First page Back Continue Last page Overview Graphics

• Unfortunately, though, many had now started to forget Hebrew. For the past seventy years, as they were scattered throughout the Babylonian empire, they had adopted the customs and local language dialects of the peoples in which they lived. On their return from Babylon, Nehemiah laments that so many no longer knew Hebrew, the Holy Language:
• Neh. 13:23   In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab: 24 And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the language of each people.
• We see in this verse that Hebrew, for many, was a language they could no longer speak. Nehemiah laments this fact, to their shame. As a faithful Jew, he believed that the Holy Language, Hebrew, should never be forgotten.