Nehemiah 13:25

Neh 13:25 And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, [saying], Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves.

Ver. 25. And cursed them] i.e. I denounced God’s heavy curse and vengeance upon them (according to that themselves had wished and entered into, Neh 10:30), in case they repented not. This is nothing, then, in favour of our cursing men who are cursed men, &c.

And smote certain of them] So far was his heart enraged with a holy hatred of their sin, that he could not forbear them. So when Charles V had heard that Farnesius (General of the pope’s forces) had ravished certain ladies, he brake out into this speech (and was never in all his life observed to be more angry at anything), Si adesset impurus ille Farnesius, manu mea confoderem: Oh, if I had here that filthy fellow, I would slay him with mine own hand.

And made them swear by God] So they had done before, Neh 10:29-30. But now, alas, they were all gone aside, they were altogether become filthy, they stank above ground, Psa 14:3. He takes therefore another oath of them, &c.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Neh 13:25. And I contended with them, &c. — These words, it must be acknowledged as proceeding from Nehemiah’s own mouth, sound somewhat harshly in our translation; but the meaning of them seems to be only as follows: I contended with them — That is, I expostulated the matter with them; I cursed them — That is, excommunicated them, and cast them out of the society of God’s people; in the doing of which, I denounced God’s judgments against them; I smote certain of them — That is, I ordered the officers to beat some of the most notorious offenders with rods or scourges, according to the law, Deu 25:2; and I plucked off their hair — That is, I commanded them to be shaved, thereby to put them to shame, and to make them look like vile slaves; for as the hair was esteemed a great ornament among the eastern nations, so baldness was accounted a great disgrace. And Nehemiah had a sufficient provocation to inflict these several punishments upon them, because, in their marrying with heathen nations, they had acted contrary, not only to the express law of God, but to their own late solemn covenant and promise. See Poole and Dodd.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13:25 When Nehemiah called down curses on them, it was because the parents avoided Hebrew and did not teach their children the language of the Hebrew Bible. A curse called on God to remove his blessing on people. • I beat some of them and pulled out their hair: Apparently, some of the men did not accept Nehemiah’s rebuke at first, so he made them swear in the name of God not to intermarry with pagans.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

That is, I did excommunicate them, and drive them out of the congregation.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

cursed them--that is, pronounced on them an anathema which entailed excommunication.

smote . . . and plucked off their hair--To cut off the hair of offenders seems to be a punishment rather disgraceful than severe; yet it is supposed that pain was added to disgrace, and that they tore off the hair with violence as if they were plucking a bird alive.

Next: Esther Introduction

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 25. I contended with them] Proved the fact against these iniquitous fathers, in a legal assembly.

And cursed them] Denounced the judgments of God and the sentence of the law upon them.

Smote certain of them] Had them punished by whipping.

And plucked off their hair] Had them shaven, as a mark of the greatest ignominy.

And made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give] Caused them to bind themselves by an oath, that they would make no intermarriages with those who were not of the seed of Israel.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(25) Cursed them.—Nehemiah simply echoed the covenant sanction on this very point (Neh_10:29-30).

Certain of them.—Some were selected for special punishment and humiliation. Ezra, on a like occasion, humbled himself by plucking off the hair of his own head (Ezr_9:3). Then they were obliged to repeat the oath of the covenant.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

25. I contended] Cf. Neh_13:11; Neh_13:17.

cursed] R.V. marg. ‘Or, reviled’. For the word ‘to curse’ (qalal) cf. Neh_13:2; Mal_3:9; Mal_4:6.

smote … pluckt off their hair] Nehemiah’s frantic excitement against these countrymen was accompanied with gestures and blows such as may be witnessed in Syria but are almost incredible to our western ideas.

pluckt off their hair] LXX. ἐμαδάρωσα αὐτούς. Vulg. ‘decalvavi eos.’ Commentators suggest that this was done at Nehemiah’s command, and not by his own hand; further that it was a judicial sentence of ‘depilatio.’ But the context quite supports the idea that he personally ill-treated them; so frantic was his indignation. He did not intend, as some suggest, by pulling out their hair to compel them to assume the appearance of penitents. For the action of pulling out the hair cf. Ezr_9:3.

made them swear by God, saying] i.e. he made them swear an oath in God’s name, the words of the oath being given in the clause following.

This is better than the alternative rendering, ‘I adjured them by God’ (cf. 1Ki_18:10; Son_2:7).

Ye shall not] The oath which Nehemiah administered in the 2nd plur. was repeated by the Jews in the first pers.

unto your sons] R.V. for your sons.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest,.... A grandson of the high priest; for the high priest here is Eliashib, according to our version, and not Joiada his son, according to Dr. Prideaux (i); the person designed, Josephus (k) makes to be Manasseh, the brother of Jaddua the high priest: was

son in law to Sanballat the Horonite; married a daughter of his, who was the avowed enemy of the Jewish nation; and for whom, according to the same writer, Sanballat obtained leave of Alexander to build a temple on Mount Gerizim; but this is to protract the age of Nehemiah and Sanballat to too great a length; besides, Eliashib seems to have been now high priest, and not even his son Joiada, and much less Jaddua, a grandson of Joiada:

therefore I chased him from me; drove him from his court, suffered him not to minister at the altar; banished him from the city, as Jarchi, and even from the land of Judea.

(i) Connect. par. 1. p. 412. (k) Antiqu. l. 11. c. 8. sect. 2, 4.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Curse, or excommunicated them, (Calmet) the guilty parents. (Haydock) --- Shaved. Hebrew and Septuagint, "plucked off their hair," by the roots, for greater torment. Sometimes quicklime was then sprinkled on the head, (Calmet) as adulterers were treated at Athens. Schol. Aristoph.[Aristophanes?] --- King Artaxerxes changed this punishment, and ordered that his officers should be forbidden to wear the tiara instead. Domitian caused the hair and beard of Apollonius to be shaven. (Philost. iii. 14.) (Calmet) --- That they. Hebrew, "Ye shall not," &c.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Cursed them, i.e. caused them to be excommunicated and cast out of the society and privileges of God’s people. This and the following punishments were justly inflicted upon them, because this transgression was contrary both to a very plain and express law of God, and also to their own late solemn covenants and promises, of which see Ezr 10; Ne 10:30.

Smote certain of them, i.e. I caused to be beaten with stripes, according to the law, Deu 25:2, those whose faults were most aggravated by their quality or other circumstances; to whom he added this punishment over and besides the former.

Plucked off their hair, or, shaved them. The hair was an ornament and ensign of liberty among the eastern nations; and baldness was a disgrace and token of slavery and sorrow. See Isa 3:24; Isa 15:2; Jer 48:37; Eze 29:18.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

25. I contended with them — By rebuke and expostulation, as he had done with the rulers and nobles. Vers. 11, 17.

Cursed them — Comp. Mal_3:9. He went beyond mere expostulation, and pronounced them cursed of God in having thus violated the Divine law.

Smote certain of them — As governor he had them scourged as public offenders. Compare Deu_25:2-3.

Plucked off their hair — A penalty designed to be both painful and disgraceful. The offence was too great to be allowed to pass without severe treatment.

Made them swear — As Ezra had made the people, guilty of the same offence, do some years before. Ezr_10:5.

Not give your daughters — The principal members of the community had taken the same oath during Nehemiah’s administration, (Neh_10:30;) but, perhaps, the ones now guilty were not among that number.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I contended with them, and cursed them. Or, "reviled them," as Gesenius and Professor Lee explain. And smote certain of them. i.e. "had some of them beaten." Some understand by this that the offenders underwent the bastinado by sentence of a court; (Deu_25:2) others think Nehemiah had them struck informally by his attendants. This latter explanation "is supported by the following clause, since "plucking out the hair" was never a legal punishment. Made them swear by God. Literally, "swore them by God," i.e. dictated the words, and made them repeat the formula and accept the oath. Saying, Ye shall not give. Literally, "If ye shall give," etc. Nehemiah made them swear that they should intermarry with the heathen the curse of God should fall upon them.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Cursed - Caused them to be excommunicated and cast out of the society of God's people. This and the following punishments were justly inflicted upon them, because this transgression was contrary both to a plain law of God, and to their own late solemn covenants. Smote - I caused to be beaten with stripes, according to the law, Deut. xxv, 2, such whose faults were most aggravated; to whom he added this punishment over and above the former. Plucked off - Or, shaved them. The hair was an ensign of liberty among the eastern nations; and baldness was a disgrace, and token of slavery and sorrow.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

With these people also Nehemiah contended (אריב like Neh 13:11 and Neh 13:17), cursed them, smote certain of their men, and plucked off their hair (מרט, see rem. on Ezr 9:3), and made them swear by God: Ye shall not give your daughters, etc.; comp. Neh 10:31. On the recurrence of such marriages after the separations effected by Ezra of those existing at his arrival at Jerusalem. Nehemiah did not insist on the immediate dissolution of these marriages, but caused the men to swear that they would desist from such connections, setting before them, in Neh 13:26, how grievous a sin they were committing. "Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin on account of these?" (אלּה על, on account of strange wives). And among many nations there was no king like him (comp. Kg1 3:12., Ch2 1:12); and he was beloved of his God (alluding to Sa2 12:24), and God made him king over all Israel (Kg1 4:1); and even him did foreign women cause to sin (comp. Kg1 11:1-3). "And of you is it heard to do (that ye do) all this great evil, to transgress against our God, and to marry strange wives?" Bertheau thus rightly understands the sentence: "If the powerful King Solomon was powerless to resist the influence of foreign wives, and if he, the beloved God, found in his relation to God no defence against the sin to which they seduced him, is it not unheard of for you to commit so great an evil?" He also rightly explains הנשׁמע according to Deu 9:23; while Gesenius in his Thes. still takes it, like Rambach, as the first person imperf.: nobisne morem geramus faciendo; or: Should we obey you to do so great an evil? (de Wette); which meaning - apart from the consideration that no obedience, but only toleration of the illegal act, is here in question - greatly weakens, if it does not quite destroy, the contrast between Solomon and לכם.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

I confronted them

"I spoke directly to them about what they had done"

I hit some of them

Nehemiah hit some of them with his hands.

I made them swear by God

"I made them say a promise before God"

Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of these women?

Nehemiah uses a rhetorical question to scold the men. This can be translated as a statement. AT: "You know that Solomon king of Israel sinned on account of these women." (See: Rhetorical Question)

Should we then listen to you and do all this great evil, and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?

Nehemiah uses a rhetorical question to scold the men. This can be translated as a statement. AT: "We will not listen to you or do this great evil or act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women." (See: Rhetorical Question)

translationWords

curse

oath

God

son

Solomon

king

Israel

sin

nation

love

alien

evil

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

and I struck I gave them lashes in order to chastise them and remind them.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.