These passages caught my attention as I was reading today. The chapter has to do with populating Jerusalem in the post-exilic time. Note that Jerusalem is here called “the holy city.” That term is used only here in the OT (Dan. 9:24 calls it “your [Daniel’s] holy city.” Twice it is applied to the city coming down from heaven in Rev. 21:2,10. It is properly called by this name because it was God’s choice to make it the place where He put His name.
In Neh. 11:1-2 the returnees “rolled the dice”
to see who would dwell in Jerusalem. Why
were people reluctant to live in the city?
As a prominent city it would be more likely to experience hostility from
foreign powers. Just being a city might mean
greater issues with crime. The work, for
most of the people of Judah, was outside the city, in the fields and
orchards. Matthew Henry says one reason
for the reluctance was that there was a greater strictness of lifestyle that
many were not willing to come up to. I’m
not sure if that’s the case but I do know that today, Jerusalem has that
reputation because it is a leading city for Jews, Christians and Muslims. Another issue could be, if it was like today, Jerusalem
may have been more expensive than living elsewhere in Israel.
When I read that 1/10 were to be chosen to
live in the city, I thought that today there are many more in Jerusalem, and
that perhaps there was less reluctance to live there. But then I “googled” the figures and
discovered the population of modern Jerusalem is roughly 957,000 and that of
Israel is 9,000,000. In other words, it’s
essentially 1/10. One difference might
be that modern Israel is home to a large number of Israeli Arabs as well as many
Palestinians (especially East Jerusalem).
In Nehemiah’s time the numbers involved the Jews only as I understand
it.
Neh. 11:21 has a couple of interesting
references. The “Nethinim” dwelt in “Ophel.” The Nethinim were temple slaves (Ezra
8:20). Most people I have read equate
them with the Gibeonites who deceived Joshua and Israel (Josh. 9). The resulting agreement was that Israel
allowed them to live but they became servants to the congregation and the altar
of the Lord (9:27). Some of the Nethinim
lived in the cities of Judah (11:3) where there were also some of the Levites
living. But many lived in the Ophel,
near the temple.
The ”Ophel” is believed to be the area north
of the City of David, on the first of the 4 mountains in the land of Moriah (Gen.22:2). Now what does that mean? The accompanying maps should help. “Ophel” means “hill.” It lies on the initial upslope of
Moriah. In the second temple, in Jesus’
day, the steps up to the Huldah Gates, climbed from the Ophel, bringing
worshipers up into the temple mount area.
Today much of the Ophel area is part of the Jerusalem/Davidson
Archaeological Park. It has several
items of interest to Christians. One is
the pile of rocks that reminds us of Jesus’ prophecy that not one stone of the
beautiful buildings of the temple would be left on another (Mt. 24:2). Another are the afore mentioned steps, where
some believe Peter preached his sermon on Pentecost (Acts 2). Another are the myriad of “mikvehs” (baptism pools)
that could tell us how thousands were baptized on Pentecost and
afterwards. Those are some important connections
for a place not particularly well known.
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