ISBN 0-664-22186-6 ,!7IA6G4-ccbigh!:t;K;k;K;k 6.00 x 9.00 6.00 x 9.00 ,!7IA6G4-ccbigh! .835 JOSEPH BLENKINSOPP EZRA-NEHEMIAH THE OLD TESTAMENT LIBRARY General Editors PETER ACKROYD, University of London JAMES BARR, Oxford University BERNHARD W. ANDERSON, Princeton Theological Seminary JAMES L. MAYS, Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia Advisory Editor JOHN BRIGHT, Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia JOSEPH BLENKINSOPP IEZRA=NIEJHIIEMilAJHI A Commentary THE WESTMINSTER PRESS PHILADELPHIA © 1988 Joseph Blenkinsopp All rights reserved-no part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review in magazine or newspaper. Excerpt from "Choruses from 'The Rock'" in Collected Poems 1909-1962 by T. S. Eliot, copyright 1936 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.; copyright © 1963, 1964 by T. S. Eliot. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., and Faber and Faber Ltd. First edition Published by The Westminster Press@ Philadelphia, Pennsylvania PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Blenkinsopp, Joseph, 1927- Ezra-Nehemiah : a commentary I Joseph Blenkinsopp. p. cm. - (The Old Testament library) Bibliography: p. ISBN 0-664-22186-6 pbk 1. Bible. O.T. Ezra-Commentaries. 2. Bible. O.T. Nehemiah-Commentaries. I. Title. II. Series. BS1355.3.B58 1988 222'.7077-dcl9 88-14877 CIP In the vacant places We will build with new bricks There are hands and machines And clay for new brick And lime for new mortar Where the bricks are fallen We will build with new stone Where the beams are rotten We will build with new timbers Where the word is unspoken We will build with new speech. T. S. Eliot, The Rock Wer spricht von Siegen? Uberstehn ist alles. R. M. Rilke CONTENTS Preface 11 Abbreviations 13 Works Consulted 17 Introduction 35 1. On Reading Ezra-Nehemiah 35 2. Ezra-Nehemiah in the Biblical Canon 38 3. Contents 39 4. The Composition of Ezra-Nehemiah 41 5. Ezra-Nehemiah and "the Chronicler" 47 6. Ezra and Nehemiah in Jewish Tradition 54 7. The Political and Social Context 60 8. Text and Versions 70 Commentary 73 I. Ezra 1-6 73 The Rescript of Cyrus (Ezra 1:1-4) 73 Response of the Diaspora to the Rescript (Ezra 1:5-11) 76 A Census of the Temple Community (Ezra 2:1-67) 79 8 Contents Final Stages of the Return and Resumption of Worship (Ezra 2:68-3:6) 93 Laying of the Foundations and Dedication (Ezra 3:7-13) 98 Additional Note on the Laying of the Foundations of the Second Temple 102 Opposition During the Reign of Cyrus (Ezra 4: 1-5) 105 Opposition During the Reigns of Xerxes and Artaxerxes (Ezra 4:6-24) 108 Resumption of Work During the Reign of Darius (Ezra 5:1-2) 115 Intervention of Tattenai and His Letter to Darius (Ezra 5:3-17) 117 The Cyrus Rescript Rediscovered (Ezra 6:1-5) 123 Darius Replies (Ezra 6:6-12) 125 The Temple Finished and Dedicated (Ezra 6:13-18) 128 The Great Passover (Ezra 6: 19-22) 131 II. Ezra 7-10 134 Ezra's Mission to Jerusalem (Ezra 7:1-10) 134 Additional Note on the Chronology of Ezra and Nehemiah 139 The Rescript of Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:11-26) 144 Additional Note on Ezra's Law 152 Response to the Rescript (Ezra 7:27-8:14) 158 Recruiting for the Mission (Ezra 8:15-20) 163 Preparations for Departure (Ezra 8:21-30) 167 The Journey Successfully Completed (Ezra 8:31-36) 170 The Foreign Marriage Crisis (Ezra 9: 1-5) 173 A Public Confession of Sin (Ezra 9:6-15) 179 The Decision to Take Action (Ezra 10:1-8) 185 The Assembly Is Convened (Ezra 10:9-17) 191 The List of Offenders (Ezra 10:18-44) 195 III. Nehemiah l:l-7:5a 202 Hanani Brings Bad News (Neh. 1: 1-4) 202 Nehemiah's Prayer (Neh. 1:5-1 la) 207 Nehemiah Is Granted a Leave of Absence (Neh. l:llb-2:10) 210 Nehemiah's Night Ride (Neh. 2:11-20) 219 Work on the Wall (Neh. 3:1-32) 227 Contents 9 Additional Note on Nehemiah's Jerusalem 239 Renewed Opposition (Neh. 3:33-38 [4:1-6]) 242 The Opposition Intensifies (Neh. 4:1-8 [7-14]) 245 Nehemiah Holds Firm (Neh. 4:9-17 [15-23]) 250 Social and Economic Problems (Neh. 5:1-13) 253 Nehemiah's Record (Neh. 5:14-19) 260 A Campaign of Intimidation (Neh. 6:1-14) 265 The Wall Completed in Spite of Opposition (Neh. 6:15-19) 271 Jerusalem Secured (Neh. 7:1-5a) 274 IV. Nehemiah 7:5b-10:40 [39] 278 A Census of the Temple Community (Neh. 7:5b-72a [73a]) 278 Liturgical Reading and Explanation of the Law (Neh. 7:72b[73b]-8: 12) 282 Celebration of the Feast of Booths (Neh. 8:13-18) 289 A Penitential Service (Neh. 9:1-5) 293 A Confessional Prayer (Neh. 9:6-37) 297 The Sworn Covenant (Neh. 10: 1-40 [9:38-10:39]) 308 V. Nehemiah 11-13 320 The Repopulation of Jerusalem (Neh. 11:1-24) 320 A Catalog of Settlements (Neh. 11 :25-36) 327 Lists of Temple Personnel (Neh. 12:1-26) 332 The Dedication of the Wall (Neh. 12:27-43) 341 Various Dispositions (Neh. 12:44-13:3) 348 Abuses Remedied (Neh. 13:4-14) 352 Sabbath Observance (Neh. 13:15-22) 357 Nehemiah's Anti-Assimilationist Policy (Neh. 13:23-31) 361 PREFACE In writing this commentary over the last three years or so I have incurred many debts of gratitude: to my family for their patience, and to students and colleagues here and elsewhere for arguing points of interpretation or just listening politely. It is a pleasant duty to thank especially my assistants Mr. John Wright and Mr. Yun Chun Han for help with research, to graduate student Sister Catherine Cory for opportune help with a recalcitrant computer, to colleague Professor Gene Ulrich for supplying photographs of 4QEzra, and to Dr. Keith Crim for inviting me on behalf of The Westminster Press to write the commentary. The translation offered is my own, and I have supplied it with what seemed the necessary minimum of textual notes. I have departed from scholarly orthopraxy in transliterating the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet as v instead of w, and have therefore written the Tetragrammaton YHVH rather than YHWH. Some may find this objectionable or merely annoying, but it has the advantage of align­ ment with current pronunciation, now that a command df modern Hebrew is a practical necessity in the study of the Hebrew Bible. For convenience of reference, works cited by author only will usually be found listed in the select bibliography at the head of each section. Works cited by author and year will be found in the general bibliog­ raphy of "Works Consulted." The commentary grew out of a long-standing interest in the reli­ gious history of the Second Temple period. Writing almost sixty years ago, Hans Heinrich Schaeder, author of an important mono­ graph on Ezra, described what was then-and residually still is-the standard approach to postexilic Judaism in Christian scholarship, and concluded as follows: "This historical perspective, which sees Judaism as fulfilling its mission and then making way for the gospel 12 Preface and the Church, has an impressive inner consistency and spiritual allure; the only problem with it is the real history of Judaism" (Esra der Schreiber, Tiibingen, 1930, 2). My hope is that the present com­ mentary may make a modest contribution to recovering that history. December 15, 1987 Joseph Blenkinsopp ABBREVIATIONS AASOR Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research ABR Australian Biblical Review AfO Archiv ftir Orientforschung AI R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions, London, 1961 AJBA Australian Journal of Biblical Archaeology AJSL American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures Akk. Akkadian ANEP J. B. Pritchard (ed.), The Ancient Near East in Pictures, Princeton, 1954 ANET J. B. Pritchard (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts, Princeton, 19693 Ant. Josephus, Antiquities AP A. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B. C., Oxford, 1923 Arab. Arabic version Aram. Aramaic AUSS Andrews University Seminary Studies BA Biblical Archaeologist BAR Biblical Archaeology Review BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research BDB F. Brown, S. R. Driver, and C. A. Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford, 1907 Bib Biblica BeO Bibbia e Oriente BJPES Bulletin of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society BM Beit Mikra BMAP E. G. Kraeling, The Brooklyn Museum Aramaic Papyri, New Haven, 1953 BO Bibliotheca Orienta/is BR Bible Review BSac Bibliotheca Sacra 14 Abbreviations BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies BTB Biblical Theology Bulletin BZ Biblische Zeitschrift c the Chronicler CAD The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago C. Apion Josephus, Contra Apion CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly CHJ W. D. Davies and L. Finkelstein (eds.), The Cambridge History of Judaism I, Cambridge, 1984 cod. codex CTM Concordia Theological Monthly CV Communio Viatorum DBSup. Dictionnaire de la Bible. Supplement EAEHL M. Avi-Yonah (ed.), Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, 4 vols., Jerusalem, 1975-78 EI Eretz Israel EM Ezra Memoir Eth. Ethiopic version ETL Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses Ep. Epistula EstBib Estudios Biblicos EvQ Evangelical Quarterly Ev Th Evangelische Theologie ExpT Expository Times Gk.