10:8 Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah: these [were] a the priests.
(a) Who subscribed to keep the promise.
10:28 And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the
porters, the singers, the b Nethinims, and all they that
had c separated themselves from the people of the lands
unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their
daughters, every one having knowledge, and having
understanding;
(b) Read (Ezr 2:43).
(c) Who being idolaters forsook their wickedness and gave
themselves to serve God.
10:29 They d clave to their brethren, their nobles, and
entered into a e curse, and into an oath, to walk in
God's law, which was given by Moses the servant of God,
and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our
Lord, and his judgments and his statutes;
(d) They made the oath in the name of the whole multitude.
(e) To which they gave themselves if they broke the law,
(De 28:15).
10:31 And [if] the people of the land bring ware or any victuals
on the sabbath day to sell, f [that] we would not buy it
of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day: and [that] we
would leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every
debt.
(f) Which nonetheless they broke soon after,
(Ne 13:15).
10:33 For the g shewbread, and for the continual meat
offering, and for the continual burnt offering, of the
sabbaths, of the new moons, for the set feasts, and for
the holy [things], and for the sin offerings to make an
atonement for Israel, and [for] all the work of the house
of our God.
(g) This states why they gave this third part of the
shekel which was beyond the half shekel that they were
required to pay, (Ex 30:13).
10:36 Also the firstborn of our sons, and of our cattle, as [it
is] h written in the law, and the firstlings of our
herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of our God,
unto the priests that minister in the house of our God:
(h) This rehearsal shows that there was no part or
ceremony in the Law, to which they did not bind
themselves by covenant.
10:37 And [that] we should bring the firstfruits of our dough,
and our offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees,
of wine and of oil, unto the priests, to the chambers of
the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground unto
the Levites, that the same Levites might have the tithes
in all the cities of our i tillage.
(i) Wherever we laboured or worked, there the tithes were
due to the Lord both by the law, and according to the
oath and covenant that we made.
10:39 For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall
bring the offering of the corn, of the new wine, and the
oil, unto the chambers, where [are] the vessels of the
sanctuary, and the priests that minister, and the porters,
and the singers: and k we will not forsake the house of
our God.
(k) We will not leave it destitute of that which is needed
for it.
