Chapter-by-chapter studies of 2 Chronicles, with Christ-centered reflection and practical applications.
Nehemiah 7 begins after the wall has been built, the doors installed, and porters, singers, and Levites appointed. Nehemiah places his brother Hanani and Hananiah, ruler of the palace, in charge of Jerusalem. Hananiah is described as faithful and as fearing God above many. The construction milestone is followed by responsibilities for the city’s continuing care.
Read MoreNehemiah 6 begins with the wall rebuilt so that no breach remains, although the gate doors have not yet been installed. Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem, and the other enemies hear of the progress. Sanballat and Geshem invite Nehemiah to meet in a village on the plain of Ono, but the narrator says they intend him harm. A proposal that sounds like a meeting is presented as a danger to the person leading the work.
Read MoreNehemiah 5 opens with a great outcry from the people and their wives against fellow Jews. The problem is now within the community. Some need grain to keep themselves and their children alive. Others have mortgaged fields, vineyards, and houses to obtain food during scarcity. Still others have borrowed against their land and vineyards to pay the king’s tribute. The account gives the people’s specific hardships a place in the rebuilding story.
Read MoreNehemiah 4 opens with Sanballat’s anger at the rebuilding. Before his brethren and Samaria’s army, he mocks the Jews’ strength, their plans, and their ability to reuse stones from burned rubble. Tobiah adds that even a fox could break down their wall. Their words are contemptuous attempts to discredit the builders, not the narrator’s assessment of the work.
Read MoreNehemiah 3 turns the shared resolve to rebuild into a detailed account of people and repairs. Eliashib the high priest rises with his fellow priests to build the sheep gate, sanctify it, and set up its doors. The towers of Meah and Hananeel are named in connection with their work. The men of Jericho and Zaccur son of Imri build alongside them. The chapter’s repeated movement from one group to the next gives the work a communal shape.
Read MoreNehemiah 2 opens in Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes. As Nehemiah serves wine, the king notices sadness he has not previously shown in his presence. The king recognizes sorrow of heart rather than illness. Nehemiah is very afraid, yet explains that the city of his fathers’ sepulchres lies waste and its gates have been burned. His concern now enters a direct conversation with the king.
Read MoreNehemiah begins with the words of Nehemiah son of Hachaliah. In the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, he is in Shushan the palace. Hanani, described as one of his brethren, arrives with men from Judah. Nehemiah asks about the Jews who remain from the captivity and about Jerusalem. His concern begins with an inquiry into the actual condition of people and place.
Read MoreEzra 10 opens with Ezra praying, confessing, weeping, and casting himself down before God’s house. A large gathering of men, women, and children assembles, and the people weep deeply. The prayer of the preceding chapter now becomes part of a public response. The account concerns the marriages reported as covenant trespass and the community’s proposed action toward them.
Read MoreEzra 9 opens after the events associated with the returning company and its offerings. Princes report to Ezra that people, priests, and Levites have not separated themselves from the surrounding peoples and their abominations. They name Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites. Their report connects marriage practices with the returned community’s covenant unfaithfulness.
Read MoreEzra 8 records the households and leaders who go with Ezra from Babylon during Artaxerxes’s reign. The opening names descendants of Phinehas, Ithamar, and David, followed by other family groups and their numbered men. Gershom, Daniel, and Hattush appear among the first names. The journey is a shared undertaking with identifiable people and responsibilities, rather than Ezra’s private achievement.
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