This part records the several lists of priests and Levites to document the genuineness of the Jewish community and its religious authority, in order to give legitimacy in this postexilic community. The list starts with those returning with Zerubbabel in the first wave at the time of the Persian king, Cyrus, which quite different from Ezra 2. After listing the high priests from the last one at the time of exile, Jozadak, the father of Jeshua, until Jaddua , it records those returning at the time of Ezra , with a careful note on its sources
Verse 1
"Zerubbabel": is the leader of the group and of Davidic line, so he is associated with the messianic hope in the book of Zechariah, although none of it is mentioned in this book. His office is not named in this book, but he is identified as the "governor of Judah" in, ;.
"Jeshua": or "Joshua". His office is not named in this book, but he is identified as the "high priest" in,, ; ;.
Joyous dedication (12:27–43)
This section describes the joyous dedication of the completed work orchestrated by Nehemiah, in the frame of a symmetrically ordered structure as follows: The exuberant tone of this passage is indicated by the framework of "joy" which brackets this section, as the final exposition after previous use in some turning points in the narrative:
"Of David": or "prescribed by David" ; TEV "of the kind played by David," but ‘the precise relationship of these musical instruments to David is not clear’.
The appearance of "Ezra, the scribe" provides the primary evidence for the contemporaneity of Ezra and Nehemiah.
The organization of worship (12:44–47)
The last part of this chapter focuses on the priests and Levites who help people worship God in the Temple, as their needs were taken care by the same people. David was mentioned twice, indicating that the people were emulating the traditions established since the time ‘God directed David to establish the Temple’. Verse 47 also confirms that the pattern of bringing food for Temple workers was already observed from the time of Zerubbabel when the Temple was rebuilt, and consistently practiced until the time of Nehemiah. This explains the anger of Nehemiah a few years later when he heard the people stopped providing the needs of the Temple workers.
Verse 44
"Out of the fields": The translation reads מִשְּׂדֵי rather than the MT reading לִשְׂדֵי.
"For Judah": here in the sense of "the people of Judah", as "Judah" can be ‘a proper name as well as a place name’.
"Waited": Hebrew: "stood", NKJV: "ministered"; or "standing", NET Bible: "were ministering".
