Nehemiah 11 · a question people ask
Which king gave the commandment in 11:23?
The chapter doesn't name him. "For there was a commandment from the king concerning them" (11:23), and Pethahiah "was at the king’s hand in all matters concerning the people" (11:24). The king Nehemiah served is named in the book: "Artaxerxes the king" (2:1), "Artaxerxes king of Babylon" (13:6). The next chapter speaks of Levites who praised "according to the commandment of David the man of God" (12:24), and of the singers and the gatekeepers "according to the commandment of David and of Solomon his son" (12:45). The chapter doesn't say which king 11:23 means, and this study doesn't either.
The verses
“For there was a commandment from the king concerning them, and a settled provision for the singers, as every day required. Pethahiah the son of Meshezabel, of the children of Zerah the son of Judah, was at the king’s hand in all matters concerning the people.”
“In the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, when wine was before him, I picked up the wine, and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad before in his presence.”
“But in all this, I was not at Jerusalem; for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king; and after some days I asked leave of the king,”
“The chiefs of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua the son of Kadmiel, with their brothers close to them, to praise and give thanks according to the commandment of David the man of God, section next to section.”