NEHEMIAH 13 — NEHEMIAH'S FINAL REFORMS

Chapter 13 is the final chapter of the Old Testament's historical narrative, and it is sobering. After the high point of the dedication of the wall and the covenant renewal, Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem after an absence and finds that the commitments of chapter 10 have been violated in each of the areas they addressed: the temple, the support of the Levites, the Sabbath, and intermarriage. The chapter shows that outward renewal does not guarantee lasting obedience, and that vigilance and reform must be continuous. It also shows Nehemiah's character: decisive, zealous, and dependent on God, though some of his actions, such as striking offenders and pulling out hair (verse 25), are forceful. The date of his return is given as after the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes (433 BC), when he went back to the king and later returned to Jerusalem. The book closes on a note of unfinished business, which points beyond itself to the need for a deeper solution, the new heart and new covenant promised by the prophets. The final prayer is that God would remember him for good.

The details of this chapter are consistent with the evidence from the period. The Elephantine papyri confirm that Sanballat's family was prominent and that the high priest Johanan was in office around 407 BC. Josephus reports that a grandson of the high priest married a daughter of Sanballat and that this led to tension, though his chronology differs. Tyrian traders were active in Judah in the Persian period, and fish were imported from the coast, as confirmed by archaeological evidence of Mediterranean fish bones in Jerusalem. The Sabbath laws appear in all the books of the Pentateuch, and later sources document their observance in the Persian period, including the Elephantine papyri's references to the Sabbath. The use of Ashdodite as a language, probably a dialect of Aramaic, Philistine, or Phoenician, is consistent with the mixed population of the coastal region. The date of Nehemiah's second term shortly after 433 BC fits the Persian chronology.