An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 84: Very Poor Intimidation Methods. Plus building a den on your house (Nehemiah 6-10)

Nehemiah 6-10
Very Poor Intimidation Methods. Plus building a den on your house.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.
For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT
For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Nehemiah 6

 “My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear.”

As work continues on the walls of Jerusalem, Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem continue to try to dissuade Nehemiah, sending him letters implying that they think he intends to set himself up as king and rebel. They also hire a man, Shemaiah, to try to get Nehemiah to shut himself in the temple for fear of assassination, but Nehemiah sees through the ruse. Presumably Shemaiah may have tried to kill Nehemiah once he got him alone, although it seems that the apparent loss of faith in the work would have been enough to undermine him. However, the work is completed despite this rather feeble campaign to thwart it.

Nehemiah 7

“And my God put into mine heart to gather together the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, that they might be reckoned by genealogy. And I found a register of the genealogy of them which came up at the first, and found written therein,”

The walls are completed, but the city is underpopulated and the houses are still largely in ruins. Nehemiah now numbers the various survivors and where they came from, as well as groups who can’t prove their genealogy (racial purity) and so are barred from the priesthood and worship. The total is 42,360 people, plus another 7,337 servants. There are 245 singers of both gender, but it isn’t clear if this number is additional to the others. So now we know.

Nehemiah 8

“And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel.”

Ezra reads out the laws of Moses before the assembled people, and the various Levites “caused them to understand it”. At first the people weep, but then rejoice (I felt the same way working through Leviticus…) and are sent off to make sacrifices and be happy. Ezra and the Levites also uncover a rule that the Israelites should “dwell in booths” during the feast of the seventh month, so everyone takes tree branches and makes a den on top of their house. I don’t recall this rule from Leviticus and Deuteronomy, either I glossed over it or it was cut at some point.

Nehemiah 9

“And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the LORD their God.”

The Israelites fast, and shun contact with non-Jews for a period of ritual purification. Then the Levites recount the story of the covenant, from Abraham to the present day, referencing many events that have gone before – this chapter is essentially a summary told in the form of a prayer. The exodus from Egypt, the giving of the laws to Moses, the golden calf, the wandering in the wilderness, conquest of Canaan and the various tribulations under judges and kings are recited, with references to how each time God punished a failure to keep the covenant but always kept the door open for mercy, and it’s an interesting observation that even though He causes the Israelites to wander for forty years before getting to the promised land, He still provides them with food and water. This doesn’t sway my opinion that this sounds like and abuser/victim relationship where the victim blames themselves for every punishment that they get, but are given just enough encouragement to keep coming back. I know it’s not supposed to read that way, but I’m afraid that’s how it comes across to me.

Nehemiah 10

“And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge, and having understanding;”

The first part of this chapter, 27 verses, is a list of names of those who sealed themselves to the covenant. The rest refers to the rules specifically, most of which are familiar from Leviticus. Those who make the covenant swear not to intermarry with dirty, dirty, foreigners, not to do business on the Sabbath and to keep the seventh year as a year for cancellation of debts. Also to make tithes to the Levites and to bring the first fruits of harvest, firstborn livestock and firstborn sons – hold on, I thought we got rid of that rule, allowing a representative offering in its place. Rather worrying it doesn’t say what happens to the firstborn sons. I rather hope that they get a ritual welcome to the temple or something, because elsewhere the bible is very against what it refers to as the ways of Moloch, which a large number of the kings seemed to support. More information is needed on this, I think!