SEV Biblia, Chapter 12:27
¶ Y a la dedicación del muro de Jerusalén buscaron a los levitas de todos sus lugares, para traerlos a Jerusalén, para hacer la dedicación y la fiesta con alabanzas y con cánticos, con címbalos, salterios y cítaras.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Nehemiah 12:27
Verse 27. At the dedication of the wall] They sent for the Levites from all quarters, that this dedication might be as solemn and majestic as possible; and it is likely that this was done as soon as convenient after the walls were finished. The dedication seems to have consisted in processions of the most eminent persons around the walls, and thanksgivings to God, who had enabled them to bring the work to so happy a conclusion: and no doubt to all this were added a particular consecration of the city to God, and the most earnest invocation that he would take it under his guardian care, and defend it and its inhabitants against all their enemies. The ancients consecrated their cities to the gods, and the very walls were considered as sacred. Ovid gives us an account of the ceremonies used in laying the foundations of the walls of the city of Rome, by Romulus. After having consulted together who should give name to the city, and have the direction of the wall by which it was necessary to surround it, they agreed to let the case be decided by the flight of birds. One brother went to the top of the Mons Palatinus, the other to that of Mount Aventine. Romulus saw twelve birds, Remus saw but six; the former, therefore, according to agreement, took the command. The poet thus describes the ceremonies used on the occasion:- Apta dies legitur, qua moenia signet aratro; Sacra Palis suberant; inde movetur opus.
Fossa fit ad solidum: fruges jaciuntur in ima.
Et de vicino terra petita solo Fossa repletur humo, plenaeque imponitur ara; Et novus accenso finditur igne focus.
Inde, premens stivam, designat moenia sulco; Alba jugum niveo cum bove vacca tulit.
Vox tuit haec regis; Condenti Jupiter urbem, Et genitor Mavors, Vestaque mater ades: Quosque pium est adhibere deos, advertite cuncti: Auspicibus vobis hoc mihi surgat opus.
Longa sit huic aetas, dominaeque potentia terrae: Sitque sub hac oriens occiduusque dies! Ille precabatur.
OVID, Fast. lib. iv., ver. 819.
"A proper day is chosen in which he may mark out the walls with the plough: the festival of Pales was at hand when the work was begun. A ditch is dug down to the solid clay, into which they cast the fruits of the season; and bring earth from the neighbouring ground, with which they fill up the trench; and on it build an altar, by whose flames the newly made hearth is cleft asunder. Then Romulus, seizing the plough, which a white heifer yoked with a snowy bull drew along, marked out the walls with a furrow. And thus spoke the king: 'O Jupiter, and Father Mars, with Matron Vesta, prosper me in founding this city! And all ye gods, approach, whomsoever it is right to invoke! Under your auspices may the work arise; may it endure for countless ages, and be the mistress of the world; and may the East and the West be under its control!' Thus he prayed." The above is a literal version, and the account is not a little curious.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 27. And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem , etc.] 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 f78 , 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).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 27-43 - All our cities, all our houses, must have holiness to the Lord writte upon them. The believer should undertake nothing which he does no dedicate to the Lord. We are concerned to cleanse our hands, and purif our hearts, when any work for God is to pass through them. Those tha would be employed to sanctify others, must sanctify themselves, and se themselves apart for God. To those who are sanctified, all their creature-comforts and enjoyments are made holy. The people greatl rejoiced. All that share in public mercies, ought to join in publi thanksgivings.
Original Hebrew
ובחנכת 2598 חומת 2346 ירושׁלם 3389 בקשׁו 1245 את 853 הלוים 3881 מכל 3605 מקומתם 4725 להביאם 935 לירושׁלם 3389 לעשׂת 6213 חנכה 2598 ושׂמחה 8057 ובתודות 8426 ובשׁיר 7892 מצלתים 4700 נבלים 5035 ובכנרות׃ 3658
