Verse 63
63. The Tirshatha A Persian title of the governor of a district, and, according to Gesenius: equivalent to Your Severity, or Dread Sovereign. Nehemiah is called Tirshatha, (Nehemiah 8:9; Nehemiah 10:1,) and this title is sometimes interchanged with פחה , governor. Comp. especially Nehemiah 12:26. In our text the title Tirshatha is to be understood of Zerubbabel, not, as some have supposed, of Nehemiah.
Not eat of the most holy things For strangers could no more lawfully eat of the hallowed things, such as the remnant of the meat offering, (Leviticus 2:3,) than they could minister at the altar. Compare marginal references.
A priest with Urim By whom the uncertain genealogy might be settled, and the divine will in the matter be determined. In the former times such matters had been settled by inquiring through those Urim and Thummim on the ephod of the high priest. See 1 Samuel 30:7-8, and notes on Exodus 28:30, and Joshua 1:1. From this verse it appears that these sacred media of learning the divine counsel had been lost during the captivity, and we have no reliable record that they were ever replaced.
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