Nehemiah 12:1–11

A review of the Levites who returned to Jerusalem

These were the priests and Levites who returned with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and with Jeshua:

Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra, 2 Amariah, Malluch, Hattush, 3 Shecaniah, Rehum, Meremoth, 4 Iddo, Ginnethon, Abijah, 5 Mijamin, Moadiah, Bilgah, 6 Shemaiah, Joiarib, Jedaiah, 7 Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah and Jedaiah.

These were the leaders of the priests and their associates in the days of Jeshua. —

8The Levites were Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and also Mattaniah, who, together with his associates, was in charge of the songs of thanksgiving. 9 Bakbukiah and Unni, their associates, stood opposite them in the services. — 10 Jeshua was the father of Joiakim, Joiakim the father of Eliashib, Eliashib the father of Joiada, 11 Joiada the father of Jonathan, and Jonathan the father of Jaddua.

Another list! It’s easy for us to become frustrated when we read these lists in Nehemiah, because they do not mean as much to us as they did to Nehemiah and his contemporaries. We do not know these people as flesh and blood human beings. And, removed as we are by centuries, we cannot rediscover the significance of each individual name in these lists. Nevertheless, we can form a pretty good idea of the basic purpose of each list.

The main purpose of this list in Nehemiah chapter 12 seems to be to assure the people that the priests and Levites whom they were following were really descendants of the families God appointed to serve in this capacity. This was important if God’s people were to have confidence in the validity of the sacrifices offered on their behalf. A second purpose of the list may be to honor those who played a leading part in the restoration of the nation.

Actually, we have not one list here, but four. We’ve separated these four lists with dashes in the previous text.

The first list (verses 1-7) names 22 leaders of priestly families at the time of the first return under Zerubbabel and Jeshua, one hundred years earlier. Ezra 2:36-39 lists only four divisions of the priesthood at the time of Zerubbabel. This list of 22 leaders may reflect a redivision of the priesthood that comes closer to the 24 orders established by David in 1 Chronicles 24:7-19.

The second list (verses 8,9), the Levitical leaders, is also more extensive than the corresponding list in Ezra chapter 2.

The third list (verses 10,11) gives the line of high priests from the time of Zerubbabel until the writing of the book of Nehemiah. It thus extends the lists of high priests in 1 Chronicles 6:3-15, which go from the time of Moses and Aaron until the exile. Jeshua was priest at the time of the first return under Zerubbabel. Eliashib was priest during the administration of Nehemiah. The list extends three generations past Eliashib, but this does not mean that the list comes from many years after the time of Nehemiah, as critics claim. Eliashib’s grandson Jonathan was already a married man in the last years of Nehemiah’s administration. The list could easily have been written during Nehemiah’s retirement years, very soon after the last events reported in Nehemiah. Jaddua, Eliashib’s greatgrandson, need not have been high priest at this time. He may merely have been heir to the position.