Nehemiah 13:28

Neh 13:28 And [one] of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, [was] son in law to Sanballat the Horonite: therefore I chased him from me.

Ver. 28. And one of the sons of Joiada] His grandson Manasses, brother to Jaddua the high priest, a vile apostate, and first author of that famous schism and deadly feud between the Samaritans and Jews, Joh 4:20 (Joseph. lib. xi.).

Was son-in-law to Sanballat] Who, to keep him to his wife, built a fair temple on Mount Gerizim, hard by the city of Sychem, and made Manasses chief priest thereof.

Therefore I chased him from me] I caused him to be excommunicated, and banished from amongst us.

Remember them, O my God] For evil, as me for good, Neh 13:31, and in both remember the relation that is between thee and my soul. Woe be to those whom God’s people do thus turn over to him to be punished.

Because they have defiled the priesthood] Corruptio optimi pessima: as sweetest wine makes the sourest vinegar. A wicked priest is the worst creature upon earth.

And the covenant, &c.] {See Trapp on "Mal 2:4"}

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.

13:28 Even the family of the high priest, who were supposed to be Israel’s spiritual leaders, had participated in the sin of intermarriage with unbelieving foreigners (cp. Lev 21:14). Nehemiah banished the offender, stripping him of status and removing his rights in the Jewish community.

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

Verse 28. One of the sons of Joiada] This was Manasseh, brother of Jaddua, son of Joiada, and grandson of Eliashib the high priest.

I chased him from me.] Struck him off the list of the priests, and deemed him utterly unworthy of all connection and intercourse with truly religious people.

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

(28) I chased him from me.—Eliashib himself was allied by marriage to Tobiah, and one of his grandsons was now brought into prominence as married to Sanballat. Him Nehemiah drove into exile.

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

28. one of the sons of Joiada] We should gather that Eliashib the grandfather was still alive, since the emphasis lies on the relationship of the offender to the high-priest. ‘Joiada.’ Cf. Neh_12:10. On Eliashib see note on Neh_13:4.

son in law to Sanballat the Horonite] For Sanballat, cf. Neh_2:10, Neh 3:33, Neh_4:1, Neh_6:1. The marriage of the high-priest’s grandson with Sanballat’s daughter was an offence in every way. (1) It showed treasonable alliance with Israel’s bitterest foe, (2) it violated the rule laid down in Ezra’s time against mixed marriages, (3) it compromised the purity of the high-priestly house (Lev_21:6 ff.).

therefore I chased him from me] LXX. ἐξέβρασα. Obviously because he was contumacious, and refused to put away his wife. Rashi’s explanation that Nehemiah chased him away for fear of his playing the spy and reporting the means of entering and leaving the city, is strangely inadequate. Josephus relates a story so similar to this that it should probably be referred to the same events, although he must have obtained it from some other source. According to Josephus (Ant. xi. 7, 8) a certain Manasse, the brother of Jaddua and son of John or Johanan (and therefore grandson not son of Joiada) took to wife Nikaso, the daughter of the Cuthaean Sanballat. Refusing to put her away, he was expelled from Jerusalem by the Jewish nobles, and took refuge with the Samaritans, among whom, as a member of the high-priestly family, he set up upon Mt Gerizim a rival temple and priesthood. It will be seen that Josephus assigns this to the period of Alexander the Great. But there it is probable that Josephus is at fault; for he completely fails to realize the interval of time between the Return from the Exile and the Age of Alexander; and it is to this chronological confusion rather than to a mistake of ‘Jaddua’ for ‘Joiada’ that we should ascribe the cause of his principal variation from the Memoirs of Nehemiah. For (1) in Alexander’s time the organization of the Samaritan worship had long been fully established, (2) it is very improbable that a repetition of such a striking incident should occur just a century after Nehemiah’s time.

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 for the wood offering, at times appointed,.... Of which see Neh 10:34. Levites were appointed to receive the wood that was brought at the times and by the persons fixed, and lay it up in its proper place, and carry it to the altar when wanted:

and for the first fruits; to receive and take care of them, and distribute them to the persons to whom they belonged:

remember me, O my God, for good; to bless him with all good things, temporal and spiritual, to keep him faithful, to make him useful in church and state, and protect him from all his enemies: or rather this may respect what goes before, that as to the wood offering and the firstfruits, that God would graciously remember him as to them, since the one was as necessary to the altar as the other was to those that minister at it.

Next: Esther Introduction

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

One. Manasses, brother of Jaddus. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] xi. 8.) --- Sanaballet, noted for his enmity towards the Jews, chap. vi. 1. He obtained leave of Alexander to build the famous temple on Garizim, for this son-in-law. He must have been 150 yeas old when Alexander laid siege to Tyre, the year of the world 3672. Esdras and Nehemias were noted for their great age. Yet some would suppose that there were two of the name of Sanaballet; and Josephus says that the one in question was appointed governor of Samaria by Darius, the last king of the Persians. This opinion is adopted by Usher, the year of the world 3972. (Tirinus, &c.) --- But there is still a difficulty to know whether it be necessary. (Calmet) --- From me. In revenge he set up an opposition altar. (Haydock) --- He had contracted a marriage, which was unlawful for all, and entailed degradation upon priests.

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).

Joiada; said by Josephus to be that Manasses who by Sanballat’s interest procured liberty to build the Samaritan temple in Mount Gerizim; to which those priests who had married strange wives, or been otherwise criminal, betook themselves, and with or after them others of the people in the same or like circumstances.

I chased him from me, i.e. from my presence and court, and from the city and temple, and all the privileges of the priesthood, and from the whole congregation and church of Israel, whereof I am a member.

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

28. One of the sons of Joiada — Not Jonathan or Johanan, (Neh_12:11; Neh_12:22,) but a younger and less prominent member of the high priest’s family. The fact, however, that he was a son of the high priest made the matter of his foreign marriage the more notorious, and called for the greater severity on the part of the governor.

Sanballat — See on chapter Neh_2:10.

I chased him from me — Expelled and banished him from the province of Judea. Josephus (Antiq., Neh_11:7; Neh_11:2) relates this incident of Manasseh, a brother of Jaddua, and places it in the reign of Darius Codomannus the last king of Persia. In this, as in some other things, he seems to have fallen into a confusion of names and dates. He also relates how the excommunicated priest went over to Sanballat and became high priest of the Samaritan temple which was built upon Mount Gerizim.

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

One of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib. See Neh_12:10. Eliashib seems to have been still living, though one of his grandsons was of age to contract a marriage. Was son-in-law to Sanballat, the Horonite. Had therefore married one of his daughters, while Eliashib himself was connected by marriage with Tobiah. The defection of the high priestly family from those principles which Ezra and Nehemiah regarded as vital is only too apparent. I chased him from me . i.e. I forced him to quit the country and become an exile. We may suppose that he refused to repudiate his foreign wife, and preferred to take refuge with Sanballat in Samaria.

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

And one, &c. - Said by Josephus to be that Manasses, who by Sanballat's interest procured liberty to build the Samaritan temple in mount Gerizim; to which those priests who had married strange wives, or been otherwise criminal, betook themselves, and with, or after them, others of the people in the same or like circumstances. Chased - From my presence and court, from the city and temple, and from the congregation and church of Israel.

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

Nehemiah acted with greater severity towards one of the sons of Joiada the high priest, and son-in-law of Sanballat. He drove him from him (מעלי, that he might not be a burden to me). The reason for this is not expressly stated, but is involved in the fact that he was son-in-law to Sanballat, i.e., had married a daughter of Sanballat the Horonite (Neh 2:10), who was so hostile to Nehemiah and to the Jewish community in general, and would not comply with the demand of Nehemiah that he should dismiss this wife. In this case, Nehemiah was obliged to interfere with authority. For this marriage was a pollution of the priesthood, and a breach of the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites. Hence he closes the narrative of this occurrence with the wish, Neh 13:29, that God would be mindful of them (להם, of those who had done such evil) on account of this pollution, etc., i.e., would punish or chastise them for it. גּאלי, stat. constr. pl. from גּאל, pollution (plurale tant.). It was a pollution of the priesthood to marry a heathen woman, such marriage being opposed to the sacredness of the priestly office, which a priest was to consider even in the choice of a wife, and because of which he might marry neither a whore, nor a feeble nor a divorced woman, while the high priest mighty marry only a virgin of his own people (Lev 21:7, Lev 21:14). The son of Joiada who had married a daughter of Sanballat was not indeed his presumptive successor (Johanan, Neh 12:11), for then he would have been spoken of by name, but a younger son, and therefore a simple priest; he was, however, so nearly related to the high priest, that by his marriage with a heathen woman the holiness of the high-priestly house was polluted, and therewith also "the covenant of the priesthood," i.e., not the covenant of the everlasting priesthood which God granted to Phinehas for his zeal (Num 25:13), but the covenant which God concluded with the tribe of Levi, the priesthood, and the Levites, by choosing the tribe of Levi, and of that tribe Aaron and his descendants, to be His priest (לו לכהנו, Exo 28:1). This covenant required, on the part of the priests, that they should be "holy to the Lord" (Lev 21:6, Lev 21:8), who had chosen them to be ministers of His sanctuary and stewards of His grace.

Josephus (Ant. xi. 7. 2) relates the similar fact, that Manasseh, a brother of the high priest Jaddua, married Nikaso, a daughter of the satrap Sanballat, a Cuthite; that when the Jewish authorities on that account excluded him from the priesthood, he established, by the assistant of his father-in-law, the temple and worship on Mount Gerizim (xi. 8. 2-4), and that many priests made common cause with him. Now, though Josephus calls this Manasseh a brother of Jaddua, thus making him a grandson of Joiada, and transposing the establishment of the Samaritan worship on Gerizim to the last years of Darius Codomannus and the first of Alexander of Macedon, it can scarcely be misunderstood that, notwithstanding these discrepancies, the same occurrence which Nehemiah relates in the present verses is intended by Josephus. The view of older theologians, to which also Petermann (art. Samaria in Herzog's Realenc. xiii. p. 366f.) assents, that there were two Sanballats, one in the days of Nehemiah, the other in the time of Alexander the Great, and that both had sons-in-law belonging to the high-priestly family, is very improbable; and the transposition of the fact by Josephus to the times of Darius Codomannus and Alexander accords with the usual and universally acknowledged incorrectness of his chronological combinations. He makes, e.g., Nehemiah arrive at Jerusalem in the twenty-fifth year of Xerxes, instead of the twentieth of Artaxerxes, while Xerxes reigned only twenty years.

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.)

Joiada ... Eliashib ... Sanballat

These are the names of men. (See: How to Translate Names)

the Horonite

This refers to a person from the city of Beth Horon. (See: How to Translate Names)

I caused him to flee from my presence

"I chased him away" or "I made him leave Jerusalem"

Call them to mind

"Think about them" or "Remember what they have done." See how you translated a similar phrase in Nehemiah 13:14.

they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites

Causing the priesthood to be dishonored and breaking the covenant is spoken of as if they made the priesthood and covenant physically unclean. AT: "they have dishonored the priesthood and broken the covenant you made with the priests and Levites" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

son

high priest

call

mind

God

defile

priest

covenant

Levi

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 [one] of the sons of Joiada...was the son in law of Sanballat One of the sons of Joiada was the son-in-law of Sanballat, the adversary of the Jews; thus, I drove him away from me so that he should not frequent Jerusalem because of his son-in-law, to see the city and the ways to enter and leave it.

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.