NEHEMIAH 11 — REPOPULATING JERUSALEM

Chapter 11 follows the covenant renewal with a practical consequence: the holy city needed people. Nehemiah had observed earlier that Jerusalem was large but sparsely populated (7:4). Living in a walled city was less comfortable and more dangerous than staying on one's own land, and it required leaving farms and family homes, so a system of lots and voluntary offers was used to bring about a tenth of the population into the city. The chapter is composed of lists, probably taken from official records, and some of the names overlap with 1 Chronicles 9:2–34, which has a parallel list with some differences. Chapter 11 shows that the establishment of God's city involves both willing sacrifice and orderly administration. The final section (verses 25–36) lists the settlements outside Jerusalem and gives a picture of the territory of the province of Yehud, stretching from Beersheba in the south to the northern boundary at Ono.

The list of settlements in verses 25–36 matches the territory of Persian-period Yehud as reconstructed from archaeological surveys and from the distribution of stamped jar handles bearing the name Yehud. These indicate that the province extended from near Beth-zur in the south to the area of Bethel in the north, and from the Jordan valley near Jericho to the edge of the Shephelah. The list also reflects the contraction of the province in comparison with the earlier kingdom, since it does not include the Negev or Samaria. The parallel in 1 Chronicles 9 confirms the antiquity of the list, since both versions use the same names. Archaeological excavations show that Jerusalem in the Persian period was small, about sixty acres, with a population of perhaps a few thousand, which fits the numbers given in this chapter.