Reform and Remembrance

The book ends not with a triumph but with a struggle. When the law was read, the people separated from Israel the mixed multitude. Yet while Nehemiah was away with Artaxerxes, Eliashib the priest prepared for Tobiah, an Ammonite and longtime opponent, a great chamber where offerings had been stored. Returning, Nehemiah was grieved, threw out all of Tobiah's household stuff, and commanded the rooms to be cleansed.

Neglect had followed compromise. The portions of the Levites had not been given, so the Levites and singers had fled to their fields. Nehemiah contended with the rulers and asked why the house of God was forsaken, the very thing they had vowed not to do in chapter 10. Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, the new wine, and the oil to the treasuries, and he appointed faithful treasurers.

He found people treading winepresses on the Sabbath and Tyrians selling fish. He testified against the nobles and shut the gates as it grew dark before the Sabbath. Finally he contended with men who had married wives of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab, whose children could not speak the language of Judah, warning them by Solomon's example. Three times in this chapter Nehemiah prays that God would remember him. The final words are Remember me, my God, for good. The chapter shows the need for a deeper renewal. In the New Testament, Hebrews describes the new covenant, in which God writes His laws on His people's hearts (Hebrews 8:10).