Nehemiah 8:9 - Exposition

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 ).