Nehemiah 11:20

And the residue of Israel, of the priests, and the Levites, were in all the cities of Judah, every one in his inheritance.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(20-36) The heads in the country.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:1-36 The distribution of the people. - In all ages, men have preferred their own ease and advantage to the public good. Even the professors of religion too commonly seek their own, and not the things of Christ. Few have had such attachment to holy things and holy places, as to renounce pleasure for their sake. Yet surely, our souls should delight to dwell where holy persons and opportunities of spiritual improvement most abound. If we have not this love to the city of our God, and to every thing that assists our communion with the Saviour, how shall we be willing to depart hence; to be absent from the body, that we may be present with the Lord? To the carnal-minded, the perfect holiness of the New Jerusalem would be still harder to bear than the holiness of God's church on earth. Let us seek first the favour of God, and his glory; let us study to be patient, contented, and useful in our several stations, and wait, with cheerful hope, for admission into the holy city of God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The returned community, though consisting mainly of members of the two tribes, represented the entire people of Israel. The ground, however, which they occupied, was not the whole land, but that which had constituted the kingdom of Judah.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

17. the principal to begin the thanksgiving in prayer—that is, the leader of the choir which chanted the public praise at the time of the morning and evening sacrifice. That service was always accompanied by some appropriate psalm, the sacred music being selected and guided by the person named.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the residue of Israel, of the priests and the Levites,..... All of them, besides those that dwelt at Jerusalem: were

in all the cities of Judah, everyone in his inheritance; the Israelites in the cities, houses, and estates enjoyed by their ancestors, and the priests and Levites in the cities given out of the several tribes.

Geneva Study Bible

And the {g} residue of Israel, of the priests, and the Levites, were in all the cities of Judah, every one in his inheritance.

(g) Of them who dwelt not in Jerusalem.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

20. This verse is clearly out of place, interrupting the register of ‘the porters’ and ‘the Nethinim.’ It would be more appropriate before Nehemiah 11:25.

the residue of Israel] Cf. Nehemiah 11:1, ‘the rest of the people,’ where the same word is used in the Hebrew.

‘Israel’ as in Nehemiah 11:3 (cf. Ezra 2:70), denoting all the laity irrespective of their tribes.

of the priests, and the Levites] R.V. the priests, the Levites. The A.V., by inserting ‘and,’ and the R.V., by preserving the comma between the words, agree in not regarding this as an instance of the technical term ‘the priests the Levites’ which is found so often in Deuteronomy, and occurs elsewhere, e.g. 2 Chronicles 5:5; 2 Chronicles 23:18; 2 Chronicles 30:27.

The words are coordinate although the copula is wanting. As in Nehemiah 11:3, and in chap. Nehemiah 10:28; Nehemiah 10:34, Israel (or ‘the people’) with the priests and the Levites make up the whole sum of the nation.

Nehemiah 11:20

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Certain special remarks follow in Nehemiah 11:20. - Nehemiah 11:20 states that the rest of the Israelites, priests, and Levites dwelt in all the (other) cities of Judah, each in his inheritance. These cities are enumerated in Nehemiah 11:25.