Few things can be more boring than reading a list of names in a genealogical record. It is difficult to see their importance to folks living today, but their value was of great importance to those Jews who returned to Jerusalem during the reign of Cyrus the Persian and afterward. How so? It is because only Jews were permitted to have an inheritance in the land. When the land was divided up, it was to go to the descendants of families who owned the land prior to Nebuchadnezzar’s bringing them captive to Babylon. When the genealogical record wasn’t kept properly, there were consequences, as far as inheritance is concerned, and what responsibilities those folks could have (cp. Nehemiah 7:61-65). A search was made for the record of the Jews who returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel from the captivity, and, once it was found, it was used, probably, to determine property rights within the city, because now that the wall around Jerusalem was built, so the houses could be built, as well.
Nehemiah claimed that the Lord put it in his heart to call a meeting with the nobles, the rulers and the people. In other words, the meeting with the elite members of Jewish society was open to the public. What Nehemiah decided to do was to reckon the nobles and the rulers and the people, as well, according to their genealogical record (Nehemiah 7:5). However, what does this mean? What was Nehemiah up to, and why is it important that he even mentions this meeting? What could be so important about a genealogical record that it had to be searched for and found? Nehemiah had a purpose in mind, and searched for the genealogical record of the first Jews who came to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel and Jeshua, in the release granted by Cyrus, king of Persia (Ezra 1:1-3; 2:1-2).[1]
At first, the seventh chapter of the Book of Nehemiah, following upon finishing the length of the wall, vis-à-vis closing all the breaches (Nehemiah 6:15-16), that Nehemiah immediately set up the gates at that time. However, this simply isn’t so. It would do little good to set up gates for a wall that wasn’t finished. Therefore, Nehemiah 7 must begin at his return to Jerusalem, which was probably several months prior to Ezra’s arrival, or in the seventh year of King Xerxes (cp. Ezra 7:7). In other words, Nehemiah didn’t arrive until the wall around Jerusalem had been completely finished and was ready to have faithful men placed in authority over the gates and other matters pertaining to the wall (Nehemiah 7:1-3). Therefore, the meeting mentioned in verse-5 must occur after the wall was finished, but before its dedication (Nehemiah 7:1; cp. 12:27).
It was not long after the completion of the wall, which occurred after the completion of the Temple (Ezra 6:15), that Ezra arrived in Jerusalem (Ezra 7:8-9). He arrived during the 7th year of the reign of Xerxes (called Artaxerxes in Ezra 7:1, 7, 11, 12, 28; 8:1). Ezra had become astonished and overwhelmed in grief, when it was told him that the Jews, including the nobility and the priests and Levites had not been faithful to the Lord in remaining separate from the heathen (Ezra 9:1-3). It is in this context, therefore, that I believe Nehemiah 7:5 needs to be read and understood. The Lord placed it in Nehemiah’s heart to search for the original genealogical record of those Jews who had come up with Zerubbabel and Jeshua. It was noted there that there were consequences that had to be paid for those who came up without a pure genealogical record.
Nehemiah searched for this record to emphasize to the nobility, the rulers, the priests, the Levites and the rest of the people, that they bore the responsibility of separating themselves from the heathen (Nehemiah 7:61; cp. Ezra 2:59), if they wished to have an inheritance in the land. Yes, and more so, even if they wished to be considered Jews at all! Every Jew from the common folk to the nobility would be reckoned according to their genealogy (Nehemiah 7:5).
Cooperation in this matter would be enforced to the point of excommunication from Jewish society, if obedience to the Law of Moses, the “Constitutional Law”[2] of the Jews, wasn’t observed (cp. Ezra 10:8). Everyone who originally came up to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel and Jeshua had been given his inheritance, vis-à-vis everyone unto his city (Ezra 2:1; cp. Nehemiah 7:6). So, after the arrival of Ezra in the fifth month (Ezra 7:8-9), the seventh month had come, and all the Jews of the release under Cyrus were dwelling in their inheritance, or their own city (Nehemiah 7:73). The plan was Ezra would read from the Law and convict the people of their sin of rebellion (cp. Nehemiah 8:1-2), and make them understand that they and their inheritance in the land would be reckoned according to their genealogy.
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[1] Note that there was an important man, named Nehemiah (Ezra 2:2; Nehemiah 7:7), who was part of the first release, under Cyrus. This man couldn’t have been the same Nehemiah of the book named after him. He came some 25 to 30 years later, during the reign of Darius Hystaspes, called Artaxerxes in the Book of Nehemiah.
[2] That is, the Law of Moses wasn’t simply a moral law to be observed or not, as one sees it today, The Law of Moses was to the Jew what the American Constitution is to the citizens of the United States. All folks, who are sworn in to serve American society, are sworn to obey and preserve the Constitution of the U.S.
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