Nehemiah 12:25
Mattaniah, and Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, Akkub, were porters keeping the ward at the thresholds of the gates. Mattaniah, and Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, Akkub, were porters keeping the ward at the thresholds of the gates.
Nehemiah 12:25 belongs to the closing chapters of the book, Nehemiah 11-13, covering about 446 to 408, the time of the last reform when Nehemiah had returned to Jerusalem. In that setting it stands in the account of a great thanksgiving day at Jerusalem for dedicating the walls rebuilt under Nehemiah's direction after the return from Babylonian captivity. That dedication was kept with gladness, with thanksgiving, and with singing accompanied by cymbals, psalteries, and harps.
The priests and the Levites purified themselves and purified the people, offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced with great joy given by God, with wives and children joining, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even far away. The surrounding account reveals Nehemiah and his work, always seeking the highest good of Jerusalem, impatient with the people's slackness in doing God's work, and indignant at sin against God by uniting with heathen peoples, even to bringing them into the temple itself. Sacrifices and offerings are almost inseparably connected with thanksgiving, so that practical material giving is the real feature of Thanksgiving and the example of the people at Jerusalem is an excellent basis for a Thanksgiving program.