Nehemías 10

VBL · Chapter 10/13

1El documento fue sellado por: Nehemías el gobernador, hijo de Hacalías.

2Seraías, Azarías, Jeremías,

3Pasur, Amarías, Malquías,

4Hatús, Sebanías, Maluc,

5Harim, Meremot, Obadías,

6Daniel, Ginetón, Baruc,

7Mesulam, Abías, Mijamín,

8Maazías, Bilgai y Semaías; estos eran sacerdotes.

9Los levitas: Jesúa hijo de Azanías, Binúi, de los hijos de Henadad, Cadmiel,

10y sus hermanos Sebanías, Hodías, Kelita, Pelaías, Hanán,

11Micaía, Rehob, Hasabías,

12Zacur, Serebías, Sebanías,

13Hodías, Bani y Beninu.

14Los líderes del pueblo: Paros, Pahat-moab, Elam, Zatu, Bani,

15Buni, Azgad, Bebai,

16Adonías, Bigvai, Adin,

17Ater, Ezequías, Azur,

18Hodías, Hasum, Bezai,

19Harif, Anatot, Nebai,

20Magpías, Mesulam, Hezir,

21Mesezabeel, Sadoc, Jadúa,

22Pelatías, Hanán, Anaías,

23Oseas, Ananías, Hasub,

24Halohes, Pilha, Sobec,

25Rehum, Hasabna, Maasías,

26Ahías, Hanán, Anán,

27Maluc, Harim y Baana.

28El resto del pueblo, incluidos los sacerdotes, los levitas, los porteros, los cantores y los servidores del Templo, y todos los que se habían separado del pueblo de la tierra para guardar la Ley de Dios, así como sus esposas y todos sus hijos e hijas que tuvieran edad suficiente para entender,

29se unieron a los líderes para jurar seguir la Ley de Dios dada a través de Moisés, el siervo de Dios, para prestar atención y llevar a cabo todos los mandatos del Señor, nuestro Dios, sus normas y reglamentos.

30“Prometemos no permitir que nuestras hijas se casen con el pueblo de la tierra, y no permitir que nuestros hijos se casen con sus hijas.

31Cuando los pueblos de la tierra traigan mercancías y toda clase de alimentos para venderlos en el santo día de reposo, no les compraremos nada en el día de reposo ni en los demás días sagrados. Cada siete años dejaremos que la tierradescanse, y anularemos todas las deudas.

32“Aceptamos la obligación de pagar un tercio de siclo para el funcionamiento del Templo de Dios,

33para el pan de la proposición, para las ofrendas regulares de grano y los holocaustos, para las ofrendas del sábado, para la luna nueva y las fiestas anuales, para las ofrendas sagradas, para las ofrendas por el pecado para hacer expiación por Israel, en fin, todo lo que tiene lugar en el Templo de nuestro Dios.

34“Hemos repartido por sorteo entre los sacerdotes, los levitas y el pueblo, para determinar quiénes traerán leña al Templo de nuestro Dios para quemarla en el altar del Señor, nuestro Dios, en determinados momentos del año, como lo exige la Ley.

35“También prometemos traer cada año al Templo del Señor la primera parte de los productos de nuestros campos y de todos los árboles frutales.

36Llevaremos los primogénitos de nuestros hijos y de nuestro ganado y de nuestras manadas y rebaños al Templo de nuestro Dios, a los sacerdotes que allí ejercen su ministerio, como lo exige la Ley.

37Llevaremos a los almacenes del Templo de nuestro Dios, para los sacerdotes, la primera parte de nuestra harina molida, de nuestras ofrendas de grano, del fruto de todos nuestros árboles, y de nuestro vino nuevo y aceite de oliva. También llevaremos el diezmo de nuestros productos a los levitas, porque los levitas son los que recogen los diezmos en todas las ciudades agrícolas.

38“Un sacerdote descendiente de Aarón acompañará a los levitas cuando recojan el diezmo, y los levitas deberán llevar un diezmo de estos diezmos a las salas del almacén del Templo de nuestro Dios.

39“El pueblo de Israel y los levitas llevarán las ofrendas de grano, vino nuevo y aceite de oliva a los almacenes donde se guardan los objetos del santuario, donde están los sacerdotes ministrantes, los porteros y los cantores. No olvidaremos el Templo de nuestro Dios”.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

The leaders of the people sign a formal document, committing to obey God's law: not to intermarry with idolatrous foreigners, to keep the Sabbath, and to financially support the temple and its services.

Explanation

After the emotional confession of the previous chapter, the people turn their repentance into a concrete, written commitment, signed by priests, Levites, and leaders representing the whole nation. The specific points chosen — intermarriage, Sabbath rest, and support for the temple — show areas where the people had historically failed repeatedly, making them priority targets for renewed attention. This kind of written, collectively signed covenant shows how serious spiritual decisions often need clear, measurable commitments, not just vague good intentions.

Fun facts

  • The commitment to contribute a third of a shekel annually for the temple is one of the earliest biblical examples of a fixed, collective system of financial support for the house of God, complementing the law of the tithe.
  • Keeping the Sabbath included even refusing to buy goods from foreign merchants on that day, showing how strict the community wanted to be after years of neglecting this law.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Nehemías 10:1The chapter lists the names of those who sealed a formal document committing the people to follow the law, beginning with Nehemiah. Sealing a document with one's own name was an act of personal responsibility before a public commitment.
  2. Nehemías 10:2The list of those who sealed the covenant continues with three more priestly names, part of a sequence of twenty-one priests in all.
  3. Nehemías 10:3Three more priests sign the commitment, each name representing a family formally pledging to follow the law.
  4. Nehemías 10:4The list of priests who sealed the covenant continues, each trio of names representing more families formally committed to the law.
  5. Nehemías 10:5Three more priests sign, among them Meremoth, a name that had also appeared earlier in the rebuilding of the wall in chapter 3.
  6. Nehemías 10:6The list continues, with no comment beyond the names themselves, each one representing an individual commitment to the covenant.
  7. Nehemías 10:7Three more priests join the list of those who held to the commitment together with Nehemiah.
  8. Nehemías 10:8The list of priests closes here, totaling twenty-one names in all, everyone formally committed to the covenant Nehemiah had proposed.
  9. Nehemías 10:9Now begins the list of Levites who also signed the covenant, including names already familiar from the rebuilding of the wall, such as the family of Henadad.
  10. Nehemías 10:10Five more Levites complete this part of the list of signers.
  11. Nehemías 10:11The list of Levites continues, each name reinforcing the collective commitment made that day.
  12. Nehemías 10:12Three more Levites sign, among them Sherebiah, who had already helped Ezra decades earlier transport the temple treasures.
  13. Nehemías 10:13The list of Levites closes with three more names, wrapping up this second group of signers of the covenant.
  14. Nehemías 10:14Now come the heads of the common people, identified by the names of the same families that had already appeared in the original list of returnees from exile.
  15. Nehemías 10:15Three more leading families sign, names already familiar from the great census in chapter 7.
  16. Nehemías 10:16The list of the people's leaders continues with three more historic families, repeating names that had already appeared at the return from exile.
  17. Nehemías 10:17Three more family leaders sign the commitment, including Ater, linked to the name Hezekiah, as in earlier lists.
  18. Nehemías 10:18The list of the people's leaders continues, each name representing a family committed to the covenant to follow God's law.
  19. Nehemías 10:19Three more names join the list, including families connected to already familiar towns, such as Anathoth.
  20. Nehemías 10:20The list of the people's leaders keeps advancing, each trio of names underscoring the scale of the commitment made together.
  21. Nehemías 10:21Three more leaders sign, including a Zadok, a name common among both priestly and lay families of Israel.
  22. Nehemías 10:22The list continues without interruption, each name representing one more family that formally committed itself that day.
  23. Nehemías 10:23Three more heads of families sign the covenant, continuing this extensive list of individual commitments.
  24. Nehemías 10:24The list of the people's leaders keeps advancing, each name reinforcing the broad reach of this collective commitment.
  25. Nehemías 10:25Three more names join the list, drawing near the end of the roll of the people's leaders who sealed the covenant.
  26. Nehemías 10:26The list continues near its end, with three more heads of families signing the commitment.
  27. Nehemías 10:27The list of the people's leaders closes here, completing a total of forty-four leading families who signed the covenant, along with the priests and Levites.
  28. Nehemías 10:28Besides the leaders already named, the rest of the people are also included in the covenant: priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, Nethinims, and anyone who had separated from the neighboring peoples to follow the law of God, including wives and children.
  29. Nehemías 10:29After listing who signed, the text explains the content of the oath: everyone promised to follow the law of God given through Moses, under penalty of a curse should they break the commitment.
  30. Nehemías 10:30Among the commitments made is not to give their children in marriage to the neighboring peoples, returning to the same issue that had already caused the crisis of mixed marriages in Ezra's time. Here it appears as a preventive promise, made before the problem could recur.
  31. Nehemías 10:31Among the specific commitments is not to trade on the sabbath, even if foreign sellers offered goods, and to observe the seventh year, when debts were to be forgiven.
  32. Nehemías 10:32The people commit to supporting the temple with a small annual fee and with tithes of grain, wine, and oil, ensuring that worship and the priests had a steady supply. It is essentially a community budget set up to keep the temple running.
  33. Nehemías 10:33This annual tax covered specific temple expenses: the consecrated bread, the daily offerings, the sacrifices of the sabbaths and the feasts, a detailed list of exactly where the money was to go.
  34. Nehemías 10:34They even cast lots among the families to decide who would be responsible for bringing wood to keep the altar fire burning on fixed dates throughout the year.
  35. Nehemías 10:35The commitment included bringing the firstfruits of every harvest to the temple, an old practice of acknowledging that the land belonged to God.
  36. Nehemías 10:36The firstborn, of both people and animals, were also part of this system of offerings, following instructions that went all the way back to the law of Moses.
  37. Nehemías 10:37The tithe of agricultural produce was specifically set aside to support the Levites, who received no land of their own to farm as the other tribes of Israel did.
  38. Nehemías 10:38There was even a system of double-checking: a priest accompanied the Levites as they collected the tithes, and the Levites in turn passed part of it back to the temple.
  39. Nehemías 10:39The chapter ends with a summary of the whole purpose: making sure the temple was never abandoned or left without resources, something that genuinely concerned this post-exilic generation.

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