[[Neh-11]] Prev: [[Prophecies in Neh-10]] | Next: [[Prophecies in Neh-12]] --- ### The rest of the people also cast lots, to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem the holy city, and nine parts in the other cities. *Type*: fulfillment *Summary*: [[Neh|Nehemiah 11]] records the intentional repopulation of Jerusalem, which had remained largely desolate even after the temple was rebuilt. This act fulfills prophecies regarding the physical restoration and inhabitancy of the city after the Babylonian exile. *Historical context*: The Babylonian exile, which began in the early 6th century BC, left Jerusalem in ruins for decades. [[Jer-30#v18|Jeremiah 30:18]] and [[Ezek-36#v10|Ezekiel 36:10]] specifically predicted that the city would be rebuilt on its own ruins and that the waste places would be inhabited again. Nehemiah's efforts in the mid-5th century BC to move ten percent of the population into the city through casting lots represents the historical realization of these restoration oracles. *Related to*: [[Jer-30#v18|Jeremiah 30:18]] ("The city shall be builded upon her own heap") and [[Ezek-36#v10|Ezekiel 36:10]] ("The cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded"). ### to dwell in Jerusalem the holy city *Type*: fulfillment *Summary*: The text identifies Jerusalem as 'the holy city,' a title linked to its prophetic destiny of being purified and set apart for God's people after its period of judgment. *Historical context*: [[Isa-52#v1|Isaiah 52:1]] contains a prophetic command for Jerusalem to 'awake' and put on 'beautiful garments,' calling it the 'holy city' and promising that the unclean would no longer enter it. By the time of [[Neh|Nehemiah 11]], the city had been walled, the temple restored, and the community purified of foreign entanglements, allowing Nehemiah to apply this prophetic title to the city in a formal administrative record. *Related to*: [[Isa-52#v1|Isaiah 52:1]] ("Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city"). ### As for the villages, with their fields, some of the children of Judah lived in Kiriath Arba and its towns... in Hazar Shual, in Beersheba and its towns... So they encamped from Beersheba to the valley of Hinnom. *Type*: fulfillment *Summary*: The list of settlements for the children of Judah and Benjamin in their ancestral territories fulfills the promise that the Israelites would return to the specific land their fathers possessed. *Historical context*: In [[Deut-30#v5|Deuteronomy 30:5]], Moses predicted that after a period of exile, God would bring the people back to the land their 'fathers possessed.' Furthermore, [[Jer-32#v44|Jeremiah 32:44]] explicitly stated that people would again 'subscribe evidences, and seal them' in the 'land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah.' The geographical list in [[Neh-11#v25|Nehemiah 11:25]]-36 serves as a historical 'receipt' or documentation of the tribes reclaiming these exact locations. *Related to*: [[Deut-30#v5|Deuteronomy 30:5]] ("He will bring you into the land your fathers possessed") and [[Jer-32#v44|Jeremiah 32:44]] ("Men shall buy fields for money... in the cities of Judah"). --- #ai_prophecy