NEHEMIAH.
§ I.
NEHEMIAH
OBTAINS
PERMISSION TO
REBUILD
JERUSALEM.
i. 1-ii. 20.
1. He Is Distressed about the Condition of the City and the
People.
i. 1-11.
- Which month is called Chislev?
- Twentieth year of whom?
1, cf. ii. 1.
- Was it news to him that the walls had been broken down?
3.
- Why then such distress?
4.
- Whence the quotation in
8, 9, cf. Deut. xxx. 1-5.
- What mercy in the sight of the king desired?
11, cf. ii. 5.
- What the duties of the cupbearer?
11.
2. His Request Is Granted.
ii. 1-8.
- Which month was Nisan?
1.
- How long his mourning? Cf.
i. 1.
- Why was he afraid?
2.
- Why did he pray?
4, 5.
- Why was the queen present?
6.
- Why wish the letters?
7, 8.
- What was "the king's forest"?
- How long was this after Ezra's commission?
1, cf. Ez. vii. 8.
3. His Journey, and a Secret Examination of the Ruins.
9-16.
4. His Purpose Made Known, and the Enemy Excited.
17-20.
§ II.
THE
WALLS
REBUILT.
iii. 1-iv. 23.
1. The Work Distributed in Forty-two Sections.
iii. 1-32.
- Why this distribution?
- Why say, "builded" for some, and "repaired" for the rest?
- What the value of this chapter?
2. The Enemies Mock, and Nehemiah prays.
iv. 1-6.
- What the motive of Sanballat?
- Why did Nehemiah pray for their captivity?
4, 5.
- Why the work so rapid?
6.
3. A Plot of the Enemy Defeated.
7-15.
- Why was Judah discouraged?
10.
- Who were the Jews "which dwelt by them"?
12.
4. Precaution against an Attack.
16-23.
- Who meant by, "half of my servants"?
16.
- How work with one hand, and hold a weapon with the other?
17.
- Why not undress?
23.
- Meaning of, "went with his weapon to the water"?
23.
§ III.
OPPRESSION OF THE
POOR
BROKEN
UP.
v. 1-19.
1. Complaints of Suffering and Usury.
v. 1-5.
- Why mortgage rather than sell?
- What law was there for mortgaging?
- What right to sell their children?
5.
- Cause of this trouble?
2. The Evil Corrected.
6-13.
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- How could it be claimed that usury was wrong?
7.
- Why exact it of the heathen?
10.
- What fields, etc. restored?
11, cf. 3.
- Why restore the hundredth part?
11.
- Meaning of, "shake out"?
13.
3. Nehemiah's Own Example.
14-19.
- Meaning of, "bread of the governor"?
14.
- Point in not buying land?
16.
- Why the one hundred and fifty men at his table?
17.
- How was he able to bear the expense?
- What effect had his example in correcting usury?
- Why pray, "Remember unto me, O my God, for good"?
19.
§ IV.
THE
PLOTTINGS OF THE
ENEMY.
vi. 1-vii. 4.
1. A Conference Requested.
vi. 1-4.
- Meaning of, "doors in the gates"?
1.
- Purpose of the request?
2.
- Force of his response?
3.
2. A False Charge Presented.
5-9.
3. Treacherous Counsel within the City.
10-14.
- Meaning of, "shut up"?
10.
- What would have been the sin and evil report?
- Why these false prophets?
14.
- Why the prayer against them?
14.
4. Treacherous Correspondence with Tobiah.
15-19.
- Which the month Elul?
15.
- How could they build the wall in fifty two days?
15.
- In what sense, "sworn unto him"? [135]
18.
- Design of the correspondence?
18, 19.
- When had these marriages taken place?
18, cf. Ez. ix. 14.
5. The City carefully Guarded.
vii. 1-4.
- Why was Hanani present?
2, cf. i. 1, 2.
- Meaning of, "governor of the castle"?
2.
- Why open so late?
3.
- Why every watcher opposite his own house?
3.
- Why so few inhabitants?
4.
§ V.
THE
GENEALOGY OF
ZERUBBABEL'S
CARAVAN.
vii. 5-73.
- Why this repeated? Cf.
Ez. ii. 1-70.
- What differences? and how accounted for?
- Meaning of, "the book of the genealogy"?
5, cf. Matt. i. 1.
- Where had it been kept?
§ VI.
THE
READING OF THE
LAW.
viii. 1-18.
1. The Time, the Place and The Reading.
viii. 1-3.
- What prompted the people's request?
- How long the reading?
- Meaning of, "broad place that was before the water gate"?
1, cf. viii. 16.
- Had the outer court of the temple been walled in?
2. The Method of Procedure.
4-8.
- Why the thirteen with Ezra?
4.
- Why the other thirteen?
7.
- Why did the people stand up?
5, 6.
- How did the Levites cause "the people to understand"?
7, 8.
3. The People Comforted.
9-12.
- Why the weeping?
9.
- Why was the day holy?
9, cf. 2.
- Why give presents and make mirth?
12.
4. The Feast of Tabernacles Observed.
13-18.
[136]
- Why only the heads of houses the second day?
13.
- What is that had not been done since Joshua? and why?
17.
- Why the reading every day?
18,
cf. Deut. xxxi. 10, 11.
§ VII. A
CONFESSION OF
SINS AND A
COVENANT.
ix. 1-x. 39.
1. A Penitent Assembly.
ix. 1-3.
- Why the fasting and humiliation?
1, cf. viii. 9, 10.
- How long after the feast?
1.
- Why another reading?
3.
2. A Prayer of the Levites.
4-33.
- What the general character of the prayer?
- To what Old Testament books did they allude?
- In what sense were they servants?
36, 37.
- What covenant and sealings?
38.
3. The Parties Who Sealed the Covenant.
x. 1-29.
4. The Statutes Which They Covenanted To Keep.
30-39.
§ VIII. A
REPEOPLING OF
JERUSALEM.
xi. 1-36.
1. The Plan Adopted.
xi. 1, 2.
- What the policy of it? and why needed?
2. A Register of the Chiefs in the City.
3-24.
3. The Cities of Judah and Benjamin at This Time Inhabited.
25-36.
§ IX.
THE
DEDICATION OF THE
WALLS.
xii. 1-47.
1. A Register of Priests and Levites.
xii. 1-26.
- To what date is it brought down?
22.
- Did Nehemiah write all of it? cf.
x. 11; xiii. 28.
2. The Walls Are Dedicated.
27-43.
- State in brief the process.
- Who led the two processions?
36, 38.
3. Keepers of Tithes Appointed.
44-47.
§ X.
CERTAIN
REFORMS
EFFECTED BY
NEHEMIAH.
xiii. 1-31.
1. Separation from the Moabites and Ammonites.
xiii. 1-3.
2. An Unlawful Privilege of Tobiah Broken Up.
4-9.
3. Neglected Tithes Restored.
10-14.
- Why had the Levites fled to the fields?
10.
- Why the tithes neglected so often?
4. Sabbath-breaking Broken Up.
15-22.
- Why appoint Levites over the city gates?
22.
5. Heathen Marriages Broken Up.
23-31.
- In what sense did he curse them?
25.
- Why so different from [138]
Ezra?
25, cf. Ex. ix. 1-3.
- Force of the reference to Solomon?
26.
- Why chase the son of Joiada away?
28.
- What became of him?
1,
cf. Josephus, Antiquities, XI. viii. 4.
- At what date does the history close?
6.
[The thirty-second year of Artaxerxes = B. C. 431.]
- To what date is the genealogy of the priests brought down?
xii. 10, 11, 22,
cf. Josephus, Antiquities, XI. viii. 4.
[Alexander's invasion was B. C. 332.]
- When, then, was the book completed?
REVIEW.
NEHEMIAH.
- What was the distinctive work of Nehemiah?
- What motive prompted him to undertake it?
- When, where, and under what circumstances did he conceive the purpose?
- What danger in avowing it? and how averted?
- How was he affected when he heard the condition of Jerusalem, and of the
returned captives?
- What authority did he obtain for his purpose?
- What were his first movements on reaching Jerusalem?
- How did he distribute the work of rebuilding?
- With what opposition did he meet? and how did he provide against it?
- What evil among his own people did he discover? and how did he correct it?
- What example of unselfishness did he set before them?
- When the work was nearly completed, what new plots of the enemy?
- What treacherous advice from his friends?
- What [139]
treacherous correspondence was detected?
- What precautions were then taken against a sudden attack?
- What document is copied in
chapter vii. 1-73?
- Whence obtained?
- As it is found in Ezra and Nehemiah both, what inference as to the
authorship of the two books?
- How the differences accounted for?
- When, and where did Ezra begin his work of publicly teaching the law?
- How long after he first came to Jerusalem? Cf.
Ez. vii. 7.
- Where had he been all this time?
- Describe the reading and interpretation.
- What festival was now renewed, and how observed?
- Describe the proceedings of an assembly which followed.
- What knowledge of history seen in the prayer of the Levites?
- What the general character of the covenant which was made and sealed?
- Why the ritual of the law made so prominent?
- How was the population of Jerusalem increased?
- Why such a measure needed?
- Describe the dedication of the walls.
- What reforms effected by Nehemiah at his second visit to Jerusalem?
- What became of the priest who was chased away?
- What became of Nehemiah?
- At what date does this history close?
- To what date is the genealogy of the high priest extended?
MALACHI.
i. 1-iv. 6.
1. The Time of This Prophecy?
(1.) After the temple service had been restored.
i. 10; iii. 10.
(2.) In a time of unlawful marriages.
ii. 11.
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(3). When the tithes had been withheld.
iii. 8-10.
2. Its Design?
(1.) To support the reforms of Nehemiah.
Neh. xiii. 1-31.
(2.) A Messianic prediction.
iv. 1-6.
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[CNSH2 133-141]
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