Nehemiah 7 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
late 445 BC, immediately after the wall was completed, drawing on a register from the first return under Zerubbabel around 538 BC
Location
Jerusalem, a large walled city with very few residents inside it, and the surrounding towns of Judah
Audience
Jews in restored Jerusalem, tracing their own families back to the first company that came home from Babylon
Situation
Nehemiah appoints gatekeepers, singers, and Levites, orders the gates kept shut until the sun is hot and guarded by residents, then finds and reproduces the genealogical register of the first group who returned from exile, since the city stood large and empty and needed repopulating.
Key Background
City gates normally opened at dawn, so holding them shut until full daylight was an unusual security measure taken while the population was too small to defend the circuit. Descent records mattered practically rather than sentimentally: they established the right to reclaim ancestral land and, for priestly families, the right to serve at the altar, and the chapter notes families who could not produce proof and were barred from priestly food until a decision could be made. The list also counts temple servants, singers, and animals, showing what a returning community actually consisted of, and its totals are echoed in Ezra 2, where the same register appears with small differences typical of copied administrative documents.
After the wall had been rebuilt and I had set the doors in place, the the singers, and the were appointed.
I put my brother Hanani in charge of Jerusalem, along with Hananiah the commander of the fortress, because he was a of who more than most people.
I told them, "The gates of Jerusalem shouldn't be opened until the sun is hot. While the guards are still on duty, have them shut and bolt the doors. And appoint guards from among the residents of Jerusalem—some at their assigned posts, and some in front of their own houses."
Now the city was large and spacious, but the population was small, and the houses hadn't been rebuilt yet.
My God it in my to assemble the nobles, the officials, and the common people to be registered by genealogy. I found the genealogical record of those who had come up first, and I found this written in it:
These are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles whom King of Babylon had taken captive. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town.
They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, and Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:
the descendants of Parosh: 2,172;
the descendants of Shephatiah: 372;
the descendants of Arah: 652;
the descendants of Pahath-moab, through the line of Jeshua and Joab: 2,818;
the descendants of Elam: 1,254;
the descendants of Zattu: 845;
the descendants of Zaccai: 760;
the descendants of Binnui: 648;
the descendants of Bebai: 628;
the descendants of Azgad: 2,322;
the descendants of Adonikam: 667;
the descendants of Bigvai: 2,067;
the descendants of Adin: 655;
the descendants of Ater, through Hezekiah: 98;
the descendants of Hashum: 328;
the descendants of Bezai: 324;
the descendants of Hariph: 112;
the descendants of Gibeon: 95;
the men of Bethlehem and Netophah: 188;
the men of Anathoth: 128;
the men of Beth-azmaveth: 42;
the men of Kiriath-jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth: 743;
the men of Ramah and Geba: 621;
the men of Michmas: 122;
the men of Bethel and Ai: 123;
the men of the other Nebo: 52;
the descendants of the other Elam: 1,254;
the descendants of Harim: 320;
the descendants of Jericho: 345;
the descendants of Lod, Hadid, and Ono: 721;
the descendants of Senaah: 3,930.
The priests: the descendants of Jedaiah, through the house of Jeshua: 973;
the descendants of Immer: 1,052;
the descendants of Pashhur: 1,247;
the descendants of Harim: 1,017.
The Levites: the descendants of Jeshua, through Kadmiel, through the descendants of Hodevah: 74.
The singers: the descendants of Asaph: 148.
The gatekeepers: the descendants of Shallum, Ater, Talmon, Akkub, Hatita, and Shobai: 138.
The temple servants: the descendants of Ziha, Hasupha, Tabbaoth,
Keros, Sia, Padon,
Lebana, Hagaba, Shalmai,
Hanan, Giddel, Gahar,
Reaiah, Rezin, Nekoda,