They then move to inhabiting the city of Jerusalem itself and they cast lots for one in ten to live inside the city and the other nine tenths would remain in the other cities (v1). They had the walls, now they needed more people to live there. Obviously, it was important for people to live inside the city which had been almost uninhabited for around seventy years and then partially inhabited for almost eighty years, but it needed more. The city had rebuilt walls, a new temple and now some people. If nothing else there would be people to defend what had been built and rebuilt. Whilst it was a ‘draw’ to find the people to occupy the city, it was necessary that they were willing to go, and the people conferred a blessing upon them (v2).
It was not going to be easy for these people to live inside the city. The leaders would be there to guide them, there may have been others who willingly moved too. We must remember that when the rebuilding was being done there was opposition, so one must assume that those enemies would still try to make trouble even though it was nearly complete, but there was still work to do. The devil never gives up where God’s work is concerned. They had to relocate, and it would not be easy, so God’s blessing was important.
Nehemiah considered it to be important that the names of people should be recorded. Therefore, in verses 3-24 he lists the heads of the province who lived in Jerusalem. He also lists children of Judah and Benjamin. There were 486 valiant men of Judah, 928 men of Benjamin, 284 Levites, 172 gatekeepers, and there were priests, singers, heads of fathers’ houses and valiant men overseen by Zabdiel. There is an interesting comment about Asaph who began the thanksgiving with prayer. One more we see how important prayer is in every part of our lives.
Verses 25-36 tell us of the villages and towns in Judea and who dwelt in them. These were the ones who had not come to live in the city itself. Some of these places may be familiar to us, like Kirjath Arba, Beersheba and Bethel, others not so familiar.
