Verses 1-39

List of Those Who Participated in the Covenant

1. Now those that sealed were] The names that follow ZidMjah's are those of families whose living representatives sealed on behalf of their houses. Several of these family names occur in the list of those who accompanied Zerubbabel to Jerusalem (Nehemiah 12). Zidkijah] The fact that his name is coupled with Nehemiah's suggests that he was a person of importance, but nothing is known of him.

29. To walk in God's law, etc.] The enactments of the Law which they more particularly undertook to carry out were those directing (a) abstention from marriage with aliens, (b) the observance of the sabbath and sabbatical year, (c) the provision of supplies for the Temple and its ministers. These enactments gained in importance from the circumstances of the times, for there was a persistent tendency on the part of many of the people both to form alliances with their heathen neighbours and to be indifferent to the external ordinances of religion (see Ezra 9 Nehemiah 13). It was to counteract these evils that prominence was given to those regulations which were calculated to preserve the separateness of the Jewish race, and to accentuate the sacredness of their religious institutions. The stress thus laid upon the ceremonial law was not due to any relapse from the spiritual faith of the prophets to the more material and mechanical ideas of primitive times, but was intended to impress upon the people a sense of the transcendent sanctity of the God with whom they enjoyed such privileged relations.

31. Leave the seventh year] i.e. forego the produce of the land in that year.

32. The third part of a shekel] In Exodus 30:11-16 the amount named is 'a half shekel' (cp. Matthew 17:24), the change being perhaps due to an alteration in the weight of the shekel.

34. The wood offering] This is not specifically prescribed in the Pentateuch. Josephus speaks of it as a festival (the Xylophory).

38. The priest] i.e. some priest was to attend when the Levites took their tithes.

39. Forsake] i.e. fail to provide for.