(27-43) The dedication of the wall. Henceforth Nehemiah speaks in his own person.

(27) They sought the Levites.--The dedication was to be processional and musical, as well as sacrificial: after the pattern of Solomon's dedication of the Temple.

Verse 27. - And at the dedication ... they sought the Levites. The nexus of this passage seems to be with Nehemiah 11:36; and we may suppose that originally it followed immediately on ch. 11. - the lists (Nehemiah 12:1-26) being a later insertion. The author, having (in Nehemiah 11:36) told us of the wide dispersion of the Levites, now notes that they were summoned from all the places where they dwelt, and brought (one and all) to Jerusalem for the solemnity of the dedication. To keep the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgiving and with singing, etc. Solomon's dedication of the temple was the pattern followed. As he had made the service altogether one of praise and thanksgiving (2 Chronicles 5:13), and had employed in it cymbals, trumpets, psalteries, and harps (ibid. ver. 12), so Nehemiah on the present occasion.

12:27-43 All our cities, all our houses, must have holiness to the Lord written upon them. The believer should undertake nothing which he does not dedicate to the Lord. We are concerned to cleanse our hands, and purify our hearts, when any work for God is to pass through them. Those that would be employed to sanctify others, must sanctify themselves, and set themselves apart for God. To those who are sanctified, all their creature-comforts and enjoyments are made holy. The people greatly rejoiced. All that share in public mercies, ought to join in public thanksgivings.And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem,.... In which many priests and Levites assisted, and seems to be the reason of the above account of them; the dedication of the wall takes in the whole city, gates, and houses, Nehemiah 12:30, and if a new house was to be dedicated, much more a new city, and especially the holy city, in which stood the temple of the Lord, see Deuteronomy 20:5, this dedication was made by prayer and songs of praise, as follow, and no doubt by sacrifices, and was kept as a festival; and indeed, according to the Jewish writers (q), it was annually observed on the seventh of Elul, or August; it was on the twenty fifth of that month that the wall was finished, Nehemiah 6:15, but the gates were not set up, and all things for the dedication were not ready till Elul, or August, following; and then all being finished, they made and served the seventh of that month as a festival:

they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication with gladness; to assist in the solemnity of the day both with vocal and instrumental music, as follows:

both with thanksgiving and with singing; with songs of praise and thankfulness vocally, that they had been able, notwithstanding all the malice of their enemies, to build the wall in so short a time; or with a song, perhaps the thirtieth psalm was sung on this occasion:

with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps; some playing on one, and some on another, which were the three principal instruments of music used by them, see 1 Chronicles 15:16.

(q) Megillath Thainith, c. 3. apud Selden. de Synedr. l. 3. c. 13. sect. 12.