Nehemiah 12:31–43 and Nehemiah 3
Two choirs on the wall
Two thanksgiving companies walk the wall in opposite directions, past the gates and towers of Nehemiah 3, and meet at the temple. The texts agree; the route cannot be traced on the ground except schematically.
Read Nehemiah 12:31–43 and Nehemiah 3 in every edition
Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning
The family tree
Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.
✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
Every witness, in order
Nehemiah Memoir
Nehemiah 3 (parallel, Masoretic Text)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex, quoted here in English.
Dung Gate, Fountain Gate, stairs of the city of David, Water Gate · Tower of the Furnaces, Broad Wall, Old Gate, Fish Gate, Tower of Hananeel, Tower of Meah, Sheep Gate
The same landmarks.
Memoir c. 430 BC; book compiled c. 400–300 BC (debated)
Original Ezra–Nehemiah
No original survives. No Qumran fragment of Nehemiah has been identified.
Translated c. 2nd century BC or later
Greek 2 Esdras 11–23 (library text: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
Contains the processions; numbering shifted in the library's text. Greek 2 Esdras via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
וָאַעֲמִידָה שְׁתֵּי תוֹדֹת גְּדוֹלֹת
and I appointed two great thanksgiving choirs
Todah, "thanksgiving," here a choir.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
and appointed two great companies of them that gave thanks… the wives also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off
What changed, and why
The first company, led by Ezra, goes south and east (Dung Gate, Fountain Gate, Water Gate). The second, with Nehemiah, goes north (Broad Wall, Ephraim Gate, Fish Gate, Sheep Gate). They meet in the temple. The starting point is probably near the Valley Gate on the west. The map draws this as a diagram, not a surveyed route.
What the evidence shows
- The procession landmarks match Nehemiah 3.
Sources
Related lessons
- Priests, Processions and the Wall Dedication →Lists of priests and Levites who came with Zerubbabel and Jeshua, the high priests from Jeshua to Jaddua, and the priestly heads under Joiakim. Then the dedication of the wall: Levites and singers are gathered, priests purify themselves, the people, the gates and the wall, and two great thanksgiving choirs walk in opposite directions on the wall, meeting at the temple. Women and children rejoice. Officers are appointed over the storerooms.
- Builders, Daughters, Artisans and Gates →Nehemiah 3 lists who built each section of the wall, gate by gate, around the city: the high priest and priests, men of towns from Jericho to Beth-zur, district rulers, goldsmiths, perfumers, merchants, Levites, temple servants, and Shallum "he and his daughters." The nobles of Tekoa refuse. The list is a precious record of the community, and the hardest text to map.