Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah: these were the priests.
The verse consists entirely of names, listing three priests, Maaziah, Bilgai, and Shemaiah. It stands in the record of chapters 8 to 10, which sets forth the condition of the remnant and the covenant they entered into after the final return to Jerusalem. That covenant was a commitment to keep the law of Moses. It was part of the last reform on the return to Jerusalem, within a book covering about 446-408.
It belongs to the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. The narrative of that period is confirmed by discoveries in the ancient lands adjoining Israel that had dealings with that people. Those discoveries also give information about Babylonian life in those days.
It is not an expressed precious promise to God's people. It belongs with the lists of names in Ezra and Nehemiah and with more than fifteen hundred such name-verses in Scripture. Many verses are threatenings, denunciations, genealogies, and lists of persons, places, nations, cities, and kings. Not every one of the 31,513 verses of the Bible is a distinct promise, and there cannot be thirty-six thousand distinct promises.
The verse consists entirely of names, listing three priests, Maaziah, Bilgai, and Shemaiah. It stands in the record of chapters 8 to 10, which sets forth the condition of the remnant and the covenant they entered into after the final return to Jerusalem. That covenant was a commitment to keep the law of Moses. It was part of the last reform on the return to Jerusalem, within a book covering about 446-408.
It belongs to the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. The narrative of that period is confirmed by discoveries in the ancient lands adjoining Israel that had dealings with that people. Those discoveries also give information about Babylonian life in those days.
It is not an expressed precious promise to God's people. It belongs with the lists of names in Ezra and Nehemiah and with more than fifteen hundred such name-verses in Scripture. Many verses are threatenings, denunciations, genealogies, and lists of persons, places, nations, cities, and kings. Not every one of the 31,513 verses of the Bible is a distinct promise, and there cannot be thirty-six thousand distinct promises.