Nehemiah 7:73 Commentary and Bible Study

Here is the end of Ezra's list. ‘So the priests, and the Levites, and the porters, and the singers, and some of the people, and the Nethinims, and all Israel, dwelt in their cities.’ Now, really you want a full stop there after ‘cities’, because the next bit, the last part of verse 73, belongs to chapter 8, strictly speaking. ‘And’ – capital A – ‘when the seventh month came.’ After the first ‘cities’ you have finished Ezra's genealogy; that's the end of it; up to that word that is all found in the book of Ezra. ‘And when the seventh month came,’ – comes back to Nehemiah and chapter 8 – ‘the children of Israel were in their cities’, their towns and their villages, ‘and all the people gather themselves together.’ This is no longer part of Ezra’s list; it's thirteen years later in the time of Nehemiah.