---
title: "Ellicott"
description: "X. (1-28) The sealers of the covenant. (1) Zidkijah.—Probably, Zadok the scribe (Nehemiah 13:13), Nehemiah’s secretary. (Comp. Ezra 4:8.) (2) Seraiah.—The"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/ellicotts-commentary-for-english-readers/nehemiah/10"
---

**X.**
(1-28) The sealers of the covenant.

(1) **Zidkijah.**—Probably, *Zadok the scribe* ([Nehemiah 13:13](../../../kjv/nehemiah/13/13)), Nehemiah’s secretary. (Comp. [Ezra 4:8](../../../kjv/ezra/4/8).)

(2) **Seraiah.**—The family name of the high-priestly house to which Ezra and Eliashib belonged, one of whom—probably Ezra—affixed its seal.

(8) **These were the priests.**—That is, the names of the priestly families. (Comp. [Nehemiah 12:1-6](../../../kjv/nehemiah/12/1-6).)

(9) **And the Levites.**—Five of these family names are traceable ([Ezra 2:40](../../../kjv/ezra/2/40); [Ezra 8:19](../../../kjv/ezra/8/19); [Nehemiah 7:43](../../../kjv/nehemiah/7/43)).

(14) **The chief of the people.**—Some of the names are personal, some belong to families, some represent places, and some are independent. Comparing the list with [Ezra 2](../../../kjv/ezra/2), we find that years had added to the number of the houses.

(28) **All they that had separated themselves.**—If these meant proselytes from heathenism, this verse would be a perfect description of the constituents of the people. But we have no record as yet of a recognised body of such proselytes; and the word “separated” is the same as we find, with another meaning, in [Nehemiah 9:2](../../../kjv/nehemiah/9/2). Moreover, the following verses show that the covenant bears specially in mind the danger to God’s law arising out of commerce with the heathen.
**Having understanding.**—Children who could intelligently take the oath were included.

(28-39) The points of the covenant.

(29) **They clave to their brethren.**—It was a union of the people as such, and sprang from a deep national conviction.
**Entered into a curse, and into an oath.**—The oath assumed the obligation; the curse imprecated the penalty of violation. (Comp. [Deuteronomy 29:12](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/29/12).)

(31) **Or on the holy day.**—On the great festivals, equally with the Sabbath days of rest.
**Leave the seventh year.**—The Sabbatical year naturally follows; in it the ground should be left untilled.
**The exaction of every debt.**—The “Lord’s release” of the seventh year ([Deuteronomy 15:2](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/15/2)).

(32) **Also we made ordinances for us.**—The covenant proceeds now to certain new regulations and resumption of neglected duties.
**To charge ourselves.**—Origin of that annual rate for the general service of the Temple which afterwards was raised to a half shekel ([Matthew 17:24](../../../kjv/matthew/17/24)). The more ancient half shekel of the law was only an occasional tax ([Exodus 30:13](../../../kjv/exodus/30/13)).

(34) **As it is written in the law.**—[Leviticus 6:12](../../../kjv/leviticus/6/12) prescribes that the fire on the altar should be kept burning by wood. But here we have the origin of the “feast of the wood-offering”—a special day, subsequently substituted for the “times appointed year by year.” The lot determined the order in which the various classes should supply the wood.

(35) **And to bring.**—Following “we made ordinances” ([Nehemiah 10:32](../../../kjv/nehemiah/10/32)). The various firstfruits are specified according to the Mosaic law, which made this expression of natural piety an obligation; and the minuteness of the specification implies that neglect had crept in.

(36) **The firstborn of our sons, and of our cattle.**—Similarly collocated in [Numbers 16:15-16](../../../kjv/numbers/16/15-16); but there the cattle are defined as “unclean beasts,” thus distinguished from *“*the firstlings of our herds and of our flocks.” The latter were to be brought to “the priests that minister” for sacrifice; the former were, with the sons, to be redeemed by money, according to the priests’ valuation.

(37) **To the chambers of the house of our God.**—To the store-chambers, minutely described as they were of old in [1 Kings 6](../../../kjv/1-kings/6), Hezekiah appears to have added formerly a treasure-house for the tithes, referred to in the next verse ([2 Chronicles 31:11](../../../kjv/2-chronicles/31/11)).
**In all the cities of our tillage.**—Agricultural towns, so called here with reference to the fruits of the earth, which were deposited first in certain selected places.

(38) **The son of Aaron.**—Consult [Numbers 18:22-26](../../../kjv/numbers/18/22-26), which gives the reason for the distinction, here so marked, between the priest, the son of Aaron, and the Levites, the children of Levi. A priest was present when the tithes were gathered in the Levitical cities, to secure their own “tithe of the tithe,” which then the Levites carried to Jerusalem.

(39) **Shall bring.**—The priests themselves were exempted from the care of gathering the tithes.
**We will not forsake the house of our God.**—Both the pledge and the violation of it in the sequel are explained by [Nehemiah 13:11-14](../../../kjv/nehemiah/13/11-14).

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