Nehemiah 13:14

Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for the offices thereof.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) Remember me.—Once more the faithful servant of God begs a merciful remembrance of what he had done for the honour of God in the “observances” of His Temple.

Benson Commentary

Nehemiah 13:14. Remember me, O my God, concerning this — What I have done with an upright heart for thy house and service, be pleased graciously to accept, and remember for my good, according to thy promise. Nehemiah receiving no recompense, perhaps not even thanks, from those for whose benefit he did these things, he looks up to God as his paymaster, and refers himself and his actions to his consideration; not in pride, or as boasting of what he had done, much less depending upon it as his righteousness, or as if he thought he had made God his debtor, but in an humble appeal to him concerning his integrity and pure intention in all this service, and a believing expectation that God would not be unrighteous to forget his work and labour of love. And wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, &c. — Deeds done for the house of God, and the offices thereof, for the support of religion, and the encouragement of it, are good deeds; there is both righteousness and godliness in them; both mercy to men, and piety toward God; and God will certainly remember them, and not wipe them out. They shall in nowise lose their reward. Here again we find, (see Nehemiah 5:19,) that Nehemiah was employed much in pious ejaculations; and on every occasion looked up to God, and committed himself and his affairs to him. He here reflects with comfort upon what he had done for the house and service of God, and it afforded him much satisfaction to think that he had been any way instrumental to revive and support religion in his country, and to reform what was amiss. In like manner the kindness which any show to God’s ministers and people, and the care and labour they take to aid his cause, shall be returned into their own bosoms, in the secret joy they shall have there, not only through a consciousness of having done well, but of having glorified God, and done good of the best kind, spiritual good, to the souls of men.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:10-14 If a sacred character will not keep men from setting an evil example, it must not shelter any one from deserved blame and punishment. The Levites had been wronged; their portions had not been given them. They were gone to get livelihoods for themselves and their families, for their profession would not maintain them. A maintenance not sufficient, makes a poor ministry. The work is neglected, because the workmen are. Nehemiah laid the fault upon the rulers. Both ministers and people, who forsake religion and the services of it, and magistrates, who do not what they can to keep them to it, will have much to answer for. He delayed not to bring the Levites to their places again, and that just payment should be made. Nehemiah on every occasion looked up to God, and committed himself and all his affairs to Him. It pleased him to think that he had been of use to revive and support religion in his country. He here refers to God, not in pride, but with a humble appeal concerning his honest intention in what he had done. He prays, Remember me; not, Reward me. Wipe not out my good deeds; not, Publish them, or record them. Yet he was rewarded, and his good deeds recorded. God does more than we are able to ask.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I gathered them together - Nehemiah gathered the Levites from their lands, and reinstated them in their set offices.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Ne 13:10-14. Nehemiah Reforms the Officers in the House of God.

10-13. And I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given them—The people, disgusted with the malversations of Eliashib, or the lax and irregular performance of the sacred rites, withheld the tithes, so that the ministers of religion were compelled for their livelihood to withdraw to their patrimonial possessions in the country. The temple services had ceased; all religious duties had fallen into neglect. The money put into the sacred treasury had been squandered in the entertainment of an Ammonite heathen, an open and contemptuous enemy of God and His people. The return of the governor put an end to these disgraceful and profane proceedings. He administered a sharp rebuke to those priests to whom the management of the temple and its services was committed, for the total neglect of their duties, and the violation of the solemn promises which they had made to him at his departure. He upbraided them with the serious charge of having not only withheld from men their dues, but of having robbed God, by neglecting the care of His house and service. And thus having roused them to a sense of duty and incited them to testify their godly sorrow for their criminal negligence by renewed devotedness to their sacred work, Nehemiah restored the temple services. He recalled the dispersed Levites to the regular discharge of their duties; while the people at large, perceiving that their contributions would be no longer perverted to improper uses, willingly brought in their tithes as formerly. Men of integrity and good report were appointed to act as trustees of the sacred treasures, and thus order, regularity, and active service were re-established in the temple.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Concerning this: what I have done with an upright heart for thy house and service be pleased graciously to accept, and remember for my good, according to thy promise.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Remember me, O my God, concerning this,.... Not in a way of strict justice, as if he thought he merited anything at the hand of God for what he had done; but in a way of grace and mercy, that he would graciously accept thereof, as done for the honour of his name, and overlook all failings and infirmities therein, see Nehemiah 13:22

and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for the offices thereof; for the support of the worship of God in the temple, and for the regulating of the wards and courses in it, both priests and Levites, and for the maintenance of them; which being done from a right principle, love to God, and with a right view, the glory of his name, might be truly reckoned good works: and which he desires might not be wiped or blotted out of the book of his remembrance, see Hosea 6:10.

Geneva Study Bible

Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and wipe not out my {f} good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for the offices thereof.

(f) He protests that he did his duty with a good conscience yet he does not justify himself in it, but desires God to favour him and to be merciful to him for his own goodness' sake, as in Ne 13:22,31.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. Remember me] For this ejaculation see note on Nehemiah 5:19, and cf. Nehemiah 13:22; Nehemiah 13:31; Psalm 106:4.

wipe not out my good deeds] R.V. marg. ‘Heb. kindnesses’. The actual phrase is not found elsewhere in the O.T. The metaphor, which is that of sponging off from the leathern roll of record, is familiar to us from Exodus 17:14; Exodus 32:32-33.

my good deeds] Literally, ‘my mercies or kindnesses’ (LXX. ἔλεος, Vulg. ‘miserationes’). At first sight the word seems scarcely appropriate. Does it signify Nehemiah’s acts of kindness on behalf of the Levites? or his acts of love and reverence, ‘good deeds,’ towards his God? The word in the Hebrew ‘khesed’ is the one commonly used of God’s mercy towards mankind and of the loving-kindness of man towards man. It occurs however also, though more rarely, of man’s love responding to the Divine mercy. In this sense probably it is found, as here, in the plural in 2 Chronicles 32:32 ‘the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his good deeds,’ 2 Chronicles 35:26 ‘the rest of the acts of Josiah and his good deeds.’ These ‘good deeds’ (the plur. of ‘khesed’) are clearly the efforts of these two kings to live in more thorough compliance with the ceremonial of the Law. We may remember too that the ‘pious’ Israelite was the ‘khasîd,’ and in the 2nd cent. b.c. ‘Asideans’ (khasidim) was the name given to the most fanatical of the forerunners of the Pharisees.

It is not likely that Hosea’s use of the word in the singular (Nehemiah 6:4 ‘your goodness is as a morning cloud,’ 6 ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice’) throws any light upon its usage in the present verse beyond showing that it was possibly applied in his time to man’s attitude towards God; but this interpretation is very doubtful. The Rabbinical teaching on the subject of khasadim made ‘the bestowal of kindness’ equivalent to ‘man’s duty to his neighbour.’ Compare the saying of Simon the Just quoted in the note on Nehemiah 10:37, and see Taylor’s note in Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, pp. 26, 27.

the house of my God] See on Nehemiah 2:8; Nehemiah 2:12. As compared with ‘the house of our God’ in Nehemiah 13:4, the phrase is appropriate to the writer’s change from narrative to soliloquy.

the offices] R.V. the observances. The word means literally ‘that which is or is to be kept,’ cf. Nehemiah 13:30 and Nehemiah 12:9; Nehemiah 12:24 (= ‘ward’). Its meaning here is probably quite general, denoting ‘observances,’ ‘customs,’ and ‘usages,’ and not any particular functions as Vulg. ‘cærimoniis.’ LXX. omit.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - Remember me, O my God, Or, "Think upon me, my God," as the same words are translated in Nehemiah 5:19. Wipe not out my good deeds. i.e. "Blot not my good deeds out of thy remembrance"- forget them not, let them be remembered in my favour. For the offices thereof. Rather, as in the margin, "for the observances thereof" - i.e. for the maintenance of the rites, ceremonies, usages, etc. of the temple, which I have done my best to continue on the ancient footing. Nehemiah 13:14

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"And I appointed as managers of the stores (or storehouses, i.e., magazines) Shemaiah the priest," etc. ואוצרה, Hiphil, for אוצירה, is a denominative from אוצר, to set some one over the treasures. Whether Shemaiah and Zadok are the individuals of these names mentioned in Nehemiah 3:30, Nehemiah 3:29, cannot be determined. Zadok is called a סופר, a writer or secretary, not a scribe in the Jewish sense of that word. A Pedaiah occurs Nehemiah 8:4. ידם ועל, and at their hand Hanan, probably as an under-steward. These four were placed in this position because they were esteemed faithful. ועליהם, and it was (incumbent) on them (comp. 1 Chronicles 9:27; Ezra 10:12) to distribute to their brethren, i.e., to the priests and Levites, the portions due to them (Nehemiah 13:10). Nehemiah concludes his account of this matter with the wish, that God may remember him concerning it (comp. Nehemiah 5:19), and not wipe out the kindnesses which he has shown to the house of God and its watches. תּמה, abbreviated from the Hiphil תּמחה, to cause to wipe out. חסדים .tuo like 2 Chronicles 35:26. משׁמרים (the form occurring only here), properly watches, watch-posts, here the office of attending on the service of the temple.