The Pulpit Commentary on Nehemiah 8:9

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha. The term "Tirshatha" had previously been applied only to Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:63; Nehemiah 7:65), but it was applicable to any governor. The writer of the section, introducing Nehemiah here for the first time, naturally gives him a title of reverence.

Nehemiah's modesty had made him content to describe himself by the general and comparatively weak term pechah. Said unto the people … Mourn not. A combined remonstrance is made against the open grief of the people by the civil and ecclesiastical rulers, and by the order of Levites.

Mourning was unsuitable for a day of high festivity, the opening day of the civil year and of the sabbatical month, itself a sabbath or day of rest, and one to be kept by blowing of trumpets (Leviticus 23:24, Leviticus 23:25; Numbers 29:1-6).

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