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Nehemiah 12 Bible study: Two great thanksgivings

Nehemiah 12's two choirs are, in Hebrew, "two great thanksgivings"; 12:43 says rejoice or joy five times in Hebrew and says God made them rejoice, the women and the children too, loud enough to be heard far away; and Nehemiah, never "I" from 8:1 to 12:30, is back on the wall.

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“They offered great sacrifices that day, and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; and the women and the children also rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even far away.”
Nehemiah 12:43 · World English Bible

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“Nehemiah 12:31 is told in the first person: "Then I brought the princes of Judah up on the wall."”

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What's really going on

Priests counted by their days

In the text

The chapter opens with a list: "Now these are the priests and the Levites who went up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua" (12:1). "These were the chiefs of the priests and of their brothers in the days of Jeshua" (12:7). Then comes a line from father to son, from "Jeshua became the father of Joiakim" (12:10) to "Jonathan became the father of Jaddua" (12:11). After that, the lists are dated by those men's days: "In the days of Joiakim were priests, heads of fathers’ households" (12:12), and "in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan, and Jaddua" (12:22). Many names from the first list come back in the second, each house now with the man at its head in Joiakim's days: "of Seraiah, Meraiah; of Jeremiah, Hananiah" (12:12), "of Ezra, Meshullam; of Amariah, Jehohanan" (12:13). Some names in the second list are close to names in the first without being the same, like "Ginnethoi" (12:4) and "Ginnethon" (12:16), and the chapter doesn't explain. The part closes, "These were in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor, and of Ezra the priest and scribe" (12:26).

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The rest of Nehemiah 12 is waiting in Favor

  • Two great thanksgivings
  • God had made them rejoice
  • Portions for those who served
  • The wall, walked
  • "The commandment of David the man of God"
  • Joy from God, and joy from Jesus
  • 18 questions as you read
  • 12 more Hebrew words
  • A short check at the end
  • Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it

תּוֹדָהtodahsay to-DAH

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "thanksgiving", and among its senses, "thanksgiving choir, procession, line, company". Strong's: "from 3034", the verb yadah, which the WEB gives as "give thanks" in 12:24; and "specifically, a choir of worshippers". In 12:31, "two great companies who gave thanks" is, in Hebrew, shetei todot gedolot, literally "two great thanksgivings". The same word names "The other company of those who gave thanks" (12:38) and "the two companies of those who gave thanks" (12:40), and it is behind "with giving thanks" in 12:27. These four are its only uses in the Hebrew of Nehemiah. In Leviticus it was an offering: "If he offers it for a thanksgiving" (Leviticus 7:12).

For your group

Nehemiah 12 Bible study questions

  1. 1The wall was dedicated "with gladness, both with giving thanks and with singing" (12:27). When something hard in your life is finished, how do you usually mark it? What would giving thanks look like?
  2. 2In 12:43, "the women and the children also rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even far away". Who do you want beside you when you celebrate what God has done? Who might be left out?
  3. 3"Judah rejoiced for the priests and for the Levites who served" (12:44), and gave them their portions. Who serves you in ways you rarely notice, and how could you rejoice for them this week?

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Questions

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