errors exist in our present texts of the Bible is not a new or “liberal” discovery. Back in the 1500s Martin Luther recognized and discussed a number of the copying, or scribal, problems in the Old Testament text. Such copying errors daily occur in long lists of names and numbers. For example, in the first typing of this commentary several names were omitted from some of the lists. Even after careful proofreading there might still be mistakes in the final product. The misprints we find even in the best magazines or newspapers illustrate the difficulties of producing perfect copies, but the mistakes rarely affect the meaning. This is the kind of mistake we are talking about in regard to the Bible; no teaching of Scripture is affected by such errors.

The list of the Levites is unusual in that Levites and singers have been combined into one list, contrary to the normal practice. The “outside work” of the Levites may refer to such work as collecting tithes and offerings. The gatekeepers were the temple gatekeepers. They performed functions similar to those of our ushers, security guards, and custodians of property.